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{{Short description|Islamic scholar and jurist }}
'''Abu al-Abbas Taqi al-Din Ahmad ibn Abd al-Salaam ibn Abdullah ibn Taymiya al-Harrani''' (]: أبو عباس تقي الدين أحمد بن عبد السلام بن عبد الله ابن تيمية الحراني) (], ] – ]), was an ]ic scholar born in ], located in what is now ], close to the ] border. He lived during the troubled times of the Mongol invasions.
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2022}}
{{Infobox religious biography
| honorific_prefix = ]
| name = Ibn Taymiyya
| native_name = ابن تيمية
| native_name_lang = ar
| birth_date = 22 January 1263 CE<br/>10 ] 661 ]
| birth_place = ], ] {{small|(modern-day ])}}
| death_date = 26 September 1328 CE (aged 65)<br/>20 ] 728 AH
| death_place = ], Mamluk Sultanate {{small|(modern-day ])}}
| religion = ]
| era = {{plainlist|
]
}}
| denomination = ]
| creed = ]<ref>{{cite book|title=Theology and Creed in Sunni Islam|url=https://archive.org/details/theologycreedsun00halv|url-access=limited|last=Halverson|first=Jeffry R.|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2010|isbn=978-0-230-10279-8 |page=}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Aaron|last=Spevack|title=The Archetypal Scholar: Law, Theology, and Mysticism in the Synthesis of Al-Bajuri|page=45|publisher=State University of New York Press|date=2014|isbn=978-1-4384-5370-5}}</ref><ref name="Makdisi, 1973 pp 118-28">Makdisi, ', American Journal of Arabic Studies 1, part 1 (1973), pp. 118–28</ref><ref name="Arch91">{{cite book|last=Spevack|first=Aaron|title=The Archetypal Sunni: Law, Theology, and Mysticism in the Synthesis of Al-Bajuri|publisher=State University of New York Press|date=2014|isbn=978-1438453712|page=91}}</ref><ref name="Rapoport 334">{{harvnb|Rapoport|Ahmed|2010|p=334}}</ref><ref name="Halverson 2010 48–49">{{cite book|last=Halverson|first=Jeffry R.|title=Theology and Creed in Wahabi Islam: The Muslim Brotherhood, Ash'arism, and Political Wahabism|url=https://archive.org/details/theologycreedsun00halv|url-access=limited|date=2010|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-0230102798|pages=–49}}</ref>
| jurisprudence = ]<ref name=IBT>{{cite book|last1=Ibn Taymiyya|first1=Ahmad ibn ʻAbd al-Ḥalīm|title=Kitab Al-Iman|date=1999|publisher=Islamic Book Trust|location=Kuala Lumpur|isbn=978-967-5062-28-5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_Cxpfjri6o0C|access-date=January 16, 2015}}</ref><ref name="britannica1" />
| notable_works = {{flatlist|
*''Minhaj al-sunnah al-Nabawiyya''
*''al-Aqida al-Wasitiyya''
*''al-Sarim al-Maslul ala Shatim al-Rasul''
*”al-Jawab al-Sahih”
}}
| alma_mater = Madrasa Dar al-Hadith al-Sukariyya
| module1 = {{infobox Arabic name|embed=yes
|ism=Aḥmad
|ism-ar=أَحْمَد
|nasab=Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm ibn ʿAbd al-Salām ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Khiḍr ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Khiḍr ibn Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh
|nasab-ar=ٱبْن عَبْد ٱلْحَلِيم بْن عَبْد ٱلسَّلَام بْن عَبْد ٱللَّٰه بْن ٱلْخِضْر بْن مُحَمَّد بْن ٱلْخِضْر بْن إِبْرَاهِيم بْن عَلِيّ بْن عَبْد ٱللَّٰه
|kunya=Abū al-ʿAbbās
|kunya-ar=أَبُو ٱلْعَبَّاس
|laqab=Taqī al-Dīn
|laqab-ar=تَقِيّ ٱلدِّين
|nisba=Al-Numayrī al-Ḥarrānī<ref name=":0">{{harvnb|Haque|1982|p=}}</ref>{{page needed|date=August 2023}}
|nisba-ar=ٱلنُّمَيْرِيّ ٱلْحَرَّانِيّ
}}
| influences = {{flatlist|
*]
*]
*]
*]
*]
*]
*]
*]
*]<ref>Hoover, J. (2018). Ibn Taymiyya's use of Ibn Rushd to refute the incorporealism of Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī. In A. Al Ghouz (Ed.), Islamic Philosophy from the 12th till the 14th Century (469-492). Goettingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht</ref>
}}
| influenced = {{flatlist|
*]
*]
*]
*]
*]
*]
*]
*]
*]
*]
*later ]
*later Hanbali school
*]
*]
}}
| image =
}}
{{Salafi|Ideology}}


'''Ibn Taymiyya'''{{efn|Full name '''Taqī ad-Dīn Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm ibn ʿAbd as-Salām ibn ʿAbd Allāh an-Numayrī al-Ḥarrānī''' ({{langx|ar|تَقِيّ ٱلدِّين أَبُو ٱلْعَبَّاس أَحْمَد بْن عَبْد ٱلْحَلِيم بْن عَبْد ٱلسَّلَام بْن عَبْد ٱللَّٰه ٱلنُّمَيْرِيّ ٱلْحَرَّانِيّ}}); he is also known by the title '''Shaykh al-Islam''' ({{langx|ar|شيخ الإسلام}}).}} ({{langx|ar|ٱبْن تَيْمِيَّة}}; 22 January 1263 – 26 September 1328)<ref name=":31">Ibn Taymiyya, Taqi al-Din Ahmad, The Oxford Dictionary of Islam. http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195125580.001.0001/acref-9780195125580-e-959 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220132424/http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195125580.001.0001/acref-9780195125580-e-959?rskey=2XYR29&result=959 |date=December 20, 2016 }}</ref> was a ] ],<ref name=":33">{{Cite book |last=Yahya An Najmi |first=Shaykh Ahmad |url=https://darpdfs.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Exp.-of-al-Qasidah-al-Lamiyah-Sh.-Ahmad-al-Najmi.pdf |title=Explanation Of Al-Qasidah Al-Lamiyah |publisher=Hikmah Publications |isbn=9781495196805 |location=Philadelphia |pages=5 |language=en |access-date=April 13, 2022 |archive-date=March 26, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326084437/https://darpdfs.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Exp.-of-al-Qasidah-al-Lamiyah-Sh.-Ahmad-al-Najmi.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Woodward |first=Mark |title=The Garebeg Malud: Veneration of the Prophet as Imperial Ritual |pages=170 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="tandfonline.com" /> ],<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Nadvi |first1=Syed Suleiman |year=2012 |title=Muslims and Greek Schools of Philosophy |journal=Islamic Studies |volume=51 |issue=2 |page=218 |jstor=23643961 |quote=All his works are full of condemnation of philosophy and yet he was a great philosopher himself. }}</ref><ref name=":32">{{cite book |last1=Kokoschka |first1=Alina |year=2013 |title=Islamic Theology, Philosophy and Law: Debating Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya|publisher=De Gruyter|page=218|quote=Identifying him, especially in regards to his comprehensive view, as a true philosopher, they describe him as an equal to or even superseding the most famous medieval Muslim philosophers.}}</ref> ], ], ] ]{{Efn|Sources describing Ibn Taymiyya as a proto-Salafi theologian:
== Life ==
* {{Cite book |last1=James Fromherz |last2=Samin |first1=Allen |first2=Nadav |title=Social, Economic and Political Studies of the Middle East and Asia |publisher=Brill |year=2021 |isbn=978-90-04-43952-8 |location=The Netherlands |pages=182 |quote=The circle surrounding the paradigmatic proto-Salafi scholar Ibn Taymiyya and his influential disciple Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 751/1350) played a central role among them. Ibn Taymiyya's theology,.. passionately opposed and polemicized against the Murjiʾite views of other Sunnis, particularly Hanafis and the followers of Ashʿarite speculative theology (kalam)}}
* {{Cite book |last=Medoff |first=Louis Abraham |title=Ijtihad and Renewal in Qurʼanic Hermeneutics |publisher=University of California |year=2007 |location=Berkeley, California, USA |pages=33 |quote=Ibn Taymiyah lives up to his reputation as a fiercely polemical proto-Salafi}}
* {{Cite book |last=Wainscott |first=Ann Marie |title=Bureaucratizing Islam: Morocco and the War on Terror |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-316-51049-0 |location=Liberty Plaza, New York, USA |pages=85 |quote=the medieval theologian and proto-Salafi Ibn Taymiyya was a critic of Ash‘arism. He argued that the approach relied too heavily on philosophy. Instead, he advocated an approach that looked to the Salaf for guidance on correct beliefs.}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Haynes |first1=Jeffrey |title=The Routledge handbook of Religion, Politics and Ideology |last2=Sheikh |first2=Naveed S. |publisher=Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group |year=2022 |isbn=978-0-367-41782-6 |location=New York, USA |pages=179 |chapter=Making Sense of Salafism: Theological foundations, ideological iterations and political manifestations |quote=What might be referred to as ‘proto-Salafism’, or creedal Salafism (al-salafiyya al iʿtiqādīyya), became emblematic in the scholarship of the fourteenth-century imam Taqi al-Din Ahmad Ibn ‘Abd al-Halim al-Harrani}}}} and ].<ref name=":34">Nettler, R. and Kéchichian, J.A., 2009. Ibn Taymīyah, Taqī al-Dīn Aḥmad. The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World, 2, pp.502–4.</ref><ref name="tandfonline.com">{{cite journal |last1=Ghobadzdeh |first1=Naser|last2=Akbarzadeh|first2=Shahram |date=May 18, 2015 |title=Sectarianism and the prevalence of 'othering' in Islamic thought|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01436597.2015.1024433 |journal=Third World Quarterly|volume=36|issue=4|pages=691–704|doi=10.1080/01436597.2015.1024433|s2cid=145364873|access-date=June 6, 2020|quote=Yet Ibn Taymiyya remained unconvinced and issued three controversial fatwas to justify revolt against mongol rule.}}</ref> He is known for his diplomatic involvement with the ] ruler ] at the ], which ended the ].<ref name="kadri-">{{cite book|last1=Kadri|first1=Sadakat|title=Heaven on Earth: A Journey Through Shari'a Law from the Deserts of Ancient Arabia ...|date=2012|publisher=macmillan|isbn=978-0-09-952327-7|page=187|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ztCRZOhJ10wC&q=Heaven+on+Earth:+A+Journey+Through+Shari%27a+Law|access-date=2015-09-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200701104304/https://books.google.com/books?id=ztCRZOhJ10wC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Heaven+on+Earth%3A+A+Journey+Through+Shari%27a+Law|archive-date=2020-07-01|url-status=live}}</ref> A legal jurist of the ], Ibn Taymiyya's condemnation of numerous ] practices associated with ] and ] made him a controversial figure with many rulers and scholars of the time, which caused him to be imprisoned several times as a result.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}}


A polarizing figure in his own times and the centuries that followed,<ref name=":35">Tim Winter ''The Cambridge Companion to Classical Islamic Theology'' Cambridge University Press, May 22, 2008 {{ISBN|978-0-521-78058-2}} p. 84</ref>{{sfn|Rapoport|Ahmed|2010|p=6}} Ibn Taymiyya has emerged as one of the most influential medieval scholars in late modern Sunni Islam.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} He is also noteworthy for engaging in fierce religious polemics that attacked various schools of ], primarily ] and ], while defending the doctrines of ]. This prompted rival clerics and state authorities to accuse Ibn Taymiyya and his disciples of ], which eventually led to the censoring of his works and subsequent incarceration.<ref name="Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group">{{Cite book |last1=Haynes |first1=Jeffrey |title=The Routledge handbook of Religion, Politics and Ideology |last2=S. Sheikh |first2=Naveed |publisher=Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group |year=2022 |isbn=978-0-367-41782-6 |location=New York, USA |pages=180 |chapter=Making Sense of Salafism: Theological foundations, ideological iterations and political manifestations |quote=His denouncement of both the (high-church) ʿulamāʾ of the rival theological schools—particularly the Ash‘aris, even as he muddied the waters by calling them anachronistic names such as ‘Jahmis’ after the heterodox theologian Jahm Ibn Safwan (d. 745)—and (low-church) folk religion steeped in local understandings of Sufism, earned him the authorities’ wrath. He was imprisoned on charges of corporealism (tajsīm) and likening the attributes of God to those of His creation (tashbīḥ), a dual charge that his followers from Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (1292–1350) onwards have also faced.}}</ref><ref name="Sinani 344">{{Cite journal |last=Sinani |first=Besnik |date=April 10, 2022 |title=Post-Salafism: Religious Revisionism in Contemporary Saudi Arabia |journal=Religions |volume=13 |issue=4 |pages=344 |doi=10.3390/rel13040340 |quote=A key aspect of the legacy of Ibn Taymiyya is his opposition to the two dominant schools of Sunni theology (kalam), Ashaʿrism and Maturidism |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Nettler |first=Ronald L. |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195305135.001.0001/acref-9780195305135-e-1167?rskey=KtEa3S&result=491 |title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2009 |isbn=9780195305135 |editor-last=L. Esposito |editor-first=John |chapter=Ibn Taymīyah, Taqī al-Dīn Aḥmad |doi=10.1093/acref/9780195305135.001.0001 |quote=He incurred the wrath of some Shāfiʿī and other ʿulamāʿ (religious scholars) and theologians for some of his teachings on theology and law. He was persecuted and imprisoned in Syria and Egypt, for his tashbīh (anthropomorphism), several of his rulings derived through ijtihād (independent reason), and his idiosyncratic legal judgments |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221101153717/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195305135.001.0001/acref-9780195305135-e-1167?rskey=KtEa3S&result=491 |archive-date=1 November 2022}}</ref>
He is said to have been born on Monday the 10th of Rabi' al-Awwal 66l H. (January 22, 1263 C.E.) at ]. Hence his sobriquet of al-Harrani. In 1268 CE his family fled ] and took refuge in ]. The elder Taymiya was an Islamic scholar and, subsequently, Ibn Taymiya would follow in his father's footsteps.


Nevertheless, Ibn Taymiyya's numerous treatises that advocate for ''al-salafiyya al-iʿtiqādiyya'', based on his ] of the ] and ], constitute the most popular classical reference for later Salafi movements.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Haynes |first1=Jeffrey |title=The Routledge handbook of Religion, Politics and Ideology |last2=S. Sheikh |first2=Naveed |publisher=Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group |year=2022 |isbn=978-0-367-41782-6 |location=New York, USA |pages=180 |chapter=Making Sense of Salafism: Theological foundations, ideological iterations and political manifestations |quote=What might be referred to as ‘proto-Salafism’, or creedal Salafism (al-salafiyya al-iʿtiqādīyya), became emblematic in the scholarship of the fourteenth-century imam Taqi al-Din Ahmad Ibn ‘Abd al-Halim al-Harrani (1263–1328)—better known by his matronymic Ibn Taymiyya—the most important medieval reference for contemporary Salafism}}</ref> It's worth noting that, although the ] claims to follow Ibn Taymiyya's teachings four centuries later, their stance often diverges from his, tending to be somewhat more extreme. <ref>Ibn Taymiyya, Maǧmūʿ al-Fatāwā, ed. by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad b. Qāsim (Beyrouth: Muʾassasat al-risāla, 1978), t. XI, p. 10.</ref> Throughout his treatises, Ibn Taymiyya asserted there is no contradiction between reason and revelation,<ref name=":36">{{Cite book |last=El-Tobgui |first=Carl Sharif |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1296947160 |title=Ibn Taymiyya on reason and revelation : a study of Darʾ ta'āruḍ al-ʻaql wa-l-naql |date=2022 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-51101-9 |oclc=1296947160}}</ref> and denounced the usage of philosophy as a pre-requisite in seeking religious truth.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Atheism and Radical Skepticism: Ibn Taymiyya's Epistemic Critique |url=https://yaqeeninstitute.org/read/paper/atheism-and-radical-skepticism-ibn-taymiyyahs-epistemic-critique |access-date=2023-03-21 |website=Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research |language=en |quote=The most voluminous and vociferous intellectual opposition to the use of philosophical argumentation to establish religious doctrine was to come in the writings of Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymīyyah..}}</ref> As a cleric who viewed ] as a source of ] in Muslim societies, Ibn Taymiyya was also known for his anti-Shia polemics throughout treatises such as ''Minhaj al-Sunna'', wherein he denounced the Imami Shia creed as ]. He issued a ] to wage ] against the Shias of ] and personally fought in the ] himself, accusing Shias of acting as the ] of the ] and Mongol Ilkhanids.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=al-Jamil |first1=Tariq |year=2010 |chapter=8: Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn al-Mutahhar al-Hilli |chapter-url=https://works.swarthmore.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1189&context=fac-religion |editor-first1=Shahab |editor-last1=Ahmed |editor-first2=Yossef |editor-last2=Rapoport |title=Ibn Taymiyya and His Times |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199402069 |location=New York, USA |pages=229–241 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812161555/https://works.swarthmore.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1189&context=fac-religion |archive-date=12 August 2021}}</ref>
He was an outspoken and controversial scholar. Ibn Taymiya asserted his right to ], or independent judgement; he denounced the Muslims of his time as given to idolatry (]) and innovation (]). He denounced what he believed to be the errors of ]; he criticized many ] practices. He is also said to have preached that resistance to the Mongol invaders was ], required of all faithful Muslims, even though the invaders had ostensibly converted to Islam.


