Ibn Taymiya

Taqi Ad-din Abu Al-'abbas Ahmad Ibn 'abd As-salam Ibn 'abd Allah Ibn Muhammad Ibn Taymiya (Arabic: أبو عباس تقي الدين أحمد بن عبد السلام بن عبد الله ابن تيمية الحراني)(January 22, 1263 - 1328), was an 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 Pietist school founded by Ibn Hanbal, he sought the return of Islam to its sources: the Qur'an and the sunnah (the prophetic tradition of Muhammad). He is also a primary intellectual source of the Wahhabi movement.

Life & Education

Ibn Taymiya was born in 1263 at Harran into a well known family of theologians. His grandfather, Abu al-Barkat Majd-ud-deen ibn Taymiya Al-Hanbali (d. 1255) was a reputed teacher of the Hanbali School of Fiqh. Likewise, the scholarly achievements of Ibn Taymiya's father, Shihabuddeen 'Abdul-Haleem Ibn Taymiya (d. 1284) were wide spread.

Because of the Mongol invasion, Ibn Taymiya'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 Taymiya 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 learnt hadith.

Ibn Taymiya 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 law. 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, the Hadith (sayings attributed to the Prophet Muhammad), dogmatic theology (kalam), philosophy, and Sufism.

Persecutions

Because of 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 Ibn Taymiya came into conflict with local authorities for protesting a religious ruling against a Christian accused of having insulted the Prophet. 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, and denounced the Islamic faith of the Muslim invaders, which would prove to be a controversial decision for later scholars. In the years that followed, Ibn Taymiyah was engaged in intensive polemic activity against: (1) the Kasrawan Shi'a in the Lebanon, (2) the Rifa'i Sufi order, and (3) the ittihadiyah school, which taught that the Creator and the created were one, a school that grew out of the teaching of Ibn 'Arabi (d. 1240), whose views he denounced as heredical.

In 1306 Ibn Taymiya was imprisoned in the citadel of Cairo for 18 months on the charge of anthropomorphism. He was incarcerated again in 1308 for several months in the prison of the qadis (Muslim judges) for having denounced popular worship at the tombs of saints.

Ibn Taymiya spent his last 15 years in Damascus where a circle of disciples formed around him from every social class. The most famous of these, Ibn Qayyim (d. 1350), was to share in Ibn Taymiya's renewed persecutions. From August 1320 to February 1321 Ibn Taymiya 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 20th Dhul-Qa'dah 728 A.H./26-27 September 1328 C.E. at the age of 67, and was buried at the Sufi cemetery in Damascus, where his mother was also buried. It is reported that thousands of people attended his burial and his tomb is much venerated today.

Teachings of Ibn Taymiya

Ibn Taymiya was a courageous scholar known for his prodigious memory and encyclopedic knowledge.

Ibn Taymiya 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 Prophetic example (sunna). He strove to: (1) revive the Islamic faith's understanding of "true" adherence to "Tawhid" (oneness of God), (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 Taymiya believed that the first three generations of Islam were the best role models for Islamic life. Their Sunnah, or 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 Taymiya favored an extremely literal interpretation of the Qur'an. His opponents charged that he taught anthropomorphism even though he insisted that God's "hand" was nothing comparable to hands found in creation. Some of his Islamic critics contend that this violates the Islamic concept of tawhid, divine unity.

Ibn Taymiya was highly skeptical of giving any undue religious honors to shrines, to approach or rival in any way the Islamic sanctity of the three most holy mosques within Islam, Mecca (Masjid al Haram), Medina (Masjid al-Nabawi), and Jerusalem (Al-Aqsa).

He is known for this saying: "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." [1]

Salafi reading of Ibn Taymiya

An 18th century Arabian cleric named Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab studied the works of Ibn Taymiya and aimed to revive his teachings. Abd' Al-Wahhab acquired a large following. Ibn Taymiya's works became the basis of the contemporary Wahhabi or Salafi school of thought in Sunni Islam.

The Islamist thinker Sayyid Qutb also used Ibn Taymiyyah's writings to justify rebellion against a Muslim ruler and society (see below: Sivan; Kepel).

Ibn Taymiya is now revered as an intellectual and spiritual exemplar by many Salafis.

Controversy over his views on Sufism

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

Some Wahhabi and Salafi scholars believe that he rejected Sufism entirely. Other scholars, however, have contested this point. In 1973, George Makdisi published an article, "Ibn Taymiya: A Sufi of the Qadiriya Order," in the American Journal of Arabic Studies, which argued that Ibn Taymiya was a Qadiriyyah Sufi himself, and only opposed antinomian versions of Sufism.

In support of their views, these Ibn Taymiya scholars cite his work Sharh Futuh al-Ghayb, which is a commentary on the famous Sufi Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani's work, Futuh al-Ghayb "Revelations of the Unseen." Ibn Taymiya is cited in the literature of the Qadiriyyah order as a link in their chain of spiritual transmission. He himself said, in his Al-Mas'ala at-Tabraziyya, "I wore the blessed Sufi cloak of Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jilani, there being between him and me two Sufi shaikhs."

Works written by Ibn Taymiyyah

Ibn Taymiya 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 Taymiya include:Ahkam as-Siyam - (The Rulings Regarding Fasting) 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-Uboodiyyah - (Subjection to Allah)Huqooq Ahl al-Bayt - (The Rights of Ahl al-Bayt)Iqtida' as-Sirat al-Mustaqim' - (Following The Straight Path)Majmoo' al-Fatawa - (Compilation of Fatawa) Volumes 1-36Minhaj as-Sunnah an-Nabawiyyah - (The Pathway of as-Sunnah an-Nabawiyyah) - Volumes 1-4at-Tawassul wal-WaseelaSharh Futuh al-Ghayb - (Commentary on Revelations of the Unseen by Abdul Qadir Jilani)

Ibn Taymiya's students and intellectual heirs

*Ibn Kathir (1301 C.E. - 1372 C.E.)
*Ibn al-Qayyim (1292 C.E. - 1350 C.E.)
*al-Dhahabi (1274 C.E. - 1348 C.E.) (see [2] for further information)
*Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab (1703 C.E. - 1792 C.E.)

References

* 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.

External links

His views on Sufism

* Ibn Taymiyya the Sufi
* Imam Ibn Taymiyya About Saints and Sainthood
* [https://www.islamfortoday.com/murad02.htm The Poverty of Fanaticism]

Ibn Taymiya: Encyclopedia BETA

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