Ibn Taymiyyah

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Syrian scholar
Medieval era
Name
Ibn Taymiyyah
Birth 1263 CE [1] in Harran[2]
Death 1328 CE [1] in Damascus[3]
School/tradition Hanbali [1]
Influenced Ibn al-Qayyim (d 1350 CE),
al-Mizzi (d 1341 CE),
al-Dhahabi (d 1347 CE) [4],
Ibn Kathir (d 1373 CE) [5],
Ibn Abi al-Izz (d 1390 CE,
Ibn Abd al Wahhab (d 1792AD) [1]

Taqi ad-Din Ahmad ibn Taymiyyah (January 22, 1263 – 1328), was a Sunni Islamic scholar born in Harran, located in what is now Turkey, close to the Syrian border. He lived during the troubled times of the Mongol invasions. As a member of the school founded by Ibn Hanbal, he sought the return of Islam to its sources, the Qur'an and the Sunnah.

Full name: Taqī ad-Dīn Abul Abbās Ahmad ibn 'Abd al-Halim ibn 'Abd as-Salam Ibn Taymiya al-Harrānī (Arabic: أبو العباس تقي الدين أحمد بن عبد السلام بن عبد الله ابن تيمية الحراني)

Contents

[edit] Biography

Ibn Taymiya was born in 1263 at Harran into a well-known family of theologians. The 15th century biographical dictionary At-Tibyan li badi'at al-Bayan (التبيان لبديعة البيان) reports that he was a descendant of the Arab tribe of Banu Numayr. His grandfather, Abu al-Barkat Majd ad-deen ibn Taymiyyah al-Hanbali (d. 1255) was a reputed teacher of the Hanbali school of thought. Likewise, the scholarly achievements of ibn Taymiyyah's father, Shihabuddeen 'Abd al-Haleem ibn Taymiyyah (d. 1284) were well known.

Because of the Mongol invasion, ibn Taymiyyah's family moved to Damascus in 1268 , which was then ruled by the Mamluks of Egypt. It was here that his father delivered sermons from the pulpit of the Umayyad Mosque, and ibn Taymiyyah followed in his footsteps by studying with the great scholars of his time, among them a woman scholar by the name Zaynab bint Makki from whom he learned Hadith.

Ibn Taymiyyah was an industrious student and acquainted himself with the secular and religious sciences of his time. He devoted special attention to Arabic literature and gained mastery over grammar and lexicography as well as studying mathematics and calligraphy.

As for the religions sciences, he studied jurisprudence from his father and became a representative of the Hanbali school of thought. Though he remained faithful throughout his life to that school, whose doctrines he had decisively mastered, he also acquired an extensive knowledge of the Islamic disciplines of the Qur'an and the Hadith. He also studied dogmatic theology (kalam), philosophy, and Sufism, which he later heavily critiqued.

His courage was expressed when he went with a delegation of ulamaa to talk to Qazaan, the Khan of the Tartars, to stop his attack on the Muslims. Not one of the ulamaa dared to say anything to him except Ibn Taymiyyah who said: "You claim that you are Muslim and you have with you Mu'adhdhins, Muftis, Imams and Shaykh but you invaded us and reached our country for what? While your father and your grandfather, Hulagu were non-believers, they did not attack and they kept their promise. But you promised and broke your promise." [6]

[edit] Persecution

Due to Ibn Taymiya's outspokenness, puritanical views, and literalism, he was imprisoned several times for conflicting with the opinions of prominent jurists and theologians of his day.

As early as 1293 he came into conflict with local authorities for protesting a religious ruling against a Christian accused of insulting Muhammad. In 1298 he was accused of anthropomorphism and for having questioned the legitimacy of dogmatic theology (kalam).

He led the resistance of the Mongol invasion of Damascus in 1300 . In the years that followed, Ibn Taymiyyah was engaged in intensive polemic activity against: (1) the Kasrawan Shi'a in Lebanon, (2) the Rifa'i Sufi order, and (3) the ittihadiyah school, a school that grew out of the teaching of Ibn 'Arabi, whose views he denounced as heretical.

In 1306 Ibn Taymiyyah was imprisoned in the citadel of Cairo for eighteen months on the charge of anthropomorphism. He was incarcerated again in 1308 for several months.

Ibn Taymiyyah spent his last fifteen years in Damascus where a circle of disciples formed around him from every social class. The most famous of these, Ibn Qayyim, was to share in Ibn Taymiyyah's renewed persecutions. From August 1320 to February 1321 Ibn Taymiyyah was imprisoned on orders from Cairo in the citadel of Damascus for supporting a doctrine that would curtail the ease with which a Muslim man could traditionally divorce his wife.

In July 1326 the government in Cairo again ordered him confined to the citadel for having continued his condemnation of popular visitations of saints' tombs despite the prohibition forbidding him to do so. He died in confinement in Damascus on the night of Sunday-Monday 26–27 September 1328 at the age of 65, and was buried at the Sufi cemetery in Damascus, where his mother was also buried.

Ibn Taymiyyah was known for his prodigious memory and encyclopedic knowledge.

[edit] Views

[edit] Jihad

Ibn Taymiyyah is known for his devotion to jihad, or what he called

the best of the forms of voluntary service man can devote to God. The ulema agree in proclaiming it superior to pilgrimage and to the `umra, as well as to prayer and supererogatory fasts, as is shown in the Book and in the Sunna. [7]

In the Mamluk's war against the Mongols (or Tartars), he issued a fatwa declaring jihad upon the Mongols not only permissible, but obligatory as the Mongols were not true Muslims. He based this ruling on the grounds that although the Mongols had converted to Sunni Islam they ruled using 'man-made laws' (their traditional Yassa code) rather than Islamic law or Shari'ah, and thus were living in a state of jahiliyya, or pre-Islamic pagan ignorance. [8][9] `Every group of Muslims that transgresses Islamic law ... must be combated, even when they continue to profess the credo.` [10]

[edit] Madh'hab

Ibn Taymiyyah held that much of the Islamic scholarship of his time had declined into modes that were inherently against the proper understanding of the Qur'an and the Sunnah. He strove to:

  1. revive the Islamic faith's understanding of "true" adherence to "Tawhid",
  2. eradicate beliefs and customs that he held to be foreign to Islam, and
  3. to rejuvenate correct Islamic thought and its related sciences.

Ibn Taymiyyah believed that the first three generations of Islam (Arabic: Salaf) – Muhammad, his companions, and the followers of the companions from the earliest generations of Muslims – were the best role models for Islamic life. Their practice, together with the Qur'an, constituted a seemingly infallible guide to life. Any deviation from their practice was viewed as bidah, or innovation, and to be forbidden.

[edit] Qur'anic literalism

Ibn Taymiyyah favored an extremely literal interpretation of the Qur'an. He affirmed Allah's attributes – that he had "a hand and a face, that he loves and hates, and that he ascends and descends while remaining risen above in a throne over the heavens." [11] His opponents charged that he taught anthropomorphism, that is, that he took references to Allah's hand, foot, shin, and face as being literally true – even though he insisted that Allah's "hand" was nothing comparable to hands found in creation. Some of his Islamic critics contend that this violates the Islamic concept of tawhid.

[edit] Sufism

Ibn Taymiyyah was a stern critic of antinomian interpretations of Islamic mysticism (Sufism). He believed that sharia applied to ordinary Muslim and mystic alike.

Most scholars believe that he rejected the creed used by most Sufis entirely (the Ash`ari creed). This seems supported by his works, especially al-Aqeedat al-Waasittiyah wherein he refuted the Asha'ira, the Jahmiyya and the Mu'tazila – the methodology of whom latter day Sufis have adopted.