Within recent history, Ibn Taymiyya has been widely regarded as a major scholarly influence in ] movements, such as ].<ref name="Kepel, Gilles 2003 p.194" /><ref>{{cite book|last1=Kepel|first1=Gilles|title=Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam|date=2003|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing PLC |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OLvTNk75hUoC&q=kepel+ibn+taymiyya&pg=PA318|isbn=9781845112578|access-date=2015-08-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200701104307/https://books.google.com/books?id=OLvTNk75hUoC&pg=PA318&dq=kepel+ibn+taymiyya|archive-date=2020-07-01|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Wiktorowicz|first=Quintan|year=2005|title=A Genealogy of Radical Islam|journal=Studies in Conflict & Terrorism|volume=28|issue=2|pages=75–97|doi=10.1080/10576100590905057|s2cid=55948737|doi-access=}}</ref> Major aspects of his teachings, such as upholding the pristine ] of the ] and campaigns to uproot what he regarded as ], had a profound influence on ], the founder of the ] reform movement formed in the Arabian Peninsula, as well as other later Sunni scholars.<ref name="britannica1">{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/280847/Ibn-Taymiyyah|title=Ibn Taymiyya|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=January 16, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150213044648/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/280847/Ibn-Taymiyyah|archive-date=February 13, 2015|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Haynes |first1=Jeffrey |title=The Routledge handbook of Religion, Politics and Ideology |last2=S. Sheikh |first2=Naveed |publisher=Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group |year=2022 |isbn=978-0-367-41782-6 |location=New York, USA |pages=180 |chapter=Making Sense of Salafism: Theological foundations, ideological iterations and political manifestations}}</ref> Syrian Salafi theologian ], one of the major modern proponents of Ibn Taymiyya's works, designated him as the '']'' of the 7th ].<ref>The Legal Thought of Jalāl Al-Din Al-Suyūṭī: Authority and Legacy, Page 133 Rebecca Skreslet Hernandez</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Haynes |first1=Jeffrey |title=The Routledge handbook of Religion, Politics and Ideology |last2=S. Sheikh |first2=Naveed |publisher=Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group |year=2022 |isbn=978-0-367-41782-6 |location=New York, USA |pages=182 |chapter=Making Sense of Salafism: Theological foundations, ideological iterations and political manifestations}}</ref> Ibn Taymiyya's doctrinal positions, such as his ] of the Mongol Ilkhanids and allowing jihad against other Muslims, were referenced by later ] political movements, including the ], ], ], and ], to justify social uprisings against the contemporary governments of the ].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Esposito |first=John L. |title=The Oxford Dictionary of Islam |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2003 |isbn=0-19-512558-4 |location=New York |pages=130 |quote="Ibn Taymiyya, Taqi al-Din Ahmad (d. 1328)... Tied Islam to politics and state formation... Issued fatwas against the Mongols as unbelievers at heart despite public claims to be Muslim... His authority has been used by some twentieth-century Islamist groups to declare jihad against ruling governments."}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Springer|first1=Devin|title=Islamic Radicalism and Global Jihad|publisher=Georgetown University Press|page=29|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=obSuQIatubEC&q=ibn+taymiyyah+was+the+first&pg=PA29|access-date=December 3, 2016|isbn=978-1589015784|date=January 6, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200701104316/https://books.google.com/books?id=obSuQIatubEC&pg=PA29&dq=ibn+taymiyyah+was+the+first|archive-date=July 1, 2020|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Bassouni|first1=Cherif|title=The Shari'a and Islamic Criminal Justice in Time of War and Peace|publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=200|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GXhaAQAAQBAJ&q=ibn+taymiyyah+fatwa&pg=PA200|access-date=December 4, 2016|isbn=9781107471153|date=October 21, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200701104316/https://books.google.com/books?id=GXhaAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA200&dq=ibn+taymiyyah+fatwa|archive-date=July 1, 2020|url-status=live}}</ref>
The ] rulers of Egypt, of which Damascus was a dependency, considered his views heretical and dangerous. Ibn Taymiya was repeatedly imprisoned by the ] authorities. His last fifteen years were spent in Damascus, where he had many disciples. He died behind prison walls, in ].


Ibn Taymiyya paradoxically has an anti-Sufi reputation, although this is inaccurate.<ref>« The wahhābiyya and Sufism in the eighteenth century », Frederick De Jong and Bernd Radtke (Eds.), ''Islamic Mysticism Contested: Thirteen Centuries of Controversies and Polemics'', Leiden, Brill, 1999, <abbr>p.</abbr> 145–161.</ref> This false reputation is the result of the selective and out-of-context use of some of his writings by fundamentalist movements. While he sometimes held radical positions, Ibn Taymiyya criticized certain practices or ideas he considered deviations, yet he acknowledged that ] is an integral part of ]<ref>, Essay on the social and political doctrines of Taḳī-d-Dīn Aḥmad b. Taimīyah: ḥanbalite canonist born in Ḥarran in 661/1262, died in Damascus in 728/1328 (Cairo: IFAO, 1939), p. 89–93.</ref> and praised many Sufi masters.<ref name=":2" /> It was even claimed that he himself was affiliated with the ] order.<ref name=":2" /><ref>“Al-Hadi” manuscript in the Princeton Library, Yahuda Collection, fol. 154a, 169b, 171b-172a</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Assef |first=Qais |date=2012-05-01 |title=Le soufisme et les soufis selon Ibn Taymiyya |url=https://journals.openedition.org/beo/330 |journal=Bulletin d'études orientales |language=fr |issue=60 |pages=91–121 |doi=10.4000/beo.330 |issn=0253-1623}}</ref>
== Teachings of Ibn Taymiya ==


==Biography==
Ibn Taymiya believed that the first three generations of Islam -- the prophet Muhammad, his ], and the children and grandchildren of the first Muslims -- were the best role models for Islamic life. Their ], or practice, together with the Qur'an, constituted a seemingly infallible guide to life. Any deviation from their practice was viewed as ], or innovation, and to be forbidden.
=== Early years ===
==== Family ====
Ibn Taymiyya was born on 10 Rabi' al-Awwal 661 AH in ], Mamluk Sultanate to a family of traditional Hanbali scholars. He had Arab and Kurdish lineages by way of his Arab father and Kurdish mother.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019 |title=Lessons From Islamic History: Ibn Taymiyya and the Synthesis of Takfir |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ibn-taymiyyah-and-the-syn_b_10096820 |access-date=2023-08-03 |website=HuffPost |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=S. Rowe|first1=Paul|title=Routledge Handbook of Minorities in the Middle East |publisher=Routledge |year=2019 |isbn=978-1-138-64904-0 |location=New York |pages=157}}</ref> His father, ], held the Hanbali chair in Harran and later at the ]. At the time, Harran was a part of the ], near what is today the border of Syria and Turkey, currently in the ].<ref name=":1" /> At the beginning of the Islamic period, Harran was located in ], the land of the ] tribe.<ref>{{EI2|volume=2|last1=Canard|first1=Marius|author1-link=Marius Canard|last2=Cahen|first2=Claude|author2-link=Claude Cahen|title=Diyār Mudar|pages=347–348|url=http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/diyar-mudar-COM_0174}}</ref> Before its ], Harran was also well-known since the early days of Islam for its tradition of adhering to the Hanbali school,<ref>{{cite book|title=Tadhkirat al-huffaz|last=Al-Dhahabi|first=Muhammad ibn Ahmad |location=Haidarabad|page=48}}</ref> to which Ibn Taymiyya's family belonged.<ref name=":1">{{cite book|title=Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics|last=Hastings|first=James|publisher=Morrison and Gibb Limited|year=1908 |page=72|volume=7}}</ref> His grandfather, ], and his uncle, Fakhr al-Din, were both reputable scholars of the Hanbali school, and their scholarly achievements well-known.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}}


====Education====
He favored an extremely literal interpretation of the Qur'an. His opponents charged that he taught ] -- that is, that he took metaphorical reference's to God's hand, foot, shin, and face as being literally true -- even though he insisted that God's "hand" was nothing comparable to hands found in ]. Some of his Islamic critics contend that this violates the Islamic concept of ], divine unity.
In 1269, Ibn Taymiyya, aged seven, left Harran together with his father and three brothers; however, the city was completely destroyed by the ensuing Mongol invasion.{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=6}}{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} Ibn Taymiyya's family moved and settled in ], Syria, which was ruled by the Mamluk Sultanate at the time.


In Damascus, his father served as the director of the Sukkariyya Madrasa, a place where Ibn Taymiyya also received his early education.<ref name=":4">{{cite book|title=Studia missionalia|last=Michel|first=Thomas|publisher=Pontificia Università Gregorian|year=1985 |location=Rome, Italy |volume=34|chapter=Ibn Taymiyya: Islamic Reformer}}</ref> He acquainted himself with the ] of his time. His religious studies began in his early teens when he ], and later came to learn the ].{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=6}} From his father, he learnt the religious science of ] and ].{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=6}} Ibn Taymiyya studied the works of ], ], and ], as well as the works of his own grandfather, Majd al-Din.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} His study of jurisprudence was not limited to the Hanbali tradition, as he also studied the other schools of jurisprudence.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}}
He also resolutely opposed ], an immensely popular and influential tradition of Islamic mysticism. Because Sufis engaged in esoteric rather than literal interpretation of the Qur'an, and because they countenanced practices such as prayer at tombs, Ibn Taymiya accused Sufis of innovation and idolatry.


The number of scholars under which he studied ] is said to number more than two-hundred,<ref name=":14">{{cite web |last=Al-Matroudi |first=Abdul Hakim Ibrahim |date=February 14, 2015 |title=Ibn Taymīyah, Taqī al-Dīn |url=http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t343/e0145 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171018135558/http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t343/e0145 |archive-date=October 18, 2017 |access-date=February 14, 2015 |website=Oxford Islamic Studies Online |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref>{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=6}}<ref>{{cite book|title=Al-'Uqud ad-Dariat|last=Al-Dimashqi al-Hanbali |first =Ibn `Abdul-Hadi |page=3}}</ref> four of whom were women.<ref>{{cite book|title=Shadharat al-Dhahab|last=Al-Hanbali|first=Ibn al-`Imad |year=1932 |location=Cairo|pages=385, 383, 404}}</ref> Those who are known by name amount to forty hadith teachers, as recorded by Ibn Taymiyya in his work titled ''Arba'un Haditha''.{{sfn|Haque|1982|pp=38–44}} Serajul Haque says, based on this, Ibn Taymiyya started to hear hadith from the age of five.{{sfn|Haque|1982|pp=38–44}} One of Ibn Taymiyya's teachers was the first Hanbali Chief Justice of Syria, Shams al-Din al-Maqdisi, who held the newly created position instituted by ] as part of a reform of the judiciary.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} Al-Maqdisi later came to give Ibn Taymiyya permission to issue legal verdicts, making him a ] at the age of seventeen.<ref name=":14" /><ref name=":9">{{cite book|title=The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought|last=Michot|first=Yahya|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2012|isbn=978-0-691-13484-0 |pages=238–241}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Sharh Al-Aqeedat-il-Wasitiyah|last=Ibn Taimiya|first=Taqi ad-Din|publisher=Dar-us-Salam|year=1996 |page=9}}</ref>
Similarly, Ibn Taymiya was highly skeptical of giving any undue religious honors to Jerusalem (al-Quds) which would cause this city, or its Muslim shrines, to approach or rival in any way the Islamic sanctity of the two most holy sites within Islam, Mecca and Medina.


Ibn Taymiyya's secular studies led him to devote attention to the Arabic language and literature by studying Arabic grammar and lexicography under Ali ibn Abd al-Qawi al-Tufi.{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=6}}<ref name=":24">{{cite book|title=The Qur'an: An Encyclopedia|last=Leaman|first=Oliver|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=2006|isbn=978-0-415-32639-1|pages=–282|url=https://archive.org/details/quranencyclopedi2006unse|url-access=limited}}</ref> He went on to master the famous book of Arabic grammar ''al-Kitab'', written by the grammarian ].{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=6}} He also studied mathematics, algebra, calligraphy, speculative theology, philosophy, history, and heresiography.<ref name=":14" /><ref name=":9" />{{sfn|Laoust|2012}}<ref>see aqidatul-waasitiyyah daarussalaam publications</ref> With the knowledge he gained from history and philosophy, he set to refute the prevalent philosophical discourses of his time, one of which was ].<ref name=":14" /> Ibn Taymiyya also learnt about ] and stated he had reflected on the works of ], ], ], ], ], and ].{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} In 1282, Ibn Taymiyya completed his education at the age of 20.{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=8}}
He was famous for many sayings that project his confidence in his faith such as:“What can my enemies possibly do to me? My paradise is in my breast; wherever I go it goes with me, insepa­rable from me. For me, prison is a place of (religious) retreat; ex­ecution is my opportunity for ]dom; and exile from my town is but a chance to travel.”
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===Life as a scholar===
== Ibn Taymiya and Salafi thought ==
] pictured in 1895, where Ibn Taymiyya used to give lessons.<ref name=":9" />]]
After his father died in 1284, he took up the then vacant post as the head of the Sukkariyya madrasa and began giving lessons on Hadith.<ref name=":9" />{{sfn|Laoust|2012}}<ref name=":17">{{cite web|url=http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t342/e0217|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200925201127/http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t342/e0217|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 25, 2020|title="Ibn Taymīyah, Taqī al-Dīn Aḥmad." The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Politics|date=February 14, 2015|access-date=February 14, 2015|website=Oxford Islamic Studies Online|publisher=Oxford University Press|last1=Nettler|first1=Ronald L.|last2=Kéchichian|first2=Joseph A.}}</ref> A year later he started giving lessons, as chair of the Hanbali ] on Fridays at the ], on the subject of ] (exegesis of Qur'an).<ref name=":9" /><ref name=":24" /><ref name=":25" /> In November 1292, Ibn Taymiyya performed the ] and after returning 4 months later, he wrote his first book aged twenty nine called ''Manasik al-Hajj'' (Rites of the Pilgrimage), in which he criticized and condemned the ] he saw take place there.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}}<ref name=":4" /> Ibn Taymiyya represented the Hanbali school of thought during this time. The Hanbali school was seen as the most traditional school out of the four legal systems (], ] and ]) because it was "suspicious of the ] disciplines of philosophy and ]."<ref name=":4" /> He remained faithful throughout his life to this school, whose doctrines he had mastered, but he nevertheless called for '']'' (independent reasoning by one who is qualified) and discouraged '']''.{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=8}}


Ibn Taymiyya had a simple life, most of which he dedicated to learning, writing, and teaching. He never married nor did he have a female companion throughout his years.<ref name=":14" /><ref name=":13">{{cite book |last=Esposito |first=John L. |title=Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-19-516886-0 |page=45}}</ref> Professor Al-Matroudi stated that this may be why he was able to engage fully with the political affairs of his time without holding any official position such as that of a '']''.<ref name=":16" /> An offer of an official position was made to him but he never accepted.<ref name=":16" />
Some of his students, such as ], ], ], and ], are still remembered, but he cannot be said to have founded a school in his lifetime.


====Possible influences====
Centuries later, in the 18th century, an Arabian scholar named ] studied the works of Ibn Taymiya's and aimed to revive his teachings. Abd' Al-Whahab acquired a large following thanks to his association with the ]. Ibn Taymiya's works became the basis of the contemporary ] or ] school of thought in ].
Ibn Taymiyya was taught by scholars who were renowned in their time;{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=7}} however, there is no evidence any of them had a significant influence on him.{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=7}}


A strong influence on Ibn Taymiyya was the founder of the Hanbali school itself, Ahmad ibn Hanbal.{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=7}} Ibn Taymiyya was trained in his school by studying ] in great detail, having studied it multiple times.<ref>{{cite book |last=Al-Kutubi |first=Shakir |author-link=Ibn Shākir al-Kutubī |title=Fawat al-Wafayat |year=1881 |page=35}}</ref> Though he spent much of his life following this school, he renounced ] near the end of his life.{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=8}}
The Islamist thinker ] also used Ibn Taymiyyah's writings to justify rebellion against a Muslim ruler and society (see below: Sivan; Kepel).


His work was most influenced by the sayings and actions of the ] (''salaf''), which is displayed in his works where he would give preference to their opinions over those of his contemporaries.{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=7}} The modern ] derives its name from these generations.{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=7}}
== Ibn Taymiyya's students and intellectual heirs ==


==== Relationship with the authorities ====
*] (1301-1372)
Ibn Taymiyya's own relationship, as a religious scholar, with the ruling apparatus was not always amicable.<ref name=":9" /> It ranged from silence to open rebellion.<ref name=":9" /> On occasions when he shared the same views and aims as the ruling authorities his contributions were welcomed, but when Ibn Taymiyya went against the status quo, he was seen as "uncooperative", and on occasions spent much time in prison.<ref name=":3" /> Ibn Taymiyya's attitude towards his own rulers was based on the actions of ] when they made an oath of allegiance to him as follows; "to obey within obedience to God, even if the one giving the order is unjust; to abstain from disputing the authority of those who exert it; and to speak out the truth, or take up its cause without fear in respect of God, of blame from anyone."<ref name=":9" />
*] (1292-1350)
*] (1274-1348) (see for further information)
*] (1703-1792)


Ibn Taymiyya was a ] as well as an Islamic political activist.<ref name=":13" /> In his efforts he was persecuted and imprisoned on six occasions<ref>{{cite book |last=An-Na`im |first=Abdullahi Ahmed |title=Islam and the Secular State: Negotiating the Futnture of Shari'a |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-674-03456-3 |page=76}}</ref> with the total time spent inside prison coming to over six years.<ref name=":13" /><ref name=":9" /> Other sources say that he spent over twelve years in prison.<ref name=":16">{{cite web |last=Al-Matroudi |first=Abdul-Hakim |date=February 14, 2015 |title=Ibn Taymīyah, Taqī al-Dīn Aḥmad |url=http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t349/e0108 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180813212504/http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t349/e0108 |archive-date=August 13, 2018 |access-date=February 14, 2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> His detentions were due to the pushback from the clerical establishment of the ], who opposed certain elements of his creed and his views on some jurisprudential issues.<ref name=":14" /> However, according to ], "the real reasons were more trivial". Michot stated five reasons as to why Ibn Taymiyya was imprisoned by the Mamluk government, they being: not complying with the "doctrines and practices prevalent among powerful religious and Sufi establishments, an overly outspoken personality, the jealousy of his peers, the risk to public order due to this popular appeal and political intrigues."<ref name=":9" /> Baber Johansen stated that the reasons for Ibn Taymiyya's incarcerations were, "as a result of his conflicts with Muslim mystics, jurists, and theologians, who were able to persuade the political authorities of the necessity to limit Ibn Taymiyya's range of action through political censorship and incarceration."<ref name=":7" />
== See also ==


