The Paradigm governing Ashʿarī's Thought regarding the Inimitability of the Quran

One of the issues of the Islamic Kalām (scholastic theology) is the investigation of the nature and essence of the divine word. Concerning this subject, since the second century AH, several views have been proposed by Muslim theologians. One of these theories was put forward by those theologians who followed the model of Platonic philosophy and the view on the world of Ideas and consequently considered ideal aspects outside of the material world for the divine word. Ultimately, after the Mu'tazilites' theorizations, this philosophical explanation was confirmed by Abu al-Hassan al-ʾAshʾarī in the fourth century; so, in the sub-category of the issue of the divine word, namely inimitability, it turned into the theory of Kalām Nafsī. According to the principles of the history of science and thought, and based on Thomas Cohen's method, this study tries to investigate, historically, the grounds of the formation, as well as the evolution of Kalām Nafsī as a philosophical thought. The results show that after getting acquainted with the patterns of Platonic thought, the Mu'tazilite theologians used them and therefore, philosophically explained the ideal existence of the Holy Qur'an. Finally, Abul-Ḥasan ʾAshʿarī used the religious readings of Platonic philosophy in a particular paradigm, and in the paradigmatic opposition between the traditionists and the theologians, achieved the theory of the Kalām Nafsī in the inimitability of the Holy Qur'an.