[edit] Shi'a

Ibn Taymiyyah believed Shia Islam to be a heresy and developed a formal refutation of Shiism that is popular with modern day Sunni opponents of Shiaism. He sanctioned violence against Shia and has been said to "set the tone" for much later conflict between the two movements. [12]

Ibn Taymiyyah rejected the Shia idea of the Imamate on the grounds that there is no mention of Imams in the Quran or the hadith of the Prophet. He argued the Quran has no esoteric meaning since it should be read literally.

Shi'as in turn have an extremely negative view of him. Some have labeled him a nasibi, for example "Imam of the Nasibis, Ibn Taymiyya" [13].

[edit] Non-Muslims

Ibn Taymiyyah strongly opposed borrowing from Christianity or other non-Muslim religions. In his text On the Necessity of the Straight Path (kitab iqtida al-sirat al-mustaqim) he preached that the beginning of Muslim life was the point at which `a perfect dissimilarity with the non-Muslims has been achieved.` To this end he opposed the celebration of the Prophet Muhammad's birthday or the construction of mosques around the tombs of Sufi "saints" saying: `Many of them [the Muslims] do not even know of the Christian origins of these practices. Accursed be Christianity and its adherents!` [14]

[edit] Shrines

Since he was a strong proponent of Tawhid, ibn Taymiyyah opposed giving any undue religious honors to shrines (even that of Jerusalem, Al-Aqsa), to approach or rival in any way the Islamic sanctity of the two most holy mosques within Islam, Mecca (Masjid al Haram) and Medina (Masjid al-Nabawi).[15]

[edit] Quotes

  • “What can my enemies possibly do to me? My paradise is in my heart; wherever I go it goes with me, insepa­rable from me. For me, prison is a place of (religious) retreat; ex­ecution is my opportunity for martyrdom; and exile from my town is but a chance to travel.” [16]
  • "The perfection of tawhid is found when there remains nothing in the heart except [the remembrance of] Allah, the servant is left loving those He loves and what He loves, hating those He hates and what He hates, showing allegiance to those He has allegiance to, showing enmity to those He shows enmity towards, ordering what He orders and prohibiting what He prohibits."[17]
  • "Sins are like chains and locks preventing their perpetrator from roaming the vast garden of tawhid and reaping the fruits of righteous actions." [18]
  • "The one who is (truly) imprisoned is the one whose heart is imprisoned from Allah, and the captivated one is the one whose desires have enslaved him." [19]


[edit] Legacy

[edit] Analogical Reasoning

Ibn Taymiyyah made significant contribution to the formalization of Analogical Reasoning. He believed reasoning of real world, universal propositions can only be derived by induction while admitting logical deductions when applied to purely mental constructions in mathematics. The IBM research scientist John Safa published his thesis describing Ibn Taymiyyah's influence on Analogical Reasoning in the International Conference on Conceptual Structures in Dresden, Germany. [20][21]

[edit] Works written by ibn Taymiyyah

Ibn Taymiyyah left a considerable body of work that has been republished extensively in Syria, Egypt, Arabia, and India. His work extended and justified his religious and political involvements and was characterized by its rich content, sobriety, and skillful polemical style. Extant books and essays written by ibn Taymiyyah include:

  • A Great Compilation of Fatwa—(Majmu al-Fatwa al-Kubra)
  • Minhaj as-Sunnah an-Nabawiyyah—(The Pathway of as-Sunnah an-Nabawiyyah)—Volumes 1–4
  • Majmoo' al-Fatawa—(Compilation of Fatawa) Volumes 1–36
  • al-Aqeedah Al-Hamawiyyah—(The Creed to the People of Hamawiyyah)
  • al-Aqeedah Al-Waasittiyah—(The Creed to the People of Waasittiyah)
  • al-Asma wa's-Sifaat—(Allah's Names and Attributes) Volumes 1–2
  • 'al-Iman—(Faith)
  • al-Jawab as Sahih li man Baddala Din al-Masih (Literally, "The Correct Response to those who have Corrupted the Deen (Religion) of the Messiah"; A Muslim theologian's response to Christianity)—seven volumes, over a thousand pages.
  • Fatawa al-Kubra
  • Fatawa al-Misriyyah
  • ar-Radd 'ala al-Mantiqiyyin (Refutation of Greek Logicians)
  • Naqd at-Ta'sis
  • al-Uboodiyyah—(Subjection to Allah)
  • Iqtida' as-Sirat al-Mustaqim'—(Following The Straight Path)
  • at-Tawassul wal-Waseela
  • Sharh Futuh al-Ghayb—(Commentary on Revelations of the Unseen by Abdul Qadir Jilani)