Ibn Taymiyya's emergence in the public and political spheres began in 1293 when he was 30 years old, when the authorities asked him to issue a ] (legal verdict) on Assaf al-Nasrani, a Christian cleric who was accused of insulting Muhammad.<ref name=":3">{{cite book|title=The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives|last=Hillenbrand|first=Carole|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|year=1999|isbn=978-0-7486-0630-6 |page=242}}</ref>{{sfn|Laoust|2012}}<ref>{{cite book|title=slam and Inter-Faith Relations: The Gerald Weisfeld Lectures 2006|last=Schmidt-Leukel|first=Perry|publisher=SCM Press|year=2007|isbn=978-0-334-04132-0 |page=125}}</ref> He accepted the invitation and delivered his fatwa, calling for the man to receive the death penalty.<ref name=":3" /> Despite the fact that public opinion was very much on Ibn Taymiyya's side,<ref name=":4" /> the Governor of Syria attempted to resolve the situation by asking Assaf to accept Islam in return for his life, to which he agreed.<ref name=":4" /> This resolution was not acceptable to Ibn Taymiyya who then, together with his followers, protested against it outside the governor's palace, demanding that Assaf be put to death,<ref name=":4" /> on the grounds that any person—Muslim or non-Muslim—who insults Muhammad must be killed.<ref name=":9" /><ref name=":4" /> His unwillingness to compromise, coupled with his attempt to protest against the governor's actions, resulted in him being punished with a prison sentence, the first of many such imprisonments which were to come.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} The French orientalist ] says that during his incarceration, Ibn Taymiyya "wrote his first great work, ''al-Ṣārim al-maslūl ʿalā shātim al-Rasūl (The Drawn Sword against those who insult the Messenger).''"{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} Ibn Taymiyya, together with the help of his disciples, continued with his efforts against what, "he perceived to be un-Islamic practices" and to implement what he saw as his religious duty of commanding good and forbidding wrong.<ref name=":9" /><ref name=":19" >{{harvnb|Rapoport|Ahmed|2010|p=4}}</ref> Yahya Michot says that some of these incidences included: "shaving children's heads", leading "an anti-debauchery campaign in brothels and taverns", hitting an atheist before his public execution, destroying what was thought to be a sacred rock in a mosque, attacking astrologers and obliging "deviant Sufi Shaykhs to make public acts of contrition and adhere to the Sunnah."<ref name=":9" /> Ibn Taymiyya and his disciples used to condemn wine sellers and they would attack wine shops in Damascus by breaking wine bottles and pouring them onto the floor.<ref name=":25">{{cite book|title=Ibn Taymiyya and His Times|last=Bori|first=Caterina|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0-19-547834-1 |chapter=Ibn Taymiyya wa-Jama`atuhu: Authority, Conflict and Consensus in Ibn Taymiyya's Circle}}</ref>
*]


A few years later in 1296, he took over the position of one of his teachers (Zayn al-Din Ibn al-Munadjdjaal), taking the post of professor of Hanbali jurisprudence at the Hanbaliyya madrasa, the oldest such institution of this tradition in Damascus.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}}<ref name=":4" /><ref>{{cite book|title=State and Government in Medieval Islam: An Introduction to the Study of Islamic Political Theory|last=K. S. Lambton|first=Ann|publisher=Routledge|year=2004|isbn=978-0-19-713600-3 |page=143|chapter=The extinction of the caliphate: Ibn Jama'a and Ibn Taymiyya}}</ref> This is seen by some to be the peak of his scholarly career.<ref name=":4" /> The year when he began his post at the Hanbaliyya madrasa, was a time of political turmoil. The Mamluk sultan ] was deposed by his vice-sultan ] who then ruled from 1297 to 1299.<ref>{{cite book|title=State Formation and the Structure of Politics in Mamluk Syro-Egypt, 648–741 A.H./1250-1340 C.E.|last=Williams Clifford|first=Winslow|publisher=V&r Unipress|year=2013|isbn=978-3-8471-0091-1|page=163}}</ref> Lajin desired to commission an expedition against the Christians of the ] who formed an alliance with the ] and participated in the military campaign which lead to the destruction of Baghdad, the capital of the ], and the destruction of Harran, the birthplace of Ibn Taymiyya, for that purpose, he urged Ibn Taymiyya to call the Muslims to Jihad.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}}<ref name=":4" />
==External links==


In 1298, Ibn Taymiyya wrote his explanation for the ayat al-mutashabihat (the unclear verses of the Qur'an) titled Al-`Aqidat al-Hamawiyat al-Kubra (The creed of the great people of Hama).{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=9}}<ref name=":27">{{cite book|title=Islamic Philosophy and Theology|last=Watt|first=William Montgomery|publisher=Transaction Publishers|year=2008|isbn=978-0-202-36272-4 |page=160}}</ref> The book is about divine attributes and it served as an answer to a question from the city of ], Syria.{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=9}}<ref name=":27" /> At that particular time ]tes held prominent positions within the Islamic scholarly community in both Syria and Egypt, and they held a certain position on the divine attributes of God.{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=9}} Ibn Taymiyya in his book strongly disagreed with their views and this heavy opposition to the common Ash'ari position, caused considerable controversy.{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=9}}
=== Academic links ===


Once more, Ibn Taymiyya collaborated with the Mamluks in 1300, when he joined the ] against the ] and ], in the Kasrawan region of the ].<ref name=":3" />{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} Ibn Taymiyya believed that the Alawites were "more heretical than Jews and Christians",<ref name=":6">{{cite book|title=Everyday Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam Among Palestinians in Lebanon|last=Rougier|first=Bernard|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2008|isbn=978-0-674-03066-4 |page=162}}</ref><ref></ref> and according to Carole Hillenbrand, the confrontation with the Alawites occurred because they "were accused of collaborating with Christians and Mongols."<ref name=":3" /> Ibn Taymiyya had further active involvements in campaigns against the Mongols and their alleged Alawite allies.<ref name=":4" />
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*Sivan, Emmanuel. ''Radical Islam: Medieval theology and modern politics''. Enlarged edition. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1990. See p. 94-107.
*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.


In 1305, Ibn Taymiyya took part in a second military offensive against the Alawites and the ]<ref>{{Cite book|title=Islamic Societies to the Nineteenth Century: A Global History|last=Lapidus|first=Ira M.|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2012|isbn=978-0-521-73298-7 |page=295}}</ref> in the Kasrawan region of the Lebanese mountains where they were defeated.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}}<ref name=":6" />{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=10}} The majority of the Alawis and Ismailis eventually converted to Twelver Shiism and settled in south Lebanon and the Bekaa valley, with a few Shia pockets that survived in the Lebanese mountains.<ref>{{cite book|title=Lebanon Country Study Guide Volume 1 Strategic Information and Developments |publisher=Int'l Business Publications|year=2012|isbn=978-0-7397-3913-6 |page=44}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Shiites of Lebanon under Ottoman Rule, 1516–1788 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0-5217-6584-8 |page=205}}</ref>
=== Pro-Salafi links ===
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=== Anti-Salafi links === === Involvement in the Mongol invasions ===
{{Further|Mongol invasions of the Levant|Ilkhanate|label2=Ilkhanate empire}}


==== First invasion ====
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{{See also|Mongol raids into Palestine#Mongol campaigns of 1299–1300|Battle of Wadi al-Khaznadar||label 1=Mongol campaign of 1299-1300|label 3=}}
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The first invasion took place between December 1299 and April 1300 due to the military campaign by the Mamluks against the ] who were allied with the Mongols.<ref name=":18">{{cite web|url=https://sites.google.com/site/jhoover363/taymiyyan-studies/jihad-against-the-mongols|title=Taymiyyan Studies|access-date=February 14, 2015|last=Hoover|first=Jon|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150215000623/https://sites.google.com/site/jhoover363/taymiyyan-studies/jihad-against-the-mongols|archive-date=February 15, 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> Due to the Mongol legal system that neglected '']'' and implemented ]; Ibn Taymiyya had declared '']'' upon the Ilkhanid regime and its armies for ruling by ]s, despite these laws being rarely enforced in Muslim majority regions in an extensive manner.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=S. Islam |first1=Jaan |first2=Adem |last2=Eryiğit |title=Islam and the State in Ibn Taymiyya: Translation and Analysis |publisher=Routledge |year=2022 |isbn=978-1-032-13183-2 |location=New York |page=7 |chapter=1: Introduction |doi=10.4324/9781003228035|s2cid=249087588 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Aigle |first=Denise |title=The Mongol Empire between Myth and Reality: Studies in Anthropological History |publisher=Brill |year=2015 |isbn=978-90-04-27749-6 |location=Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands |pages=283–305 |chapter=7: Mongol Law versus Islamic Law- Myth and Reality |doi=10.1163/9789004280649_015}}</ref> Openly rejecting ]'s claim to "''pādishāh al-islām''" (King of Islam), a title which Ghazan took to legitimise his military campaigns, Ibn Taymiyya denounced him as an "infidel king" and issued numerous '']s'' condemning the political order of the Tatars.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Aigle |first=Denise |title=The Mongol Empire between Myth and Reality: Studies in Anthropological History |publisher=Brill |year=2015 |isbn=978-90-04-27749-6 |location=Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands |pages=135–136, 256–257, 296–298 |chapter= |doi=10.1163/9789004280649_015}}</ref> The Ilkhanate army managed to defeat the ] in ] and reach ] by the end of December 1299. Fearful of Mongol atrocities, many scholars, intellectuals and officers began to flee Damascus in panic. Ibn Taymiyya was one of those clerics who stood firm alongside the vulnerable Damascus citizens and called for an uncompromising and heroic resistance to the ] invaders. Ibn Taymiyya drew parallels of their crisis with the ] (Apostate wars) fought by the first ], ], against the renegade ] that abandoned ''sharia''. Ibn Taymiyya severely rebuked those Muslims escaping in the face of Mongol onslaught and compared their state to the withdrawal of Muslims in the ].<ref name=":18" /><ref>{{Cite book |last1=S. Islam |first1=Jaan |first2=Adem |last2=Eryiğit |title=Islam and the State in Ibn Taymiyya: Translation and Analysis |publisher=Routledge |year=2022 |isbn=978-1-032-13183-2 |location=New York |pages=15–16, 24 |chapter=2: The Works: Their Author, and Significance |doi=10.4324/9781003228035|s2cid=249087588 }}</ref> In a passionate letter to the commander of the ], Ibn Taymiyya appealed: <blockquote>"Until there stands even a single rock, do everything in your power to not surrender the castle. There is great benefit for the ]. ] declared it a sanctuary for the people of ]—where it will remain a land of ] and '']'' until the descent of the ]."<ref name="S. Islam, Eryiğit 2022 15–16">{{Cite book |last1=S. Islam |first1=Jaan |first2=Adem |last2=Eryiğit |title=Islam and the State in Ibn Taymiyya: Translation and Analysis |publisher=Routledge |year=2022 |isbn=978-1-032-13183-2 |location=New York |pages=15–16 |chapter=2: The Works: Their Author, and Significance |doi=10.4324/9781003228035|s2cid=249087588 }}</ref></blockquote>Despite political pressure, Ibn Taymiyya's directives were heeded by the Mamluk officer and Mongol negotiations to surrender the Citadel stalled. Shortly after, Ibn Taymiyya and a number of his acolytes and pupils took part in a ] targeting various ] tribes allied to the Mongols in the peripheral regions of the city; thereby repelling the Mongol attack.<ref name="S. Islam, Eryiğit 2022 15–16"/> Ibn Taymiyya went with a delegation of ] to talk to ], who was the ] of the Mongol ] of Iran, to plead clemency.<ref name=":18" /><ref>{{Cite book |last1=S. Islam |first1=Jaan |first2=Adem |last2=Eryiğit |title=Islam and the State in Ibn Taymiyya: Translation and Analysis |publisher=Routledge |year=2022 |isbn=978-1-032-13183-2 |location=New York |pages=15 |chapter=2: The Works: Their Author, and Significance |doi=10.4324/9781003228035|s2cid=249087588 }}</ref> By early January 1300, the Mongol allies, the Armenians and Georgians, had caused widespread damage to Damascus and they had taken Syrian prisoners.<ref name=":18" /> The Mongols effectively occupied Damascus for the first four months of 1303.<ref name=":19" /> Most of the military had fled the city, including most of the civilians.<ref name=":19" /> Ibn Taymiyya however, stayed and was one of the leaders of the resistance inside Damascus and he went to speak directly to the Ilkhan, ], and his vizier ].<ref name=":9" /><ref name=":19" /> He sought the release of Muslim and ] prisoners which the Mongols had taken in Syria, and after negotiation, secured their release.<ref name=":9" /><ref name=":4" />], a historical figure harshly rebuked by Ibn Taymiyya, mainly due to his constant state of hostility towards the ]s of ].]]

==== Second invasion ====
The second invasion lasted between October 1300 and January 1301.<ref name=":18" /> Ibn Taymiyya at this time began giving sermons on jihad at the Umayyad mosque.<ref name=":18" /> As the civilians began to flee in panic; Ibn Taymiyya pronounced '']s'' declaring the ] upon Muslims to fight the Mongol armies to death, inflict a massive defeat and expel them from Syria in its entirety.<ref name="S. Islam, Eryiğit 2022 16">{{Cite book |last1=S. Islam |first1=Jaan |first2=Adem |last2=Eryiğit |title=Islam and the State in Ibn Taymiyya: Translation and Analysis |publisher=Routledge |year=2022 |isbn=978-1-032-13183-2 |location=New York |pages=16 |chapter=2: The Works: Their Author, and Significance |doi=10.4324/9781003228035|s2cid=249087588 }}</ref> Ibn Taymiyya also spoke to and encouraged the Governor of Damascus, al-Afram, to achieve victory over the Mongols.<ref name=":18" /> He became involved with al-Afram once more, when he was sent to get reinforcements from Cairo.<ref name=":18" /> Narrating Ibn Taymiyya's fierce stance on fighting the Mongols, Ibn Kathir reports:

{{Blockquote|text=even if you see me on their side with a Qurʾan on my side, kill them immediately!|author= ]|title=''al-Bidāya wa-l-Nihāya'', vol. 14, 7–8|source=<ref>{{Cite book |last1=S. Islam |first1=Jaan |first2=Adem |last2=Eryiğit |title=Islam and the State in Ibn Taymiyya: Translation and Analysis |publisher=Routledge |year=2022 |isbn=978-1-032-13183-2 |location=New York |chapter= 2: The Works: Their Author, and Significance| doi=10.4324/9781003228035 |s2cid=249087588 }}</ref>|character=Ibn Taymiyya}}

==== Third invasion and ''Takfir'' of Ilkhanate Allies ====
{{See also|Takfir|Takfiri|label 1=Excommunication in Islam|label 2=Takfirism|Battle of Marj al-Saffar (1303)|label 3=}}

The year 1303 saw the third ] of Syria by Ghazan Khan.<ref name=":5">{{cite journal|url=http://mamluk.uchicago.edu/MamlukStudiesReview_XI-2_2007.pdf|title=The Mongol Invasions of Bilād al-Shām by Ghāzān Khān and Ibn Taymīyah's Three "Anti-Mongol" Fatwas|last=Aigle|first=Denise|date=2007|journal=Mamluk Studies Review|access-date=January 29, 2015|publisher=The University of Chicago|page=105|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304035256/http://mamluk.uchicago.edu/MamlukStudiesReview_XI-2_2007.pdf|archive-date=March 4, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Muslims, Mongols and Crusaders|last=Hawting|first=Gerald|publisher=Routledge|year=2005|isbn=978-0-7007-1393-6|page=116}}</ref> What has been called Ibn Taymiyya's "most famous" '']''<ref name="Janin, Hunt p.79">Janin, Hunt. ''Islamic Law: The Sharia from Muhammad's Time to the Present'' by Hunt Janin and Andre Kahlmeyer, McFarland and Co. Publishers, 2007 p.79</ref> was his third ''fatwa'' issued against the Mongols in the ]. Ibn Taymiyya declared that jihad against the Mongol attack on the Malmuk sultanate was not only permissible, but ].<ref name=":17" /> The reason being that the Mongols could not, in his opinion, be true Muslims despite the fact that they had converted to Sunni Islam because they ruled using what he considered 'man-made laws' (their traditional ] code) rather than Islamic law or ''Sharia'', whilst believing that the Yassa code was better than the Sharia law. Because of this, he reasoned they were living in a state of ], or ] ].<ref name="Kepel, Gilles 2003 p.194">Kepel, Gilles, ''The Prophet and the Pharaoh'', (2003), p.194</ref> Not only were ] political elites and its military disbelievers in the eyes of Ibn Taymiyya; but anybody who joined their ranks were as guilty of '']'' (apostasy) as them:

{{Blockquote|text="Whoever joins them—meaning the ]—among commanders of the military and non-commanders, their ruling is the same as theirs, and they have apostatized from the laws ]'']. If the righteous forbears ]''] have called the withholders from charity apostates despite their fasting, praying, and not fighting the Muslims, how about those who became murderers of the ] with the enemies of Allah and His Messenger?"|title=''Majmu’ al-fatawa, vol. 28, 530''|source=<ref>{{Cite book |last1=S. Islam |first1=Jaan |first2=Adem |last2=Eryiğit |title=Islam and the State in Ibn Taymiyya: Translation and Analysis |publisher=Routledge |year=2022 |isbn=978-1-032-13183-2 |location=New York |chapter= 2: The Works: Their Author, and Significance| doi=10.4324/9781003228035|page=27|s2cid=249087588 }}</ref>|character=Ibn Taymiyya}}

The ''fatwa'' broke new Islamic legal ground because "no jurist had ever before issued a general authorization for the use of lethal force against Muslims in battle", and would later influence modern-day ] in their use of violence against other Muslims whom they deemed as apostates.<ref name="kadri-" /> In his legal verdicts issued to inform the populace, Ibn Taymiyya classified the Tatars and their advocates into four types:

