| Syrian scholar Medieval era |
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| Full name | Ibn Taymiyyah |
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| Birth | 1263 CE [1] in Harran[2] |
| Death | 1328 CE [1] in Damascus[3] |
| School/tradition | Hanbali [1] |
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Influenced
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Taqi ad-Din Ahmad ibn Taymiyyah (January 22, 1263 – 1328), was a Sunni 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. He has been called a strong proponent of jihad, of strict rule by sharia, "the first jurist to call for legitimate rebellion against nominally Muslim rulers," and a seminal figure in the growth of modern Islamic fundamentalism.[6][7]
Full name: Taqī ad-Dīn Abu 'l Abbās Ahmad ibn 'Abd al-Halīm ibn 'Abd as-Salām Ibn Taymiya al-Harrānī (Arabic: تقي الدين أبو العباس أحمد بن عبد السلام بن عبد الله ابن تيمية الحراني)
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Ibn Taymiyya 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 an Arab tribe (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 theology (kalam), philosophy, and Sufism, which he later heavily critiqued.
His troubles with government began when he went with a delegation of ulamaa to talk to Qazaan, the Khan of the Tartars, to stop his attack on the Muslims. It is reported that not one of the ulamaa dared to say anything to the Khan 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." [8]
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 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. Al-Subkî said: "He memorized a lot and did not discipline himself with a shaykh." He taught, authored books, gave formal legal opinions, and generally distinguished himself for his quick wit and photographic memory.[9] And about his encyclopedic knowledge, we learn from Kamaal ad-Deen Ibn az-Zamlakaanee, who debated with Ibn Taymiyyah on more than one occasion, that :
| “ | Whenever he was questioned on a particular field of knowledge, the one who witnessed and heard (the answer) concluded that he had no knowledge of any other field and that no one possessed such as his knowledge. The jurists of all groups, whenever they sat with him, they would benefit from him regarding their own schools of thought in areas they previously were unaware of. It is not known that he debated anyone whereby the discussion carne to a standstill or that whenever he spoke on about a particular field of knowledge - whether it be related to the sciences of the Sharee'ah or else - that he would not then excel the specialists of that field and those who are affiliated to it." [10] | ” |
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. [11]
What has been called Ibn Taymiyyah "most famous" fatwa[12] was issued against the Mongols (or Tartars), in the Mamluk's war. Ibn Taymiyyah declaring jihad upon the Mongols not only permissible, but obligatory. as . He based this ruling on the grounds that the Mongols could not be not true Muslims despite the fact that they had converted to Sunni Islam because 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. [13][14] `Every group of Muslims that transgresses Islamic law ... must be combated, even when they continue to profess the credo.` [15]
This doctrine has been called instrumental in the making Ibn Taymiyyah what some call the "spiritual father" of Sunni "Islamic Revolution," and a major influence on modern Islamist thinkers such as Sayyid Qutb.[16][17]
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:
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.
Ibn Taymiyyah believed in a literal or "apparent" (dhahir) interpretation of the Qur'an. He taught that Allah's attributes included "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." [18] His opponents charged this was anthropomorphism, although Ibn Taymiyyah insisted that Allah's "hand" was not comparable to hands found in creation. Some of his Islamic critics contend that this violates the Islamic concept of tawhid.
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.
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. [19]
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" [20].
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!` [21]
On the subject of Jews, Ibn Taymiyyah issued a fatwa overturning an existing Islamic law that prohibited Muslims from cursing or insulting Jewish holy books and instated upon stringent enforcement of the strictures on Jews regarding clothing, holding positions of civil authority and exhibiting their religion publicly.[22]
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).[23]
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. [28][29]
Ibn Taymiyyah left a considerable body of work (350 works listed by his student Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya[30] and 500 by other student al-Dhahabi[31]) 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:
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:
Throughout history, many scholars and thinkers have praised ibn Taymiyyah and his works.
| “ | 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.[32] | ” |
| “ | 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.[33] | ” |
| “ | 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...[34] | ” |
| “ | 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. [35] | ” |
| “ | 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...[36] | ” |
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.
Also: