ʿIlm al-jadal concerns passages responding to incorrect beliefs and claims. The classical classification especially mentions disputes involving Jews, Christians, polytheists and hypocrites.
The interpretive task is not merely to name a group; it is to identify a claim, the assumptions behind it and the response offered in the Qur'anic argument. The reasoning may appeal to intelligible signs, revelation or an inconsistency within the opposing claim.
This area is related to kalām, but a commentator should still attend to the Qur'an's actual argument and expression rather than mechanically importing a later technical framework.