* ''Kaafir Asli'' (i.e., those original non-Muslims fighting in Tatar armies and who never embraced Islam)
* Muslims of other ethnicities who became apostates due to their alliance with Mongols
* Irreligious Muslims aligned with Ilkhanids whom Ibn Taymiyya analogized with renegade Arabian tribes of the ]
* Personally pious Muslims affiliated with the Mongol armies. Ibn Taymiyya harshly rebuked these people as the "most evil" faction; and argued that their piety was useless because of their decision to ally with non-Muslims who ruled by ]s. This rationale was also expanded to ] those "court scholars" who vindicated the Tatar authorities<ref>{{Cite book |last1=S. Islam |first1=Jaan |first2=Adem |last2=Eryiğit |title=Islam and the State in Ibn Taymiyya: Translation and Analysis |publisher=Routledge |year=2022 |isbn=978-1-032-13183-2 |location=New York |pages=24 |chapter=2: The Works: Their Author, and Significance |doi=10.4324/9781003228035|s2cid=249087588 }}</ref>

Ibn Taymiyya called on the Muslims to jihad once again and personally participated in the ] against the Ilkhanid army; leading his disciples in the field with a sword.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":5" /><ref name="S. Islam, Eryiğit 2022 16"/> The battle began on April 20 of that year.<ref name=":5" /> On the same day, Ibn Taymiyya declared a ''fatwa'' which exempted Mamluk soldiers from fasting during ] so that they could preserve their strength.<ref name=":3" />{{sfn|Laoust|2012}}<ref name=":5" /> Within two days the Mongols were severely crushed and the battle was won; thus ending Mongol control of Syria. These incidents greatly increased the scholarly prestige and social stature of Ibn Taymiyya amongst the masses, despite opposition from the establishment clergy. He would soon be appointed as the chief professor of the elite scholarly institute "''Kāmiliyya Dār al-Haḍīth''."<ref name=":5" /><ref name="S. Islam, Eryiğit 2022 16"/>

==== Contemporary Impact ====
Ibn Taymiyya's three unprecedented '']s'' (legal verdicts) that ] the ] authorities and their supporters as ] over their neglect to govern by ''Sharia'' (Islamic law) and preference of the traditional ] code of ]; would form the theological basis of 20th century ] and ] scholars and ideologues. Reviving Ibn Taymiyya's fatwas during the late 20th-century, Jihadist ideologues like ], ], ], ], ], etc. made public ''Takfir'' (excommunication) of contemporary governments of the ] and called for their revolutionary overthrowal through armed ].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Haynes |first1=Jeffrey |title=The Routledge handbook of Religion, Politics and Ideology |last2=S. Sheikh |first2=Naveed |publisher=Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group |year=2022 |isbn=978-0-367-41782-6 |location=New York, USA |pages=180, 184, 189 |chapter=Making Sense of Salafism: Theological foundations, ideological iterations and political manifestations}}</ref>

=== Imprisonment on charges of anthropomorphism ===
Ibn Taymiyya was a fervent polemicist who zealously launched theological refutations against various religious sects such as the ], ]tes, ]tes, ], '']'', etc., labelling them as heretics responsible for the crisis of ] across the ].<ref>{{Cite book |last=G. Rabil |first=Robert |title=Salafism in Lebanon: From Apoliticism to Transnational Jihadism |publisher=Georgetown University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-62616-116-0 |location=Washington, DC, USA |pages=26 |chapter=1: The Creed, Ideology, and Manhaj (Methodology) of Salafism: A Historical and Contemporaneous Framework}}</ref> He was imprisoned several times for conflicting with the prevailing opinions of the jurists and theologians of his day. A judge from the city of ], Iraq, requested that Ibn Taymiyya write a book on creed. His subsequent creedal work, '']'', caused him trouble with the authorities.<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":24" /> Ibn Taymiyya adopted the view that God should be described as he was literally described in the Qur'an and in the hadith,<ref name=":24" /> and that all Muslims were required to believe this because according to him it was the view held by the early Muslim community (''salaf'').<ref name=":7">{{cite book|title=The Law Applied: Contextualizing the Islamic Shari'a|url=https://archive.org/details/lawappliedcontex00bear|url-access=limited|last=Bearman|first=Peri|publisher=I.B.Tauris|year=2007|isbn=978-1-84511-736-8 |pages=–264}}</ref> Within the space of two years (1305–1306) four separate religious council hearings were held to assess the correctness of his creed.<ref name=":7" />

The first hearing was held with ] scholars who accused Ibn Taymiyya of ].<ref name=":7" /> At the time Ibn Taymiyya was 42 years old. He was protected by the then Governor of Damascus, ], during the proceedings.<ref name=":7" /> The scholars suggested that he accept that his creed was simply that of the Hanbalites and offered this as a way out of the charge.<ref name=":7" /> However, if Ibn Taymiyya ascribed his creed to the Hanbali school of law then it would be just one view out of the four schools which one could follow rather than a creed everybody must adhere to.<ref name=":7" /> Uncompromising, Ibn Taymiyya maintained that it was obligatory for all scholars to adhere to his creed.<ref name=":7" />

Two separate councils were held a year later on January 22 and 28, 1306.<ref name=":7" />{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} The first council was in the house of the Governor of Damascus Aqqush al-Afram, who had protected him the year before when facing the Shafii scholars.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} A second hearing was held six days later where the Indian scholar ] found him innocent of all charges and accepted that his creed was in line with the "Qur'an and the Sunnah".<ref name=":7" />{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} Regardless, in April 1306 the chief Islamic judges of the Mamluk state declared Ibn Taymiyya guilty and he was incarcerated.<ref name=":7" /> He was released four months later in September.<ref name=":7" />

After his release in Damascus, the doubts regarding his creed seemed to have resolved but this was not the case.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} A Shafii scholar, Ibn al-Sarsari, was insistent on starting another hearing against Ibn Taymiyya which was held once again at the house of the Governor of Damascus, Al-Afram.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} His book ''Al-Aqidah Al-Waasitiyyah'' was still not found at fault.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} At the conclusion of this hearing, Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn al-Sarsari were sent to Cairo to settle the problem.

=== Life in Egypt ===

==== His debate on anthropomorphism and his imprisonment ====
On the arrival of Ibn Taymiyya and the Shafi'ite scholar in Cairo in 1306, an open meeting was held.{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=10}} The Mamluk sultan at the time was ] and his deputy attended the open meeting.{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=10}} Ibn Taymiyya was found innocent.{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=10}} Despite the open meeting, objections regarding his creed continued and he was summoned to the Citadel in Cairo for a ''munazara'' (legal debate), which took place on April 8, 1306. During the ''munazara'', his views on divine attributes, specifically whether a direction could be attributed to God, were debated by the Indian scholar Safi al-Din al-Hindi, in the presence of Islamic judges.{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=11}}{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} Ibn Taymiyya failed to convince the judges of his position and so was incarcerated for the charge of anthropomorphism on the recommendation of al-Hindi.{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=11}}{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} Thereafter, he together with his two brothers were imprisoned in the Citadel of the Mountain (''Qal'at al-Jabal''), in Cairo until September 25, 1307.{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=VII}}{{sfn|Laoust|2012}}{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=11}} He was freed due to the help he received from two ''amirs''; ] and ], but he was not allowed to go back to Syria.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} He was then again summoned for a legal debate, but this time he convinced the judges that his views were correct and he was allowed to go free.{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=11}}

==== His trial for intercession and his imprisonment ====
], the place where Ibn Taymiyya was imprisoned for 18 months]]
Ibn Taymiyya continued to face troubles for his views which were found to be at odds with those of his contemporaries. His strong opposition to what he believed to be religious innovations, caused upset among the prominent Sufis of Egypt including ] and Karim al-Din al-Amuli, and the locals who started to protest against him.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} Their main contention was Ibn Taymiyya's stance on ].{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} In his view, a person could not ask anyone other than God for help except on the ] when intercession in his view would be possible. At the time, the people did not restrict intercession to just the Day of Judgement but rather they said it was allowed in other cases. Due to this, Ibn Taymiyya, now aged 45, was ordered to appear before the Shafi'i judge Badr al-Din in March 1308 and was questioned on his stance regarding intercession.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} Thereafter, he was incarcerated in the prison of the judges in Cairo for some months.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} After his release, he was allowed to return to Syria, should he so wish.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} Ibn Taymiyya however stayed in Egypt for a further five years.

==== House arrest in Alexandria ====
1309, the year after his release, saw a new Mamluk sultan accede to the throne, ]. His reign, marked by economical and political unrest, only lasted a year.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} In August 1309, Ibn Taymiyya was taken into custody and placed under house arrest for seven months in the new sultan's palace in ].{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} He was freed when al-Nasir Muhammad retook the position of sultan on March 4, 1310.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} Having returned to Cairo a week later, he was received by al-Nasir.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} The sultan would sometimes consult Ibn Taymiyya on religious affairs and policies during the rest of his three-year stay in Cairo.<ref name=":9" />{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} During this time he continued to teach and wrote his famous book Al-''Kitab al-Siyasa al-shar'iyya'' ''(Treatise on the Government of the Religious Law)'', a book noted for its account of the role of religion in politics.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}}<ref>{{cite book|title=Fifty Key Figures in Islam|url=https://archive.org/details/fiftykeyfiguresi00jack|url-access=limited|last=Jackson|first=Roy|publisher=Routledge|year=2006|isbn=978-0-415-35468-4 |page=}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=New Political Religions, Or an Analysis of Modern Terrorism|url=https://archive.org/details/newpoliticalreli00coop_700|url-access=limited|last=Cooper|first=Barry|publisher=University of Missouri Press|year=2005|isbn=978-0-8262-1621-2 |pages=–97}}</ref>

=== Return to Damascus and later years ===
He spent his last fifteen years in Damascus. Aged 50, Ibn Taymiyya returned to Damascus via Jerusalem on February 28, 1313.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} Damascus was now under the governorship of ]. There, Ibn Taymiyya continued his teaching role as professor of Hanbali fiqh. This is when he taught his most famous student, ], who went on to become a noted scholar in Islamic history.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} Ibn Qayyim was to share in Ibn Taymiyya's renewed persecution.

Three years after his arrival in the city, Ibn Taymiyya became involved in efforts to deal with the increasing Shia influence amongst Sunni Muslims.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} An agreement had been made in 1316 between the ''amir'' of ] and the Ilkhanid ruler ], brother of Ghazan Khan, to allow a favourable policy towards Shi'ism in the city.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} Around the same time the Shia theologian ], who had played a crucial role in the Mongol ruler's decision to make Shi'ism the state religion of Persia,<ref>{{cite book|title=Islam: The Key Concepts |url=https://archive.org/details/islamkeyconcepts00alik |url-access=limited |last=Ali |first=Kecia |publisher=Routledge|year=2007|isbn=978-0-415-39639-4 |page=}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Rationalism in the School of Bahrain: A Historical Perspective, in Shīʻite Heritage: Essays on Classical and Modern Traditions |last=Clarke|first=Lynda|publisher=Global Academic Publishing|year=2001 |page=336}}</ref> wrote the book ]'' (''The Way of Charisma'),<ref name=":9" /> which dealt with the Shia doctrine of the ] and also served as a refutation of the Sunni doctrine of the ].<ref>{{cite book|title=The Formation of the Classical Tafsīr Tradition|last=A. Saleh |first=Walid|publisher=Brill Academic Pub|year=2004|isbn=978-9004127777 |page=220}}</ref> In response, Ibn Taymiyya wrote his famous book, '']'', as a refutation of Al-Hilli's work.<ref>{{cite book|title=Medieval Islamic Historiography: Remembering Rebellion|last=N. Keaney|first=Heather|publisher=Routledge|year=2013|isbn=978-0-415-82852-9 |page=108}}</ref>

==== His fatwa on divorce and imprisonment ====
In 1318, Ibn Taymiyya wrote a treatise that would curtail the ease with which a Muslim man could ] his wife. Ibn Taymiyya's fatwa on divorce was not accepted by the majority of scholars of the time and this continued into the ].<ref name=":23">{{cite book|title=Ibn Taymiyya and His Times|last=Saleh|first=Walid|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0-19-547834-1 |chapter=Ibn Tayimiyah and the Rise of Radical Hermeneutics: An Analysis of "An Introduction to the Foundation of Quranic Exegesis}}</ref> However, almost every modern Muslim nation-state has come to adopt Ibn Taymiyya's position on this issue of divorce.<ref name=":23" /> At the time he issued the fatwa, Ibn Taymiyya revived an edict by the sultan not to issue fatwas on this issue but he continued to do so, saying, "I cannot conceal my knowledge".{{sfn|Laoust|2012}}{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=12}} As in previous instances, he stated that his fatwa was based on the Qur'an and hadith. His view on the issue was at odds with the Hanbali position.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} This proved controversial among the people in Damascus as well as the Islamic scholars who opposed him on the issue.<ref name=":8">{{cite book|title=The Mamluks in Egyptian and Syrian Politics and Society|url=https://archive.org/details/mamluksegyptians00wint_184|url-access=limited|last=Winter|first=Michael|publisher=BRILL|year=2004|isbn=978-9004132863|pages=–220}}</ref>

According to the scholars of the time, an oath of divorce counted as a full divorce and they were also of the view that three oaths of divorce taken under one occasion counted as three separate divorces.<ref name=":8" /> The significance of this was, that a man who divorces the same partner three times is no longer allowed to remarry that person until and if that person marries and divorces another person.<ref name=":8" /> Only then could the man, who took the oath, remarry his previous wife.<ref name=":8" /> Ibn Taymiyya accepted this but rejected the validity of three oaths taken under one sitting to count as three separate divorces as long as the intention was not to divorce.<ref name=":8" /> Moreover, Ibn Taymiyya was of the view that a single oath of divorce uttered but not intended, also does not count as an actual divorce.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} He stated that since this is an oath much like an oath taken in the name of God, a person must expiate for an unintentional oath in a similar manner.<ref name=":8" />

Due to his views and also by not abiding to the sultan's letter two years before forbidding him from issuing a fatwa on the issue, three council hearings were held, in as many years (1318, 1319 and 1320), to deal with this matter.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} The hearing were overseen by the Viceroy of Syria, Tankiz.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} This resulted in Ibn Taymiyya being imprisoned on August 26, 1320, in the ].{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} He was released about five months and 18 days later,{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=12}} on February 9, 1321, by order of the Sultan Al-Nasir.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} Ibn Taymiyya was reinstated as teacher of Hanbali law and he resumed teaching.{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=12}}

==== His risāla on visits to tombs and his final imprisonment ====
In 1310, Ibn Taymiyya had written a '']'' (treatise) called ''Ziyārat al-Qubūr''{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} or according to another source, ''Shadd al-rihal''.{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=12}} It dealt with the validity and permissibility of making a journey to visit the tombs of prophets and ].{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=12}} It is reported that in the book "he condemned the cult of saints"{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} and declared that traveling with the sole purpose of visiting ] was a blameworthy religious innovation.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.brandeis.edu/crown/publications/cp/CP2.pdf|title=From Visiting Graves to Their Destruction: The Question of Ziyara through the Eyes of Salafis|last1=Beranek|first1=Ondrej|last2=Tupek|first2=Pavel|date=July 2009|publisher=Brandeis University. Crown Center for Middle East Studies.|editor-last=Sohrabi|editor-first=Naghmeh|series=Crown Paper (Crown Center for Middle East Studies/Brandeis University)|page=11|access-date=2018-08-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180810233401/https://www.brandeis.edu/crown/publications/cp/CP2.pdf|archive-date=2018-08-10|url-status=live}}</ref> For this, Ibn Taymiyya, was imprisoned in the Citadel of Damascus sixteen years later on July 18, 1326, aged 63, along with his student Ibn Qayyim.{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=12}} The sultan also prohibited him from issuing any further fatwas.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}}{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=12}} Hanbali scholar Ahmad ibn Umar al-Maqdisi accused Ibn Taymiyya of apostasy over the treatise.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Zargar|first1=Cameron|title=The Hanbali and Wahhabi Schools of Thought As Observed Through the Case of Ziyārah|date=2014|publisher=Ohio State University|pages=33–34|url=https://etd.ohiolink.edu/!etd.send_file?accession=osu1398829915&disposition=inline|access-date=May 19, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180519204346/https://etd.ohiolink.edu/!etd.send_file?accession=osu1398829915&disposition=inline|archive-date=May 19, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>

==== His life in prison ====
], the prison which Ibn Taymiyya died in]]
Ibn Taymiyya referred to his imprisonment as "a divine blessing".<ref name=":9" /> During his incarceration, he wrote that, "when a scholar forsakes what he knows of the Book of God and of the ''sunnah'' of His messenger and follows the ruling of a ruler which contravenes a ruling of God and his messenger, he is a renegade, an unbeliever who deserves to be punished in this world and in the hereafter."<ref name=":9" />

During his imprisonment, he encountered opposition from the Maliki and Shafi'i Chief Justices of Damascus, Taḳī al-Dīn al-Ikhnāʾī.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} He remained in prison for over two years and ignored the sultan's prohibition, by continuing to deliver fatwas.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} During his incarceration Ibn Taymiyya wrote three works which are extant; ''Kitāb Maʿārif al-wuṣūl, Rafʿ al-malām'', and ''Kitāb al-Radd ʿala 'l-Ikhnāʾī'' (The response to al-Ikhnāʾī).{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} The last book was an attack on Taḳī al-Dīn al-Ikhnāʾī and explained his views on saints (wali).{{sfn|Laoust|2012}}

When the Mongols invaded Syria in 1300, he was among those who called for a Jihad against them and he ruled that even though they had recently converted to Islam, they should be considered unbelievers. He went to Egypt in order to acquire support for his cause and while he was there, he got embroiled in religious-political disputes. Ibn Taymiyya's enemies accused him of advocating ], a view that was objectionable to the teachings of the ] school of Islamic theology, and in 1306, he was imprisoned for more than a year. Upon his release, he condemned popular Sufi practices and he also condemned the influence of ] (d. 1240), causing him to earn the enmity of leading Sufi shaykhs in Egypt and causing him to serve another prison sentence. In 1310, he was released by the Egyptian Sultan.

