Indeterminism in Kalām and Quantum Mechanics

Over the past 30 years, there has been a growing interest in kalām, accompanied by an increasing cross-disciplinary engagement with Western philosophy and science. This includes the comparative s tudy of kalām and quantum mechanics, where Karen Harding and Muhammad Basil Altaie have emerged as two of the field’s most prominent pioneers. Harding has demonstrated striking similarities between al-Ghazālī’s views and the Copenhagen interpretation, particularly in their conceptualisation of causality and reality. Altaie’s argument for indeterminacy in kalām further reinforces this claim. However, the Muslim experience in drawing parallels between Islam and science should caution against over-eagerness and hasty conclusions in such endeavours. This article adopts a more measured approach by highlighting the fundamental differences that persist between the two disciplines. To achieve this, additional concepts from the kalām tradition are introduced to broaden the existing discourse.