Many of his books are now available in Arabic language online at: http://arabic.islamicweb.com/Books/taimiya.asp

Some of his other works have been translated to English. They include:

  • The Friends of Allah and the Friends of Shaytan
  • Kitab al Iman: The Book of Faith
  • Diseases of the Hearts and their Cures
  • The Relief from Distress
  • Fundamentals of Enjoining Good & Forbidding Evil
  • The Concise Legacy
  • The Goodly Word
  • The Madinan Way
  • Ibn Taymiyya against the greek logicians

[edit] Students and intellectual heirs

[edit] Historical views

Throughout history, many scholars and thinkers have praised ibn Taymiyyah and his works.

  • Ibn Taymiyyah's student and renowned scholar in his own right, Ibn Kathir stated:
“ He (Ibn Taymiyyah) was knowledgeable in fiqh. And it was said that he was more knowledgeable of fiqh of the madh'habs than the followers of those very same madh'habs, (both) in his time and other than his time. He was a scholar of the fundamental issues, the subsidiary issues, of grammar, language, and other textual and intellectual sciences. And no scholar of a science would speak to him except that he thought the science was of speciality of Ibn Taymiyyah. As for Hadith, then he was the carrier of its flag, a Hafidh, able to distinguish the weak from the strong and fully acquainted with the narrators.[22] ”
  • Ibn Taymiyyah's other student, Al-Dhahabi stated:
“ Ibn Taymiyyah...the matchless individual of the time with respect to knowledge, cognizance, intelligence, memorisation, generosity, asceticism, excessive braveness and abundancy of (written) works. May Allah rectify and direct him. And we, by the praise of Allah, are not amongst those who exaggerate about him and nor are we of those who are harsh and rough with him. No one with perfection like that of the Imams and Tabieen and their successors has been seen and I did not see him (Ibn Taymiyyah) except engrossed in a book.[23] ”
“ He (Ibn Taymiyyah) is the Imam, the legal jurist, the Mujtahid, the Scholar of Hadith, the Hafiz, the Explainer of the Quran, the Ascetic, Taqi ad-Din Abu al-Abbas Shaykh al-Islam, the most knowledgable of the knowledgable. It is not possible to exaggerate his renown when he is mentioned and his fame does not require us to write a lengthy tract on him. He, may Allah have mercy upon him, was unique in his time and with respect to understanding the Quran and knowledge of the realities of faith...[24] ”
“ I have not seen the likes of him (Ibn Taymiyyah) and his own eye had not seen the likes of him. I have not seen one who has more knowledge than he of the Book of the Sunnah of his Messenger, nor one who followed them more closely. [25] ”
“ The acclaim of Taqi ad-Din (Ibn Taymiyyah) is more renowned than that of the Sun and titling him Shaykh al-Islam of his era remains until our time upon the virtuous tongues. It will continue tomorrow just as it was yesterday. No one refutes this but a person who is ignorant of his prestige or one who turns away from justice...[26] ”

More modern thinkers include an 18th century Arabian scholar named Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab, who studied the works of ibn Taymiyyah and aimed to revive his teachings.