In 1313, the Sultan allowed Ibn Taymiyya to return to Damascus, where he worked as a teacher and a jurist. He had supporters among the powerful, but his outspokenness and his nonconformity to traditional Sunni doctrines and his denunciation of Sufi ideals and practices continued to draw the wrath of the religious and political authorities in Syria and Egypt. He was arrested and released several more times, but while he was in prison, he was allowed to write Fatwas (advisory opinions on matters of law) in defense of his beliefs. Despite the controversy that surrounded him, Ibn Taymiyya's influence grew and it spread from Hanbali circles to members of other Sunni legal schools and Sufi groups. Among his foremost students were Ibn Kathir (d. 1373), a leading medieval historian and a Quran commentator, and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziya (d. 1350), a prominent Hanbali jurist and a theologian who helped spread his teacher's influence after his teacher's death in 1328. Ibn Taymiyya died while he was a prisoner in the citadel of Damascus and he was buried in the city's Sufi cemetery.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Campo|first=Juan Eduardo|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OZbyz_Hr-eIC&q=When+the+Mongols+invaded+syria+in+1300%2C+he++was+among+those+calling+for+Jihad+against+them++and+ruled+that+even+though+they+had+recently++converted+to+Islam%2C+they+should+be+considered++unbelievers.+He+went+to+egypt+to+win+support++to+this+cause+and+became+embroiled+in+religio-+political+disputes+there.+Ibn+Taymiyya%E2%80%99s+enemies++accused+him+of+anthropomorphism%2C+a+view|title=Encyclopedia of Islam|date=2009|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=978-1-4381-2696-8|page=340}}</ref>

=== Death ===
He fell ill in early September 1328 and died at the age of 65, on September 26 of that year, whilst in prison at the Citadel of Damascus.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} Once this news reached the public, there was a strong show of support for him from the people.{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=14}} After the authorities had given permission, it is reported that thousands of people came to show their respects.{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=14}} They gathered in the Citadel and lined the streets up to the ].{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=14}} The ] was held in the citadel by scholar Muhammad Tammam, and a second was held in the mosque.{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=14}} A third and final funeral prayer was held by Ibn Taymiyya's brother, Zain al-Din.{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=14}} He was buried in Damascus, in ''Maqbara Sufiyya'' ("the cemetery of the Sufis"). His brother Sharafuddin had been buried in that cemetery before him.<ref name=":2">George Makdisi, ''A Sufi of the Qadiriya Order'', p. 123.</ref><ref>Juan Eduardo Campo, ''Encyclopedia of Islam'', p 340. {{ISBN|1-4381-2696-4}}</ref>{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=15}}

Oliver Leaman says that being deprived of the means of writing led to Ibn Taymiyya's death.<ref name=":24" /> It is reported that two hundred thousand men and fifteen to sixteen thousand women attended his funeral prayer.<ref name=":25" /><ref>{{cite book|title=Majallat al-Majma' al-'Ilmi al-'Arabi bi-Dimashq|last=`Anhuri|first=Salim |pages=11, 193|volume=27}}</ref> Ibn Kathir says that in the history of Islam, only the funeral of Ahmad ibn Hanbal received a larger attendance.<ref name=":25" /> This is also mentioned by Ibn `Abd al-Hadi.<ref name=":25" /> Caterina Bori says that, "In the Islamic tradition, wider popular attendance at funerals was a mark of public reverence, a demonstration of the deceased's rectitude, and a sign of divine approbation."<ref name=":25" />

Ibn Taymiyya is said to have "spent a lifetime objecting to tomb veneration, only to cast a more powerful posthumous spell than any of his Sufi contemporaries."<ref name=kadri-135 /> On his death, his personal effects were in such demand "that bidders for his lice-killing camphor necklace pushed its price up to 150 dirhams, and his skullcap fetched a full 500."<ref name=kadri-135 /><ref name=laoust /> A few mourners sought and succeeded in "drinking the water used for bathing his corpse."<ref name=kadri-135 /><ref name=laoust>Laoust, Henri, ''Essai sur les doctrines sociales et politiques de Taki-d-Din Ahmad b Timiya'', Cairo, 1939, pp.149–50</ref> His tomb received "pilgrims and sightseers" for 600 years.<ref name=kadri-135>{{cite book|last1=Kadri|first1=Sadakat|title=Heaven on Earth: A Journey Through Shari'a Law from the Deserts of Ancient Arabia …|date=2012|publisher=macmillan|isbn=978-0-09-952327-7|page=135|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ztCRZOhJ10wC&q=Heaven+on+Earth:+A+Journey+Through+Shari%27a+Law|access-date=2015-09-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200701104304/https://books.google.com/books?id=ztCRZOhJ10wC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Heaven+on+Earth%3A+A+Journey+Through+Shari%27a+Law|archive-date=2020-07-01|url-status=live}}</ref> His resting place is now "in the parking lot of a maternity ward", though as of 2009 its headstone was broken, according to author ].<ref name=kadri-177-8>{{cite book|last1=Kadri|first1=Sadakat|title=Heaven on Earth: A Journey Through Shari'a Law from the Deserts of Ancient Arabia ...|date=2012|publisher=macmillan|isbn=978-0-09-952327-7|pages=177–8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ztCRZOhJ10wC&q=Heaven+on+Earth:+A+Journey+Through+Shari%27a+Law|access-date=2015-09-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200701104304/https://books.google.com/books?id=ztCRZOhJ10wC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Heaven+on+Earth%3A+A+Journey+Through+Shari%27a+Law|archive-date=2020-07-01|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>Yahya Michot, ''''|Rédigé par Yahya Michot | Jeudi 21 Septembre 2006</ref>

== Views ==
{{Further|Views of Ibn Taymiyya}}

==Students==
Several of Ibn Taymiyya's students became notable scholars in their own right.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} His students came from different backgrounds and belonged to various different schools of thought.<ref name=":26">{{cite book |last=Ozervarli |first=M. Sait |title=Ibn Taymiyya and His Times |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-19-547834-1 |chapter=The Qur'anic Rational Theology of Ibn Taymiyya and his Criticism of the Mutakallimun}}</ref> The most well-known of them are ] and ],<ref name=":15">{{cite web |last=Nettler |first=Ronald L. |date=February 13, 2015 |title=Ibn Taymīyah, Taqī al-Dīn Aḥmad |url=http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t236/e1167 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307235354/http://oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t236/e1167 |archive-date=March 7, 2016 |access-date=February 14, 2015 |website=Oxford Islamic Studies Online |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> while his other students include:{{sfn|Laoust|2012}}<ref name=":24" /><ref name=":26" /><ref>{{cite book |last=Matroudi |first=Abdul Hakim |title=The Hanbali School of Law and Ibn Taymiyya: Conflict Or Conciliation |publisher=Routledge |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-415-58707-5 |page=203}}</ref>

{{Columns-list|
*]
*]
*]
*]
*Imad al-Din Ahmad al-Wasiti
*]
*Al-Ba'labakki
*Al-Bazzar
*Ibn Qadi al-Jabal
*Ibn Fadl Allah al-Amri
*Muhammad ibn al-Manj
*Ibn Abd al-Salam al-Batti
*] (d. 1349)
*Umar al-Harrani
}}

== Influence in his time ==
In the 21st century, Ibn Taymiyya is one of the most cited medieval authors and his treatises are regarded to be of central intellectual importance by several Islamic revivalist movements. Ibn Taymiyya's disciples, consisting of both ]s and non-Hanbalis, were attracted to his advocacy of '']'' outside the established boundaries of the '']'' and shared his taste for activism and religious reform. Some of his unorthodox legal views in the field of ] were also regarded as a challenge by mainstream ].{{sfn|Rapoport|Ahmed|2010|p=7, 15–16}} Many scholars have argued that Ibn Taymiyya did not enjoy popularity among the intelligentsia of his day.<ref>Ibn Taymiyya, Radical Polymath, Part I: Scholarly Perceptions (Religion Compass, 2015), p. 101</ref> Yossef Rapoport and Shahab Ahmed assert that he was a minority figure in his own times and the centuries that followed.{{sfn|Rapoport|Ahmed|2010|p=6}} Caterina Bori goes further, arguing that despite popularity Ibn Taymiyya may have enjoyed among the masses, he appears to have been not merely unpopular among the scholars of his day, but somewhat of an embarrassment.<ref name="Rapoport 41">{{harvnb|Rapoport|Ahmed|2010|p=41}}</ref> Khalid El-Rouayheb notes similarly that Ibn Taymiyya had "very little influence on mainstream Sunni Islam until the nineteenth century"<ref name="Rapoport 269">{{harvnb|Rapoport|Ahmed|2010|p=269}}</ref> and that he was "a little-read scholar with problematic and controversial views."<ref name="Rapoport 305">{{harvnb|Rapoport|Ahmed|2010|p=305}}</ref> He also comments "the idea that Ibn Taymiyya had an immediate and significant impact on the course of Sunni Islamic religious history simply does not cohere with the evidence that we have from the five centuries that elapsed between his death and the rise of Sunni revivalism in the modern period."<ref name="Rapoport 270">{{harvnb|Rapoport|Ahmed|2010|p=270}}</ref> It was only since the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries that the scholarly influence of Ibn Taymiyya has come to acquire an unprecedented prominence in Muslim societies, due to the efforts of Islamic revivalists like ].<ref>{{Cite book |last=QASIM ZAMAN |first=MUHAMMAD |title=Modern Islamic Thought in a Radical Age |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-107-09645-5 |location=New York |page=315}}</ref> On the other hand, Prof. Al-Matroudi of ] university says that Ibn Taymiyya, "was perhaps the most eminent and influential Hanbali jurist of the Middle Ages and one of the most prolific among them. He was also a renowned scholar of Islam whose influence was felt not only during his lifetime but extended through the centuries until the present day."<ref name=":14" /> Ibn Taymiyya's followers often deemed him as ], an honorific title with which he is sometimes still termed today.<ref>R. Hrair Dekmejian, ''Islam in Revolution: Fundamentalism in the Arab World'', pg. 40. Part of the Contemporary issues in the Middle East series. ], 1995. {{ISBN|978-0-8156-2635-0}}</ref><ref>Index
of ''Al Qaeda in Its Own Words'', pg. 360. Eds. ] and Jean-pierre Milelli. ], 2008. {{ISBN|978-0-674-02804-3}}</ref><ref>David Bukay, ''From Muhammad to Bin Laden: Religious and Ideological Sources of the Homicide Bombers Phenomenon'', pg. 194. Transaction Publishers, 2011. {{ISBN|978-1-4128-0913-9}}</ref>

In the pre-modern era, Ibn Taymiyya was considered a controversial figure within Sunni Islam and had a number of critics during his life and in the centuries thereafter.<ref name="Rapoport 305" /> The ] scholar ] stated that,

{{blockquote|Make sure you do not listen to what is in the books of Ibn Taymiyya and his student Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya and other such people who have taken their own whim as their God, and who have been led astray by God, and whose hearts and ears have been sealed, and whose eyes have been covered by Him... May God forsake the one who follows them, and purify the earth of their likes.<ref name="Rapoport 274">{{harvnb|Rapoport|Ahmed|2010|p=274}}</ref>}}

He also stated that,

{{blockquote|Ibn Taymiyya is a servant whom God has forsaken, led astray, made blind and deaf, and degraded. Such is the explicit verdict of the leading scholars who have exposed the rottenness of his ways and the errors of his statements.<ref name="Rapoport 271">{{harvnb|Rapoport|Ahmed|2010|p=271}}</ref>}}

Taqi al-Din al-Hisni condemned Ibn Taymiyya in even stronger terms by referring to him as the "heretic from Harran"<ref name="Rapoport 271" /> and similarly, ] considered Ibn Taymiyya to be an innovator though not an unbeliever.<ref name="Rapoport 283">{{harvnb|Rapoport|Ahmed|2010|p=283}}</ref> ] criticised Ibn Taymiyya for "contradicting the consensus of the Muslims by his anthropomorphism, by his claims that accidents exist in God, by suggesting that God was speaking in time, and by his belief in the eternity of the world."{{sfn|Rapoport|Ahmed|2010|p=191}} ] (d. 770/1369) famously wrote a work questioning Ibn Taymiyya's mental state.<ref>Little, Did Ibn Taymiyya Have a Screw Loose? 95</ref> The possibility of psychological abnormalities not with-standing, Ibn Taymiyya's personality, by multiple accounts, was fiery and oftentimes unpredictable.<ref>Antony Black, The History of Islamic Political Thought (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2001), 154.</ref><ref>Ibn Taymiyya, Radical Polymath, Part I: Scholarly Perceptions (Religion Compass, 2015), p. 105</ref> The historian ] said, regarding the rift between the ] Ash'ari's and Ibn Taymiyya, "People are divided into two factions over the question of Ibn Taymiyya; for until the present, the latter has retained admirers and disciples in Syria and Egypt."{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} Both his supporters and rivals grew to respect Ibn Taymiyya because he was uncompromising in his views.<ref name=":3" /> ]'s views towards Ibn Taymiyya were ambivalent.<ref name="IbnTaymiyyaScrewLoose105">{{cite journal |last1=Little |first1=Donald P. |year=1975 |title=Did Ibn Taymiyya Have a Screw Loose? |journal=Studia Islamica |issue=41 |pages=93–111 |doi=10.2307/1595400 |jstor=1595400 |s2cid=170132816}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Krawietz |first1=Birgit |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h5noBQAAQBAJ&q=ibn+taymiyyah+dhahabi&pg=PA258 |title=Islamic Theology, Philosophy and Law: Debating Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya |last2=Tamer |first2=Georges |date=August 29, 2013 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=9783110285406 |page=258}}</ref> His praise of Ibn Taymiyya is invariably qualified with criticism and misgivings<ref name="IbnTaymiyyaScrewLoose105" /> and he considered him to be both a "brilliant Shaykh"<ref name=":14" /><ref name=":19" /> and also "cocky" and "impetuous".<ref name="IbnTaymiyyaScrewLoose105" /><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bori |first1=Caterina |year=2004 |title=A New Source for the Biography of Ibn Taymiyya |journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London |volume=67 |issue=3 |pages=321–348 |doi=10.1017/S0041977X04000229 |jstor=4145798 |s2cid=161811279}}</ref> The ]-] scholar ] said that anyone that gives Ibn Taymiyya the title ] is a disbeliever.<ref>{{Cite book |last=El-Rouayheb |first=Khaled |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bDjjCQAAQBAJ&q=Bukhari+Ibn+Taymiyya+Ibn+Arabi&pg=PA16 |title=Islamic Intellectual History in the Seventeenth Century |date=July 8, 2015 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781107042964 |page=16}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Khafif |first=Ibn |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eFmKGFZTTcoC&q=%22'Ala'+al-Din+al-Bukhari+who+said+that+anyone+that+gives+Ibn+Taymiyya+%22&pg=RA1-PA16 |title=Correct Islamic Doctrine/Islamic Doctrine |date=June 25, 1999 |publisher=ISCA |isbn=9781930409019 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

Despite the prevalent condemnations of Ibn Taymiyya outside Hanbali school during the pre-modern period, many prominent non-Hanbali scholars such as ] (d.1690), ] (d. 1762), ] (d. 1573), Ibn al-Amīr Al-San'ani (d. 1768), ] (d. 1834), etc. would come to the defense of Ibn Taymiyya and advocate his ideas during this era.{{sfn|Rapoport|Ahmed|2010|p=300–305}} In the 18th century, influential South Asian ] and ] Shah Waliullah Dehlawi would become the most prominent advocate of the doctrines of Ibn Taymiyya, and profoundly transformed the religious thought in South Asia. His seminary, ''Madrasah-i-Rahimya'', became a hub of intellectual life in the country, and the ideas developed there quickly spread to wider academic circles.<ref name="Ahmad Nizami 1990 136–137">{{Cite journal |last=Ahmad Nizami |first=Khaliq |year=1990 |title=The Impact of Ibn Taymiyya on South Asia |journal=Journal of Islamic Studies |publisher=Oxford University Press |volume=1 |pages=136–137 |jstor=26195671}}</ref> Making a powerful defense of Ibn Taymiyya and his doctrines, Shah Waliullah wrote:

{{blockquote|Our assessment of Ibn Taimiyya after full investigation is that he was a scholar of the 'Book of God' and had full command over its etymological and juristic implications. He remembered by heart the traditions of the prophet and accounts of elders ('']'')... He excelled in intelligence and brilliance. He argued in defence of Ahl al-Sunnah with great eloquence and force. No innovation or irreligious act is reported about him... there is not a single matter on which he is without his defence based on the '']'' and the '']''. So it is difficult to find a man in the whole world who possesses the qualities of Ibn Taimiyya. No one can come anywhere near him in the force of his speech and writing. People who harassed him did not possess even one-tenth of his scholarly excellence...<ref name="Ahmad Nizami 1990 136–137"/>}}

The reputation and stature of Ibn Taymiyya amongst non-Ḥanbalī Sunni scholars would significantly improve between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. From a little-read scholar considered controversial by many, he would become one of the most popular scholarly figures in the Sunni religious tradition. The nineteenth-century Iraqi scholar Khayr al-Dīn al-Ālūsī (d. 1899) wrote an influential treatise titled ''Jalā’ al-‘aynayn fi muḥākamat al-Aḥmadayn'' in defense of Ibn Taymiyya. The treatise would make great impact on major scholars of the Salafiyya movement in Syria and Egypt, such as ] (d. 1914) and Muḥammad Rashīd Riḍā (d. 1935). Praising Ibn Taymiyya as a central and heroic Islamic figure of the classical era, Rashid Rida wrote:

{{blockquote|...after the power of the Ash‘aris reigned supreme in the Middle Ages (al-qurūn al-wusṭā) and the ''ahl al-ḥadīth'' and the followers of the salaf were weakened, there appeared in the eighth century the great ''mujaddid'', ''Shaykh al-Islam'' Aḥmad Taqī al-Dīn Ibn Taymiyya, whose like has not been seen in mastery of both the traditional and rational sciences and in the power of argument. Egypt and India have revived his books and the books of his student Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, after a time when they were only available in Najd. Now, they have spread to both east and west, and will become the main support of the Muslims of the earth.{{sfn|Rapoport|Ahmed|2010|p=6, 300–305, 311}}}}

Ibn Taymiyya's works served as an inspiration for later Muslim scholars and historical figures, who have been regarded as his admirers or disciples.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} In the contemporary world, he may be considered at the root of ], the ] order and other later reformist movements.<ref name=":0" /><ref>"He has strongly influenced modern Islam for the last two centuries. He is the source of the Wahhābīyah, a reformist movement founded by ] (died 1792), who took his ideas from Ibn Taymiyya's writings. Ibn Taymiyya also influenced various reform movements that have posed the problem of reformulating traditional ideologies by a return to sources. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130710103409/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/280847/Ibn-Taymiyyah|date=July 10, 2013}}</ref> Ibn Taymiyya has been noted to have influenced ], ], ], ], ], and ].<ref name=":13"/><ref name=":17" /><ref>{{cite web |last=Esposito |first=John L. |title=Ibn Taymiyah |url=http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t243/e147 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180318173139/http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t243/e147 |archive-date=March 18, 2018 |access-date=February 13, 2015 |website=Oxford Islamic Studies Online |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Makdisis |first=Ussama |url=https://archive.org/details/faithmisplacedbr00makd/page/322 |title=Faith Misplaced: The Broken Promise of U.S.-Arab Relations: 1820–2001 |publisher=PublicAffairs |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-58648-680-8 |page=}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Dekmejian |first=R. Hrair |url=https://archive.org/details/islaminrevolutio00dekm/page/40 |title=Islam in Revolution: Fundamentalism in the Arab World |publisher=Syracuse University Press |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-8156-2635-0 |page=}}</ref> The terrorist organization ] used a fatwa of Ibn Taymiyya to justify the burning alive of Jordanian pilot ].<ref>{{cite web |date=February 4, 2015 |title=جدل فقهي بعد استعانة داعش بفتوى لابن تيمية لتبرير إحراق الكساسبة: ماذا كان موقف النبي وهل فعلها أبوبكر وعمر وعلي؟ |url=http://arabic.cnn.com/middleeast/2015/02/04/ibn-taymiyah-islam-quran |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150810135849/http://arabic.cnn.com/middleeast/2015/02/04/ibn-taymiyah-islam-quran |archive-date=August 10, 2015 |access-date=August 18, 2015}}</ref> After the Iranian revolution, conservative Sunni '']'' robustly championed Ibn Taymiyya's ] polemics across the ] since the 1980s; and vast majority of Sunni intellectual circles adopted Ibn Taymiyya's rhetoric against Shi'ism.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Brunner |first1=Rainer |title=The Twelver Shia in Modern Times: Religious Culture & Political History |last2=Ende |first2=Werner |publisher=Brill |year=2001 |isbn=90-04-11803-9 |location=Leiden, The Netherlands |pages=xii |chapter=Preface}}</ref>

== Influence in the modern period ==
=== Salafism ===
{{See also|Salafiyya Movement}}Ibn Taymiyya's appeals to the precedence of the '']'' and the '']'' over the authority of the '']'' system has inspired a wide range of ] movements over the last few centuries, and especially the '']'' reform movement that differ from other Sunnis who adhere to the four ] of '']'' (jurisprudence). These include the 17th century ] movement, 18th century ] movement as well as the Islamic reformist movement of Ibn al-Amīr Al-San’ani (d. 1768) and ] (d. 1834) in ]. In the nineteenth century, Taymiyyan tradition would expand across the ]; influencing the '']'' movement in South Asia and the ''Salafiyya'' movement in ], ] and ].{{sfn|Hoover|2019|p=88, 140}}{{sfn|Rapoport|Ahmed|2010|p=304–305}}

Ibn Taymiyya adamantly insisted that his theological doctrines constituted the original creed of the '']'', as well as that of ]; the eponym of the ]te school. He also believed that '']'' (Islamic law) was best preserved through the teachings and practices of the ''Salaf'', the earliest three generations of Muslims. Modern ]ist movements salute Ibn Taymiyya as "the architect of Salafism", which symbolises the concept of reviving the traditions and values of the Golden Age of the ]. For ''Salafiyya'' movements across the ], Ibn Taymiyya is their exemplar scholar who revived the methodology of the Salaf, and also a social reformer who defiantly stood against foreign occupation. Today, Salafi Muslims constitute the most avid readers and promoters of the works of Ibn Taymiyya.{{sfn|Hoover|2019|p=31, 33, 60, 140}}<ref name=":19" />

=== Modern Islamism ===
{{See also|Islamism|Jihadism|Salafi Jihadism|Muslim Brotherhood|Al Qaeda|ISIL}}
Various concepts within ] can be attributed to Ibn Taymiyya.<ref name=":9" /> Ibn Taymiyya is highly revered in contemporary militant ] and ] circles for his 1303 Fatwa of ''Takfir'' (excommunication) against ] ] rulers (who were recent converts to ]) and his assertion that it became obligatory for "true Muslims" to wage '']'' against the apostate Mongol leaders and Muslim citizens who accepted the ] code. Influenced by Ibn Taymiyya, ] would take up Ibn Taymiyya's anti-Mongol '']'' and apply it on contemporary regimes across the ]. Ibn Taymiyya's other major theological mission was to re-assert the primacy of armed jihad in Islamic faith, which played a major role in shaping future militant interpretations of Islam. Along with total, literal adherence to ], he held that waging martial jihad was an Islamic religious obligation for all Muslims, when under foreign invasion. These ideas would be readily embraced in the 20th century by various ] movements and underpinned the theological justification for militancy of groups like ], ], etc.<ref>{{Cite book |editor1=Michael A. Sheehan |editor2=Erich Marquardt |editor3=Liam Collins |title=Routledge Handbook of U.S Counterterrorism and Irregular Warfare Operations |last1=Rudder |first1=Daniel |last2=Heffelfinger |first2=Christopher |publisher=Routledge|year=2022|isbn=978-0-367-75836-3|location=Abingdon, Oxon|pages=27–40|chapter=2: The Ideology Behind Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State}}</ref> Scholars like Yahya Michot have noted that Ibn Taymiyya "has thus become a sort of forefather of ]."<ref name=":9" />

One of main arguments put forth by Ibn Taymiyya was his ] into distinct territories: the domain of Islam (dar al-Islam), where the rule is of Islam and sharia law is enforced; the domain of unbelief (dar-al-kufr) ruled by ]; and the domain of war (dar al-harb) which is territory under the rule of unbelievers who are involved in an active or potential conflict with the domain of Islam.<ref name=":9" /><ref>{{cite book|title=Encyclopedic Dictionary of Religion (A-F)|last=Chopra|first=Ramesh|publisher=Isha Books |year=2005 |isbn=978-8182052857 |pages=211–212|volume=1}}</ref> (Ibn Taymiyya included a fourth. When the Mongols, whom he considered unbelievers, took control of the city of ]<ref name=":10">{{Cite book|title = Ibn Taymiyya and His Times|last = Thomas|first = David|publisher = Oxford University Press|year = 2010|isbn = 978-0195478341|chapter = Apologetic and Polemic in the letter from Cyprus and Ibn Taymiyya's al-Jawāb al-Ṣaḥīḥ li-man baddala dīn al-Masīḥ}}</ref> the population included many Muslims. Believing Mardin was neither the domain of Islam, as Islam was not legally applied with an armed forces consisting of Muslims, nor the domain of war because the inhabitants were Muslim,<ref name=":10" /> Ibn Taymiyya created a new "composite" category, known as ''dar al-`ahd''.<ref name=":9" /><ref name=":12">{{cite book|title=The Shari'a and Islamic Criminal Justice in Time of War and Peace|last=Bassiouni|first=M. Cherif|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2013|isbn=978-1-107-68417-1|page=200}}</ref>) A second concept is making a declaration of apostasy (]) against a Muslim who does not obey Islam.<ref name=":9" /> But at the same time Ibn Taymiyya maintained that no one can question anothers faith and curse them as based on one's own desire, because faith is defined by God and the prophet.<ref name=":9" /> He said, rather than cursing or condemning them, an approach should be taken where they are educated about the religion.<ref name=":9" />

Another concept attributed to Ibn Taymiyya is, "the duty to oppose and kill Muslim rulers who do not implement the revealed law (shari'a).<ref name=":9" /> Based on this doctrine, Ibn Taymiyya excommunicated the ] for not ruling by '']'' (Islamic law); despite officially professing Islam. Ibn Taymiyya issued various '']s'' obliging all ] to fight the Mongols; declaring them as '']'' (polytheists) similar to the people from the age of '']'' (pre-Islamic ignorance). Thus, he is widely regarded as the "spiritual forefather" of the Salafi-Jihadist thought. 20th century ] ideologues like ], ], ], ], etc. drew upon these revolutionary ideas to justify armed Jihad against the contemporary nation-states.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sivan |first=Emmanuel |title=Radical Islam: Medieval Theology and Modern Politics |publisher=Yale University Press |year=1990 |isbn=0-300-04914-5 |location=Vail-Ballou Press, Binghamton, N.Y., USA |pages=101–102 |chapter=Four: The Sunni revolution}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=L. Esposito |first=John |title=What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam: Second Edition |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-19-979413-3 |location=New York |pages=45–46 |chapter=Faith}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=L. Esposito |first=John |title=Unholy War: Terror in the name of Islam |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2002 |isbn=0-19-515435-5 |location=New York|pages=28, 44–46, 62 |chapter=2: Jihad and the Struggle for Islam}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=23 June 2022 |title=Spotlight on Global Jihad (June 16-22, 2022) |url=https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/en/spotlight-on-global-jihad-june-16-22-2022/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220625000932/https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/en/spotlight-on-global-jihad-june-16-22-2022/ |archive-date=25 June 2022 |website=terrorism-info.org.il}}</ref> Ibn Taymiyya's fatwa on Alawites as "more infidel than Christians and Jews" has been recited by ] affiliated scholar ].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://archive.arabic.cnn.com/2013/middle_east/5/31/qardawi.syria-speech/|title=القرضاوي: النصيريون أكفر من اليهود ولو كنت قادرا لقاتلت بالقصير|access-date=2015-08-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151125123450/http://archive.arabic.cnn.com/2013/middle_east/5/31/qardawi.syria-speech/|archive-date=2015-11-25|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=abdo>{{cite news |last=Abdo |first=Geneive |title=Why Sunni-Shia conflict is worsening |url=http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/07/opinion/abdo-shia-sunni-tension/index.html |date=June 7, 2013 |publisher=CNN |access-date=September 12, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181212054739/https://www.cnn.com/2013/06/07/opinion/abdo-shia-sunni-tension/index.html |archive-date=December 12, 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Ibn Taymiyya's role in the Islamist movements of the twentieth and twenty first century have also been noted by the previous Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the United States Department of State, ], who labels the chapter on the history of modern Islamic movements in his book ''The Age of Sacred Terror'', as "Ibn Taymiyya and His children".<ref name=":19" /><ref>{{cite book|title=The Age of Sacred Terror: Radical Islam's War Against America|last1=Benjamin|first1=Daniel|publisher=Random House Trade|year=2003|isbn=978-0-8129-6984-9|page=VI|last2=Simon|first2=Steven|url=https://archive.org/details/ageofsacredterro0000benj}}</ref> Yossef Rapoport, a reader in Islamic history at Queen Mary, however, says this is not a probable narrative.<ref name=":19" /> Ibn Taymiyya's intellectual tradition and ideas such as his emphasis on the revival of pristine ideals and practices of early generations also made an intense impact on the leading ideologue of ] ] in South Asia, ] (1903–1979 C.E/ 1321–1399 A.H).<ref>{{Cite book|last=Jackson|first=Roy|title=Mawlana Mawdudi and Political Islam: Authority and the Islamic state|publisher=Routledge|year=2011|isbn=978-0-415-47411-5|location=Abingdon, Oxon|pages=96–97|chapter=7: The Salafis}}</ref>

=== Mardin fatwas and the Mardin Conference ===
One of Ibn Taymiyya's most famous fatwas are regarding the Mongols who had conquered and destroyed the ] in 1258 and had then converted to Islam.<ref name=":12" /> Once they were in control the town of ], they behaved unjustly with their subjects so the people of Mardin asked Ibn Taymiyya for a legal verdict regarding the classification of the territory under which they live.<ref name=":12" /> He categorized the territory as ''dar al-`ahd'' which in some ways is similar to dar al-kufr (domain of unbelievers).<ref name=":12" /> Included in his verdict was declaring the Mongol ruler Ghazan and other Mongols who did not accept shari'a in full, as unbelievers.<ref name=":11">{{cite book|title=World of Faith and Freedom: Why International Religious Liberty Is Vital to American National Security|url=https://archive.org/details/worldfaithfreedo00farr_500|url-access=limited|last=Farr|first=Thomas F.|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2008|isbn=978-0-19-517995-8|page=}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Oxford Handbook of Political Ideologies|last=Freeden|first=Michael|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2013|isbn=978-0-19-958597-7 |page=633}}</ref> He was also asked whether Muslims living in Mardin had to emigrate (''Hijrah'') to Islamic territories on account of implementation of ]s. Ibn Taymiyya responded in a detailed ''fatwa'':

{{Blockquote|text="If he who resides in (]) is unable to practice his religion, then he must emigrate. If this is not the case, then it remains preferable but not mandatory. The helping of the enemies of the ] with their lives and wealth is prohibited upon them and it is required to abstain from that from whatever route possible.. if that is not possible except by undertaking migration, then it is obligatory... It is not of the category of the '']'' nor of the category of '']''. It is a third division by which the Muslim is treated according to what he deserves, and outsiders are dealt with as they deserve."|title=''Majmu’ al-fatawa, vol. 28: 240-41''|source=<ref>{{Cite book |last1=S. Islam |last2=Eryiğit |first1=Jaan |first2=Adem |title=Islam and the State in Ibn Taymiyya: Translation and Analysis |publisher=Routledge |year=2022 |isbn=978-1-032-13183-2 |location=New York |chapter= 5: The Compiled Fatwas, the Prophetic Way against the Shiʿites, and "Islamic Governance" on the Importance of Islamic Government |pages=152–153| doi=10.4324/9781003228035|s2cid=249087588 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Aigle |first=Denise|title=The Mongol Empire between Myth and Reality: Studies in Anthropological History |publisher=Brill |year=2015 |isbn=978-90-04-27749-6 |location=Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands|chapter= 12: Ghazan Khan's Invasion of Syria- Polemics on his Conversion to Islam and the Christian Troops in His Army |page=273| doi= 10.1163/9789004280649_014}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Youssef |first=Michael |title=Revolt Against Modernity: Muslim Zealots and the West |publisher=Brill |year=1985 |isbn=90-04-07559-3 |location=E. J Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands|chapter= 11: The Link Between Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Jihad |page=81}}</ref>|character=Ibn Taymiyya}}

According to Nettler and Kéchichian, Ibn Taymiyya affirmed that Jihad against the Mongols, "was not only permissible but obligatory because the latter ruled not according to Sharīʿah but through their traditional, and therefore manmade, ] code. This essentially meant that Mongols were living in a state of ''] ''(ignorance)."<ref name=":17" /> The authors further state that his two famous students, Ibn Qayyim and Ibn Kathir, agreed with this ruling.<ref name=":17" /> He called for a defensive jihad to mobilize the people to kill the Mongol rulers and any one who supported them, Muslim or non-Muslim.<ref name=":9" /><ref name=":11" /> Ibn Taymiyya when talking about those who support the Mongols said, "Everyone who is with them (Mongols) in the state over which they rule has to be regarded as belonging to the most evil class of men. He is either an atheist (]) or a hypocrite who does not believe in the essence of the religion of Islam. This means that he (only) outwardly pretends to be Muslim or he belongs to the worst class of all people who are the people of the bida` (heretical innovations)."<ref>{{cite book|title=In Their Own Words|url=https://archive.org/details/theirownwordsvoi00aaro_524|url-access=limited|last=Aaron|first=David|publisher=RAND Corporation|year=2008|isbn=978-0-8330-4402-0 |page=}}</ref> Yahya Mochet says that, Ibn Taymiyya's call to war was not simply to cause a "rebellion against the political power in place" but to repel an "external enemy".<ref name=":9" />

In another series of fatwas, Ibn Taymiyya reiterated the religious obligation of Muslims to fight the ] on account of their negligence of ]. He also took issue with their non-religious approach to dealing with various communities such as Christians, Jews, Buddhists, etc. and employing a large chunk of their armies with non-Muslims.<ref name="S. Islam, Eryiğit 2022 153–158">{{Cite book|last1=S. Islam |last2=Eryiğit |first1=Jaan |first2=Adem |title=Islam and the State in Ibn Taymiyya: Translation and Analysis |publisher=Routledge |year=2022 |isbn=978-1-032-13183-2 |location=New York |chapter= 5: The Compiled Fatwas, the Prophetic Way against the Shiʿites, and “Islamic Governance” on the Importance of Islamic Government |pages=153–158| doi=10.4324/9781003228035|s2cid=249087588 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Aigle |first=Denise|title=The Mongol Empire between Myth and Reality: Studies in Anthropological History |publisher=Brill |year=2015 |isbn=978-90-04-27749-6 |location=Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands|chapter= 13: A Religious Response to Ghazan Khan's Invasions of Syria- The Three “Anti-Mongol” fatwās of Ibn Taymiyya|pages=283–305| doi= 10.1163/9789004280649_015}}</ref> Citing these and various other reasons, Ibn Taymiyya pronounced:

{{Blockquote|text="Fighting them is obligatory by consensus of the Muslims.. If fighting against the ] and the ] and others from the ]s who do not adhere to the Law of Islam is obligated even if they are not of harm to the people living in the cities, then how about these people? Yes, it is required to exhibit the laws in fighting them.. They call to the religion of Islam and praise the religion of these disbelievers over the religion of the Muslims,.. and they legislate in what they dispute between themselves with the legislation of the time of ignorance, not with the legislation of ] and His ]. Such is the case of the elders among their ]s and others who put the religion of Islam similar to the religion of the Jews and Christians, and claiming that these are all ways to Allah.. Then among them are those who choose the religion of the Jews or Christians, and those who choose the religion of the Muslims. This phenomenon is increasing in great number among them, even in their jurists and worshippers, especially the ]tes from the ] ] and the like, as ] has overtaken their thought... The viziers who spread the views of their leader ultimately lead them into the aforementioned class , they become these Philosopher Jews, ascribing to Islam what they have of their ] and philosophy."|title=''Majmu’ al-fatawa, vol. 28: 501-506, 521-524''|source=<ref name="S. Islam, Eryiğit 2022 153–158" />|character=Ibn Taymiyya}}