Ibn Taymiyyah is also revered as an intellectual and spiritual exemplar by many contemporary Salafis.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d Ibn Taymiyyah: Profile and Biography
  2. ^ Ibn Taymiyya, Taqi al-Din (1263-1328)
  3. ^ Ibn Taymiyya, Taqi al-Din (1263-1328)
  4. ^ Mountains of Knowledge, pg 222
  5. ^ Mountains of Knowledge, pg 220
  6. ^ SCHOLARS BIOGRAPHIES \ 8th Century \ Shaykh al-Islaam Ibn Taymiyyah
  7. ^ al-Siyasa al-Shar'iyya, translated in Laoust, Henri, Le traité de droit public d'Ibn Taimiya, Beirut, 1948, quoted in Kepel, Gilles, The Prophet and the Pharaoh, University of California Press, (2003), p.198
  8. ^ Taqi al-Deen Ahmad Ibn Taymiyya
  9. ^ Kepel, Gilles, The Prophet and the Pharaoh, (2003), p.194
  10. ^ Sivan, Emmanuel, Radical Islam, Yale University Press, c1985, p.128
  11. ^ Encyclopedia of Islam and the Modern World, Macmillan Reference, 2004, p.339
  12. ^ Nasr, Vali, The Shia Revival, Norton, (2006), p.94
  13. ^ Answering-Ansar.org :: Devils Deception of the Nasibi Wahabis
  14. ^ Muhammad `Umar Memon, Ibn Taymiyya's Struggle against Popular Religion, with an annotated translation of Kitab Iqitada, the Hague, (1976) p.78, 210
  15. ^ "A Muslim Iconoclast (Ibn Taymiyyeh) on the 'Merits' of Jerusalem and Palestine", by Charles D. Matthews, Journal of the American Oriental Society, volume 56 (1935), pp. 1–21. [Includes Arabic text of manuscript of Ibn Taymiyya's short work Qa'ida fi Ziyarat Bayt-il-Maqdis قاعدة في زيارة بيت المقدس]
  16. ^ IBN TAYMIYAH (AH 661-728/1263-1328 CE), more fully Taqi al-Din Abu al-’Abbas Ahmad ibn ‘Abd alHalim ibn ‘Abd al-Salam al-Harra
  17. ^ Ibn Qayyim, al-Madarij (3/485
  18. ^ Majmu Fatawa 14/49
  19. ^ Ibn Qayyim, al-Wabil, pg 69
  20. ^ Thesis presented on International Conference on Conceptual Structures in Dresden, Germany
  21. ^ John Safa MIT Mathematician and IBM Research Scientist
  22. ^ Mountains of Knowledge, pg. 220, quoting Al-Bidaayah wan-Nihaayah'(14/118-119)
  23. ^ Mountains of Knowledge, pg. 222-223
  24. ^ Relief from Distress, pg. xxiii, footnote ibn Rajab, [2/387-392]
  25. ^ Bahajtul Baitar, Hayat Shaykh Al Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, pg 21
  26. ^ Relief from distress, pg. xx-xxi, quoting Radd al-Wafir in footnote

Also:

  • Kepel, Gilles – Muslim extremism in Egypt: The Prophet and pharaoh. With a new preface for 2003. Translated from French by Jon Rothschild. Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2003. See p. 194-199.
  • Little, Donald P. – "Did Ibn Taymiyya have a screw loose?", Studia Islamica, 1975, Number 41, pp. 93-111.
  • Makdisi, G. – "Ibn Taymiyya: A Sufi of the Qadiriya Order", American Journal of Arabic Studies, 1973
  • Sivan, Emmanuel – Radical Islam: Medieval theology and modern politics. Enlarged edition. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1990. See p. 94-107.
  • Michot, Yahya – Ibn Taymiyya: Muslims under non-Muslim Rule. Texts translated, annotated and presented in relation to six modern readings of the Mardin fatwa. Foreword by James Piscatori. Oxford & London: Interface Publications, 2006. ISBN 0-9554545-2-2.

[edit] External links

[edit] Academic links

[edit] Pro-Ibn Taymiyyah links