In 2010, a group of ] at the Mardin conference argued that Ibn Taymiyya's famous fatwa about the residents of Mardin when it was under the control of the Mongols was misprinted into an order to "fight" the people living under their territory, whereas the actual statement is, "The Muslims living therein should be treated according to their rights as Muslims, while the non-Muslims living there outside of the authority of Islamic Law should be treated according to their rights."<ref name=":29">{{cite web|last=al-Turayri|first=Shaykh Abd al-Wahhab|title=The Mardin Conference – Understanding Ibn Taymiyya's Fatwa|date=June 29, 2010|url=http://muslimmatters.org/2010/06/29/the-mardin-conference-%E2%80%93-a-detailed-account/|publisher=MuslimMatters|access-date=May 29, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110705114748/http://muslimmatters.org/2010/06/29/the-mardin-conference-%E2%80%93-a-detailed-account/|archive-date=July 5, 2011|url-status=live}}</ref> They have based their understanding on the original manuscript in the ], and the transmission by Ibn Taymiyya's student ].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/comment/a-religious-basis-for-violence-misreads-original-principles |title=A religious basis for violence misreads original principles |work=The National |access-date=2012-10-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120410015657/http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/comment/a-religious-basis-for-violence-misreads-original-principles |archive-date=2012-04-10 |url-status=live }}</ref> The participants of the Mardin conference also rejected the categorization of the world into different domains of war and peace, stating that the division was a result of the circumstances at the time.<ref name=":12" /> The participants further stated that the division has become irrelevant with the existence of nation states.<ref name=":12" />

=== His view on Sufism ===
Ibn Taymiyyah, often perceived as a critic of Sufism, had a more nuanced view than is commonly understood. While he critiqued certain practices he deemed innovations (bid'ah), he was an admirer of the spiritual path when it adhered to the foundational principles of Islam. A notable example of this is his admiration for Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani, a revered Sufi saint. Ibn Taymiyyah praised Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani for his adherence to the Sharia (Islamic law) and his deep spirituality, considering him a model of the correct practice of Sufism . Ibn Taymiyyah's writings reflect a balanced approach to Sufism. In his "Majmu' al-Fatawa," he acknowledges the importance of Tasawwuf when practiced in alignment with the Qur'an and Sunnah. He wrote about the legitimate spiritual practices that lead to purification of the soul (tazkiyah) and the cultivation of sincerity (ikhlas). Ibn Taymiyyah distinguished between genuine Sufi practices and those he considered deviations. For instance, he was critical of certain ecstatic utterances (shath) and practices he viewed as departures from orthodox Islam, but he appreciated the works of early Sufis like Junayd al-Baghdadi and Abdul Qadir Jilani who maintained a firm grounding in Sharia.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fawzan |first=Shykah Salih |title=Majmu Al-Fatawa Ibn Taymiyyah Regarding Life After Death And Affairs Of The Unseen |publisher=Authentic Statements Publications |year=2019 |isbn=978-1792309021 |publication-date=January 1, 2019 |pages=Volume 11, Pages 15–20 |language=English}}</ref> Moreover, Ibn Taymiyyah himself was buried in a Sufi cemetery, which signifies his recognition and respect within the broader Sufi community . His respect for genuine Sufism is evident in his admiration for Abdul Qadir Jilani, whose teachings emphasized the importance of Sharia compliance along with spiritual devotion . This reverence is not merely theoretical; Ibn Taymiyyah's students and followers, such as Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, also echoed his views, furthering the integration of Sufi spirituality with orthodox Islamic practice . Thus, Ibn Taymiyyah's approach to Sufism was one of reform rather than outright rejection. He supported Sufi practices that stayed true to Islamic principles and critiqued those that strayed. This balanced perspective is crucial for understanding his relationship with Tasawwuf and dispelling the notion that he was entirely against Sufism .<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shihadeh |first=Ayman |title=Sufism and Theology |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0748626052 |edition=1st |pages=105–110}}</ref>

== Opinions about him ==

=== Pre-modern opinions ===

=== Modern opinions ===

==== Islamic scholarship ====
Ibn Taymiyya is widely regarded as an ] "hater of logic" and a strict literalist who was responsible for the demise of rationalist tendencies within the classical ] tradition. Through his polemical treatises such as al-''Radd ‘ala al-mantiqiyyın'' (Refutation of the Rationalists); Ibn Taymiyya zealously denounced ], which provided the rational foundations for both '']'' (speculative theology) and '']''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Winter |first=Tim |title=The Cambridge Companion to Classical Islamic theology |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-521-78058-2 |location=Cambridge, UK |pages=69, 82–83}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Adamson |first1=Peter |title=The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy |last2=Taylor |first2=Richard C. |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2005 |isbn=0-521-81743-9 |location=Cambridge, UK |pages=253–254, 413–414}}</ref>

According to ] philosopher ], "Ibn Taymiyah protests against the abuses of philosophy and theology and advocates a return to the orthodox ways of the ancients ('']'')... in his religious zeal he is determined to abolish centuries of religious truth as they had been long before they became troubled by theological and philosophical controversies."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fakhry |first=Majid |title=A History of Islamic Philosophy: Third Edition |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2006 |isbn=0-231-13220-4 |location=New York |pages=326 |chapter=Eleven: Theological Reaction and Reconstruction}}</ref>

] leader ] contends the ubiquitous notion that Ibn Taymiyya rejected ] outright as erroneous. While "the popular image of Ibn Taymiyya ... that he Sufism indiscriminately ... deadly against the Sufis, and ... no place for Sufism in Islam,"<ref name="M. Abdul Haq-Ansari 1985 pp. 1-12">M. Abdul Haq-Ansari, "Ibn Taymiyya and Sufism", ''Islamic Studies'', Vol. 24, No. 1 (Spring, 1985), pp. 1–12</ref> it is historically known, according to the same scholar, that Ibn Taymiyya actually considered ''Tasawwuf'' to be a significant discipline of ]. "Far from saying has no place in Islam", Ibn Taymiyya was on the whole "sympathetic"<ref name="M. Abdul Haq-Ansari 1985 pp. 1-12" /> towards what everyone at the time considered an important aspect of Islamic life.<ref name="M. Abdul Haq-Ansari 1985 pp. 1-12" /> Various scholars have also asserted that Ibn Taymiyya had a deep reverence and appreciation for the works of such major Sufi '']'' (saints) such as ], ], ], ],{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} etc., and was part of the '']'' ] himself.<ref name="Makdisi, 1973 pp 118-28">Makdisi, ', American Journal of Arabic Studies 1, part 1 (1973), pp. 118–28</ref><ref name="Arch91">{{cite book|last=Spevack|first=Aaron|title=The Archetypal Sunni: Law, Theology, and Mysticism in the Synthesis of Al-Bajuri|publisher=State University of New York Press|date=2014|isbn=978-1438453712|page=91}}</ref><ref name="Rapoport 334">{{harvnb|Rapoport|Ahmed|2010|p=334}}</ref><ref name="Halverson 2010 48–49">{{cite book|last=Halverson|first=Jeffry R.|title=Theology and Creed in Wahabi Islam: The Muslim Brotherhood, Ash'arism, and Political Wahabism|url=https://archive.org/details/theologycreedsun00halv|url-access=limited|date=2010|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-0230102798|pages=–49}}</ref> ] scholar ] has criticised Ibn Taymiyya over his sectarian discourse against ]te and ]te schools as well as his creedal beliefs like three-fold classification of '']'' (monotheism).<ref name="Sinani 344" />

==== Western scholarship ====

Scholars like ] described Ibn Taymiyya as a "]te zealot" who harshly denounced various practices as '']'' (religious innovations) and rejected all forms of philosophical influences, speculative theology, ] and ] doctrines like '']''.<ref name="Goldziher 1981 166, 240">{{Cite book |last=Goldziher |first=Ignaz |title=Introduction to Islamic Theology and Law |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1981 |isbn=0-691-07257-4 |location=Princeton, New Jersey |pages=166, 240 |translator-first=Andras |translator-last=Hamori |translator-first2=Ruth |translator-last2=Hamori}}</ref>

Others such as the French scholar ] (1905–1983) have argued that such portrayals of Ibn Taymiyya are flawed inasmuch as they are often borne of a limited reading of the theologian's substantial corpus of works,{{sfn|Laoust|2012}} many of which have not yet been translated from the original ]. According to Laoust, Ibn Taymiyya wanted to reform the practice of medieval Sufism as part of his wider aim to ] ] (of which Sufism was a major aspect at the time) by divesting both these traditions of what he perceived as ] within them.{{sfn|Laoust|2012}}

According to James Pavlin, Professor of theology at ]: "Ibn Taymiyya remains one of the most controversial Islamic thinkers today because of his supposed influence on many ] movements. The common understanding of his ideas have been filtered through the bits and pieces of his statements that have been misappropriated by alleged supporters and avowed critics alike."<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Ibn Taymiyya |first1=Ahmad |url=https://its.org.uk/catalogue/epistle-on-worship-risalat-al-%CA%BFubudiyya-new/ |title=Risalat Al-'Ubudiyya |last2=Pavlin |first2=James |publisher=Islamic Texts Society |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-903682-48-7 |trans-title=Epistle on Worship |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180222072741/https://its.org.uk/catalogue/epistle-on-worship-risalat-al-%CA%BFubudiyya-new/ |archive-date=22 February 2018}}</ref>

==Works==
Ibn Taymiyya left behind a considerable body of work, ranging from 350 (according to his student Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/introduction/wasiti/taimiyah_3.html#HEADING3 |title=Ibn Taimiyah |publisher=Usc.edu |access-date=2010-06-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090220150624/http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/introduction/wasiti/taimiyah_3.html#HEADING3 |archive-date=2009-02-20 |url-status=dead }}</ref> to 500 (according to his student al-Dhahabi).<ref name=":17" /><ref>M.M. Sharif, ''A History of Muslim Philosophy'', Pakistan Philosophical Congress, p. 798</ref> ] says Ibn Taymiyya produced some 700 works in the field of Islamic sciences.<ref name=":24" /> His scholarly output has been described as immense with a wide scope and its contents "bear the marks of brilliant insights hastily jotted down".<ref name=":19" /> In his early life, his work was mostly based on theology and the use of reason in interpretation of scriptural evidences, with later works focusing on refutation of Greek logic, questioning the prevalent practices of the time, and anti-Christian and anti-Shia polemics.<ref name=":19" /> Ibn Taymiyya's total works have not all survived and his extant works of 35 volumes are incomplete.<ref name=":19" /> The ascendancy of scholastic interest in his medieval treatises would recommence through the gradual efforts by 18th-century Islamic reform movements. Salafi theologians of Syria, Iraq, and Egypt of the late 19th and early 20th centuries would edit, publish, and mass-circulate many of his censured manuscripts among the Muslim public, making Ibn Taymiyya the most-read classical Islamic theologian in the world; however, as his scholarly impact increased, dissensions and altercations over Ibn Taymiyya's viewpoints continue to escalate.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hakim Al-Matroudi |first=Abdul |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780197669419.001.0001/acref-9780197669419-e-176?rskey=61Oe1l&result=174 |title=Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World: Digital Collection |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2022 |isbn=9780197669419 |editor-last=L. Esposito |editor-first=John |chapter=Ibn Taymīyah, Taqī al-Dīn (1263–1328 ce) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221101152501/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780197669419.001.0001/acref-9780197669419-e-176?rskey=61Oe1l&result=174 |archive-date=1 November 2022}}</ref>

===Extant books and essays===
{{Refbegin|2}}
*'']'' – collected centuries after his death, and contains several of the works mentioned below; 36 volumes.
*'']'' – four volumes; in modern critical editions it amounts to more than 2,000 pages.<ref>"Ibn Taymiyya's Critique of Shī'ī Imāmology. Translation of Three Sections of his "Minhāj al-Sunna", by Yahya Michot, ''The Muslim World'', 104/1–2 (2014), pp. 109–149.</ref>
*'']''
*'']'' – a response to Christianity; seven volumes; in modern critical editions it amounts to more than 2,000 pages.<ref>Thomas E. Burmann, Foreword in Ian Christopher Levy, Rita George-Tvrtković, Donald Duclow (ed.), ''Nicholas of Cusa and Islam: Polemic and Dialogue in the Late Middle Ages'', BRILL (2014), p. xviii</ref>
*''Dar Ta'arud al-Aql wa-l-Naql''<ref>{{cite book |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-994799-7 |last=Jaffer |first=Tariq |title=Razi: Master of Quranic Interpretation and Theological Reasoning |date=November 28, 2014|page=118}}</ref> (also called ''al-Muwafaqa'') – 11 volumes; in modern critical editions it amounts to some 4,000 pages.<ref>Frank Griffel, "Al-Ghazālī at His Most Rationalist. The Universal Rule for Allegorically Interpreting Revelation. (al-Qānūn al-Kullī fī t-Ta ʾwīl)" in ''Islam and Rationality: The Impact of al-Ghazālī. Papers Collected on His 900th Anniversary'', volume 1, BRILL, 2005, p. 89</ref>
*''Al-Aqida al-Hamawiyya''
*''Al-Asma' wa-l-Sifat'' – two volumes
*'']''
*''Kitab al-Safadiyya'' – a refutation of the philosophers who claim the miracles of Muhammad are merely manifestations of the strength of inherent faculties, and who claim the universe is eternal
*'']'' — written in response to an incident in which Ibn Taymiyya heard a Christian insulting Muhammad
*''Fatawa al-Kubra''
*''Fatawa al-Misriyya''
*''Al-Radd ala al-Mantiqiyyin''<ref name=":9" />
*''Naqd al-Ta'sis''
*''Al-Ubudiyya''
*''Iqtida' al-Sirat al-Mustaqim''
*''Al-Siyasa al-Shar'iyya''<ref name=":9" />
*''Risala fi al-Ruh wa-l-Aql''
*''Al-Tawassul wa-l-Wasila''
*''Sharh Futuh al-Ghayb'' – a commentary on ''Futuh al-Ghayb'' by ]
*''Al-Hisba fi al-Islam'' – a book on ]<ref name=":9" />
{{Refend}}

===English translations===
{{Refbegin|2}}
*''The Friends of Allah and the Friends of ]''
*'']''
*''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''
*''Muslims Under Non-Muslim Rule''
{{Refend}}

===Lost works===
Many of Ibn Taymiyya's books are thought to be lost. Their existence is only known through various reports written by scholars throughout history as well as some treatises written by Ibn Taymiyya himself.{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=16}} One particularly notable lost work is ''al-Bahr al-Muhit'', which was 40 volumes of Quranic exegesis that Ibn Taymiyya wrote in the prison of Damascus. ] mentions the existence of this work in his work, ''al-Durar al-Kamina''.{{sfn|Haque|1982|p=16}}

== References ==
=== Notes ===
{{notelist}}

===Citations===
{{Reflist}}

===Sources===
{{refbegin}}
*{{cite book|title=Imam Ibn Taimiya and his projects of reform|last=Haque|first=Serajul|publisher=Islamic Foundation Bangladesh|year=1982 }}
*{{cite book |last=Hoover |first=Jon |date=2007 |title=Ibn Taymiyya's Theodicy of Perpetual Optimism |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-9004158474 |url=http://www.brill.nl/ibn-taymiyyas-theodicy-perpetual-optimism}}
*{{Cite journal|last=Hoover|first=Jon|year=2016|title=Withholding judgment on Islamic universalism: Ibn al-Wazir (d. 840/1436) on the duration and purpose of hell-fire. In: Locating Hell in Islamic traditions.|url=http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/30317/2/9789004301368_webready_content_s011.pdf_expir|journal=Islamic History and Civilization|volume=119|pages=208–237|access-date=2016-11-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161129210420/http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/30317/2/9789004301368_webready_content_s011.pdf_expir|archive-date=2016-11-29|url-status=dead}}
*{{Cite book|last=Hoover|first=Jon|title=Makers of the Muslim World: Ibn Taymiyya|publisher=One World Publications|year=2019|isbn=978-1-78607-689-2|location=London}}
*{{Cite encyclopedia |last=Laoust |first=H. |editor1=P. Bearman |editor2=Th. Bianquis |editor3=C.E. Bosworth |editor-link3=Clifford Edmund Bosworth |editor4=E. van Donzel |editor5=W.P. Heinrichs |editor-link5=Wolfhart Heinrichs |date=2012 |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition |publisher=Brill |title=Ibn Taymiyya |doi=10.1163/1573-3912_islam_sim_3388 |url=https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-2/*-SIM_3388|url-access=subscription }}
*{{Cite book|last=Linhoff|first=Josef|url=https://hdl.handle.net/1842/36935|title='Associating with God in Islamic Thought': A Comparative Study of Muslim interpretations of shirk|publisher=University of Edinburgh|year=2020|chapter=III: Love, saints and shirk: Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328)|doi=10.7488/era/236 |hdl=1842/36935}}
*{{Cite book|title=Ibn Taymiyya and His Times|last1=Rapoport|first1=Yossef|last2=Ahmed|first2=Shahab|date=January 1, 2010|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780195478341|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7JRmPgAACAAJ}}
* {{cite book |last1=Reynolds |first1=Gabrield Said |title=The Emergence of Islam: Classical traditions in contemporary perspective |date=2012 |publisher=Fortress Press |location=Minneapolis |isbn=9780800698591}}
{{refend}}

== Further reading ==
{{refbegin|2}}
* Little, Donald P. "Did Ibn Taymiyya have a screw loose?", Studia Islamica, 1975, Number 41, pp.&nbsp;93–111.
* Makdisi, G. "Ibn Taymiyya: A Sufi of the Qadiriya Order", ''American Journal of Arabic Studies'', 1973
* Michot, Yahya. ''Ibn Taymiyya: Against Extremisms''. Texts translated, annotated and introduced. With a foreword by Bruce B. LAWRENCE. Beirut & Paris: Albouraq, 2012, xxxii & 334 p. — {{ISBN|9782841615551}}.
* 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}}.
* Michot, Yahya. "Ibn Taymiyya's 'New Mardin Fatwa'. Is genetically modified Islam (GMI) carcinogenic?" in ''The Muslim World'', 101/2, April 2011, pp.&nbsp;130–181.
* Michot, Yahya. "From al-Ma'mūn to Ibn Sab'īn, via Avicenna: Ibn Taymiyya's Historiography of Falsafa", in F. OPWIS & D. REISMAN (eds.), ''Islamic Philosophy, Science, Culture, and Religion''. Studies in Honor of Dimitri Gutas (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2012), pp.&nbsp;453–475.
* Michot, Yahya. "Between Entertainment and Religion: Ibn Taymiyya's Views on Superstition", in ''The Muslim World'', 99/1, January 2009, pp.&nbsp;1–20.
* Michot, Yahya. "Misled and Misleading... Yet Central in their Influence: Ibn Taymiyya's Views on the Ikhwān al-Safā{{'"}}, in ''The Ikhwān al-Safā' and their Rasā'il. An Introduction''. Edited by Nader EL-BIZRI. Foreword by Farhad DAFTARY (Oxford: Oxford University Press, in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, ''Epistles of the Brethren of Purity''), 2008, pp.&nbsp;139–179.
* Michot, Yahya. "Ibn Taymiyya's Commentary on the Creed of al-Hallâj", in A. SHIHADEH (ed.), ''Sufism and Theology'' (Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2007), pp.&nbsp;123–136.
* Michot, Yahya. "A Mamlûk Theologian's Commentary on Avicenna's ''Risāla Aḍḥawiyya''. Being a Translation of a Part of the ''Dar' al-Ta'āruḍ'' of Ibn Taymiyya, with Introduction, Annotation, and Appendices, Part I", in ''Journal of Islamic Studies'', 14:2, Oxford, 2003, pp.&nbsp;149–203.
* Michot, Yahya. "A Mamlûk Theologian's Commentary on Avicenna's ''Risāla Aḍḥawiyya''. Being a Translation of a Part of the ''Dar' al-Ta'āruḍ'' of Ibn Taymiyya, with Introduction, Annotation, and Appendices, Part II", in ''Journal of Islamic Studies'', 14:3, Oxford, 2003, pp.&nbsp;309–363.
* Michot, Yahya. "Ibn Taymiyya on Astrology. Annotated Translation of Three Fatwas", in ''Journal of Islamic Studies'', 11/2, Oxford, May 2000, pp.&nbsp;147–208.
* Michot, Yahya. "Ibn Taymiyya's Critique of Shī'ī Imāmology. Translation of Three Sections of his ''Minhāj al-Sunna''", in ''The Muslim World'', 104/1–2, Hartford, Jan–April 2014, pp.&nbsp;109–149.
* Michot, Yahya. "An Important Reader of al-Ghazālī: Ibn Taymiyya", in ''The Muslim World'', 103/1, Hartford, January 2013, pp.&nbsp;131–160.
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{Sister project links|s=Author:Ibn Taymiyya|wikt=no|v=no|n=no}}
{{Library resources box|by=yes|onlinebooks=yes|about=yes|wikititle=Ibn Taymiyya}}
* {{sep entry|ibn-taymiyya|Ibn Taymiyya|Jon Hoover}}

{{Hanbali scholars}}
{{Medieval Philosophy}}
{{Islamic Theology|state=collapsed}}
{{Islamic philosophy}}
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Latest revision as of 13:14, 24 December 2024

Islamic scholar and jurist

ImamIbn Taymiyya
ابن تيمية
Personal life
Born22 January 1263 CE
10 Rabi' al-Awwal 661 AH
Harran, Mamluk Sultanate (modern-day Turkey)
Died26 September 1328 CE (aged 65)
20 Dhu al-Qa'da 728 AH
Damascus, Mamluk Sultanate (modern-day Syria)
EraHigh Middle Ages
Notable work(s)
  • Minhaj al-sunnah al-Nabawiyya
  • al-Aqida al-Wasitiyya
  • al-Sarim al-Maslul ala Shatim al-Rasul
  • ”al-Jawab al-Sahih”
Alma materMadrasa Dar al-Hadith al-Sukariyya
Religious life
ReligionIslam
DenominationSunni
JurisprudenceHanbali
CreedAthari
Muslim leader
Influenced by
Influenced
Arabic name
Personal
(Ism)
Aḥmad
أَحْمَد
Patronymic
(Nasab)
Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm ibn ʿAbd al-Salām ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Khiḍr ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Khiḍr ibn Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh
ٱبْن عَبْد ٱلْحَلِيم بْن عَبْد ٱلسَّلَام بْن عَبْد ٱللَّٰه بْن ٱلْخِضْر بْن مُحَمَّد بْن ٱلْخِضْر بْن إِبْرَاهِيم بْن عَلِيّ بْن عَبْد ٱللَّٰه
Teknonymic
(Kunya)
Abū al-ʿAbbās
أَبُو ٱلْعَبَّاس
Epithet
(Laqab)
Taqī al-Dīn
تَقِيّ ٱلدِّين
Toponymic
(Nisba)
Al-Numayrī al-Ḥarrānī
ٱلنُّمَيْرِيّ ٱلْحَرَّانِيّ
Part of a series on:
Salafi movement
Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab Mosque, Qatar
Theology and Influences
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Ibn Taymiyya (Arabic: ٱبْن تَيْمِيَّة; 22 January 1263 – 26 September 1328) was a Sunni Muslim scholar, jurist, traditionist, ascetic, proto-Salafi theologian and iconoclast. He is known for his diplomatic involvement with the Ilkhanid ruler Ghazan Khan at the Battle of Marj al-Saffar, which ended the Mongol invasions of the Levant. A legal jurist of the Hanbali school, Ibn Taymiyya's condemnation of numerous Sufi practices associated with saint veneration and visitation of tombs made him a controversial figure with many rulers and scholars of the time, which caused him to be imprisoned several times as a result.

A polarizing figure in his own times and the centuries that followed, Ibn Taymiyya has emerged as one of the most influential medieval scholars in late modern Sunni Islam. He is also noteworthy for engaging in fierce religious polemics that attacked various schools of speculative theology, primarily Ash'arism and Maturidism, while defending the doctrines of Atharism. This prompted rival clerics and state authorities to accuse Ibn Taymiyya and his disciples of anthropomorphism, which eventually led to the censoring of his works and subsequent incarceration.

Nevertheless, Ibn Taymiyya's numerous treatises that advocate for al-salafiyya al-iʿtiqādiyya, based on his scholarly interpretations of the Quran and prophetic way, constitute the most popular classical reference for later Salafi movements. It's worth noting that, although the Salafi movement claims to follow Ibn Taymiyya's teachings four centuries later, their stance often diverges from his, tending to be somewhat more extreme. Throughout his treatises, Ibn Taymiyya asserted there is no contradiction between reason and revelation, and denounced the usage of philosophy as a pre-requisite in seeking religious truth. As a cleric who viewed Shiasm as a source of corruption in Muslim societies, Ibn Taymiyya was also known for his anti-Shia polemics throughout treatises such as Minhaj al-Sunna, wherein he denounced the Imami Shia creed as heretical. He issued a ruling to wage jihad against the Shias of Kisrawan and personally fought in the Kisrawan campaigns himself, accusing Shias of acting as the fifth-columnists of the Frank Crusaders and Mongol Ilkhanids.

Within recent history, Ibn Taymiyya has been widely regarded as a major scholarly influence in militant Islamist movements, such as Salafi jihadism. Major aspects of his teachings, such as upholding the pristine monotheism of the early Muslim generations and campaigns to uproot what he regarded as polytheism, had a profound influence on Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, the founder of the Wahhabism reform movement formed in the Arabian Peninsula, as well as other later Sunni scholars. Syrian Salafi theologian Muhammad Rashid Rida, one of the major modern proponents of Ibn Taymiyya's works, designated him as the Mujaddid of the 7th Islamic century. Ibn Taymiyya's doctrinal positions, such as his excommunication of the Mongol Ilkhanids and allowing jihad against other Muslims, were referenced by later Islamist political movements, including the Muslim Brotherhood, Hizb ut-Tahrir, al-Qaeda, and Islamic State, to justify social uprisings against the contemporary governments of the Muslim world.

Ibn Taymiyya paradoxically has an anti-Sufi reputation, although this is inaccurate. This false reputation is the result of the selective and out-of-context use of some of his writings by fundamentalist movements. While he sometimes held radical positions, Ibn Taymiyya criticized certain practices or ideas he considered deviations, yet he acknowledged that Sufism is an integral part of Islam and praised many Sufi masters. It was even claimed that he himself was affiliated with the Qadiriyya order.

Biography

Early years

Family

Ibn Taymiyya was born on 10 Rabi' al-Awwal 661 AH in Harran, Mamluk Sultanate to a family of traditional Hanbali scholars. He had Arab and Kurdish lineages by way of his Arab father and Kurdish mother. His father, Shihab al-Din Abd al-Halim ibn Taymiyya, held the Hanbali chair in Harran and later at the Umayyad Mosque. At the time, Harran was a part of the Mamluk Sultanate, near what is today the border of Syria and Turkey, currently in the Şanlıurfa Province. At the beginning of the Islamic period, Harran was located in Diyar Mudar, the land of the Mudar tribe. Before its destruction by the Mongols, Harran was also well-known since the early days of Islam for its tradition of adhering to the Hanbali school, to which Ibn Taymiyya's family belonged. His grandfather, Majd al-Din ibn Taymiyya, and his uncle, Fakhr al-Din, were both reputable scholars of the Hanbali school, and their scholarly achievements well-known.

Education

In 1269, Ibn Taymiyya, aged seven, left Harran together with his father and three brothers; however, the city was completely destroyed by the ensuing Mongol invasion. Ibn Taymiyya's family moved and settled in Damascus, Syria, which was ruled by the Mamluk Sultanate at the time.

In Damascus, his father served as the director of the Sukkariyya Madrasa, a place where Ibn Taymiyya also received his early education. He acquainted himself with the religious and secular sciences of his time. His religious studies began in his early teens when he committed the entire Quran to memory, and later came to learn the disciplines of the Quran. From his father, he learnt the religious science of jurisprudence and its principles. Ibn Taymiyya studied the works of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Abu Bakr al-Khallal, and Ibn Qudama, as well as the works of his own grandfather, Majd al-Din. His study of jurisprudence was not limited to the Hanbali tradition, as he also studied the other schools of jurisprudence.

The number of scholars under which he studied hadith is said to number more than two-hundred, four of whom were women. Those who are known by name amount to forty hadith teachers, as recorded by Ibn Taymiyya in his work titled Arba'un Haditha. Serajul Haque says, based on this, Ibn Taymiyya started to hear hadith from the age of five. One of Ibn Taymiyya's teachers was the first Hanbali Chief Justice of Syria, Shams al-Din al-Maqdisi, who held the newly created position instituted by Baibars as part of a reform of the judiciary. Al-Maqdisi later came to give Ibn Taymiyya permission to issue legal verdicts, making him a judge at the age of seventeen.

Ibn Taymiyya's secular studies led him to devote attention to the Arabic language and literature by studying Arabic grammar and lexicography under Ali ibn Abd al-Qawi al-Tufi. He went on to master the famous book of Arabic grammar al-Kitab, written by the grammarian Sibawayhi. He also studied mathematics, algebra, calligraphy, speculative theology, philosophy, history, and heresiography. With the knowledge he gained from history and philosophy, he set to refute the prevalent philosophical discourses of his time, one of which was Aristotelianism. Ibn Taymiyya also learnt about Sufism and stated he had reflected on the works of Sahl al-Tustari, al-Junayd al-Baghdadi, Abu Talib al-Makki, Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, Shihab al-Din Umar al-Suhrawardi, and Ibn Arabi. In 1282, Ibn Taymiyya completed his education at the age of 20.

Life as a scholar

The Umayyad Mosque pictured in 1895, where Ibn Taymiyya used to give lessons.

After his father died in 1284, he took up the then vacant post as the head of the Sukkariyya madrasa and began giving lessons on Hadith. A year later he started giving lessons, as chair of the Hanbali Zawiya on Fridays at the Umayyad Mosque, on the subject of tafsir (exegesis of Qur'an). In November 1292, Ibn Taymiyya performed the Hajj and after returning 4 months later, he wrote his first book aged twenty nine called Manasik al-Hajj (Rites of the Pilgrimage), in which he criticized and condemned the religious innovations he saw take place there. Ibn Taymiyya represented the Hanbali school of thought during this time. The Hanbali school was seen as the most traditional school out of the four legal systems (Hanafi, Maliki and Shafi'i) because it was "suspicious of the Hellenist disciplines of philosophy and speculative theology." He remained faithful throughout his life to this school, whose doctrines he had mastered, but he nevertheless called for ijtihad (independent reasoning by one who is qualified) and discouraged taqlid.

Ibn Taymiyya had a simple life, most of which he dedicated to learning, writing, and teaching. He never married nor did he have a female companion throughout his years. Professor Al-Matroudi stated that this may be why he was able to engage fully with the political affairs of his time without holding any official position such as that of a qadi. An offer of an official position was made to him but he never accepted.

Possible influences

Ibn Taymiyya was taught by scholars who were renowned in their time; however, there is no evidence any of them had a significant influence on him.

A strong influence on Ibn Taymiyya was the founder of the Hanbali school itself, Ahmad ibn Hanbal. Ibn Taymiyya was trained in his school by studying Ahmad's Musnad in great detail, having studied it multiple times. Though he spent much of his life following this school, he renounced blind-following near the end of his life.

His work was most influenced by the sayings and actions of the first three generations of Muslims (salaf), which is displayed in his works where he would give preference to their opinions over those of his contemporaries. The modern Salafi movement derives its name from these generations.

Relationship with the authorities

Ibn Taymiyya's own relationship, as a religious scholar, with the ruling apparatus was not always amicable. It ranged from silence to open rebellion. On occasions when he shared the same views and aims as the ruling authorities his contributions were welcomed, but when Ibn Taymiyya went against the status quo, he was seen as "uncooperative", and on occasions spent much time in prison. Ibn Taymiyya's attitude towards his own rulers was based on the actions of Muhammad's companions when they made an oath of allegiance to him as follows; "to obey within obedience to God, even if the one giving the order is unjust; to abstain from disputing the authority of those who exert it; and to speak out the truth, or take up its cause without fear in respect of God, of blame from anyone."

Ibn Taymiyya was a religious scholar as well as an Islamic political activist. In his efforts he was persecuted and imprisoned on six occasions with the total time spent inside prison coming to over six years. Other sources say that he spent over twelve years in prison. His detentions were due to the pushback from the clerical establishment of the Mamluk Sultanate, who opposed certain elements of his creed and his views on some jurisprudential issues. However, according to Yahya Michot, "the real reasons were more trivial". Michot stated five reasons as to why Ibn Taymiyya was imprisoned by the Mamluk government, they being: not complying with the "doctrines and practices prevalent among powerful religious and Sufi establishments, an overly outspoken personality, the jealousy of his peers, the risk to public order due to this popular appeal and political intrigues." Baber Johansen stated that the reasons for Ibn Taymiyya's incarcerations were, "as a result of his conflicts with Muslim mystics, jurists, and theologians, who were able to persuade the political authorities of the necessity to limit Ibn Taymiyya's range of action through political censorship and incarceration."

Ibn Taymiyya's emergence in the public and political spheres began in 1293 when he was 30 years old, when the authorities asked him to issue a fatwa (legal verdict) on Assaf al-Nasrani, a Christian cleric who was accused of insulting Muhammad. He accepted the invitation and delivered his fatwa, calling for the man to receive the death penalty. Despite the fact that public opinion was very much on Ibn Taymiyya's side, the Governor of Syria attempted to resolve the situation by asking Assaf to accept Islam in return for his life, to which he agreed. This resolution was not acceptable to Ibn Taymiyya who then, together with his followers, protested against it outside the governor's palace, demanding that Assaf be put to death, on the grounds that any person—Muslim or non-Muslim—who insults Muhammad must be killed. His unwillingness to compromise, coupled with his attempt to protest against the governor's actions, resulted in him being punished with a prison sentence, the first of many such imprisonments which were to come. The French orientalist Henri Laoust says that during his incarceration, Ibn Taymiyya "wrote his first great work, al-Ṣārim al-maslūl ʿalā shātim al-Rasūl (The Drawn Sword against those who insult the Messenger)." Ibn Taymiyya, together with the help of his disciples, continued with his efforts against what, "he perceived to be un-Islamic practices" and to implement what he saw as his religious duty of commanding good and forbidding wrong. Yahya Michot says that some of these incidences included: "shaving children's heads", leading "an anti-debauchery campaign in brothels and taverns", hitting an atheist before his public execution, destroying what was thought to be a sacred rock in a mosque, attacking astrologers and obliging "deviant Sufi Shaykhs to make public acts of contrition and adhere to the Sunnah." Ibn Taymiyya and his disciples used to condemn wine sellers and they would attack wine shops in Damascus by breaking wine bottles and pouring them onto the floor.

A few years later in 1296, he took over the position of one of his teachers (Zayn al-Din Ibn al-Munadjdjaal), taking the post of professor of Hanbali jurisprudence at the Hanbaliyya madrasa, the oldest such institution of this tradition in Damascus. This is seen by some to be the peak of his scholarly career. The year when he began his post at the Hanbaliyya madrasa, was a time of political turmoil. The Mamluk sultan Al-Adil Kitbugha was deposed by his vice-sultan Al-Malik al-Mansur Lajin who then ruled from 1297 to 1299. Lajin desired to commission an expedition against the Christians of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia who formed an alliance with the Mongol Empire and participated in the military campaign which lead to the destruction of Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate, and the destruction of Harran, the birthplace of Ibn Taymiyya, for that purpose, he urged Ibn Taymiyya to call the Muslims to Jihad.

In 1298, Ibn Taymiyya wrote his explanation for the ayat al-mutashabihat (the unclear verses of the Qur'an) titled Al-`Aqidat al-Hamawiyat al-Kubra (The creed of the great people of Hama). The book is about divine attributes and it served as an answer to a question from the city of Hama, Syria. At that particular time Ash'arites held prominent positions within the Islamic scholarly community in both Syria and Egypt, and they held a certain position on the divine attributes of God. Ibn Taymiyya in his book strongly disagreed with their views and this heavy opposition to the common Ash'ari position, caused considerable controversy.

Once more, Ibn Taymiyya collaborated with the Mamluks in 1300, when he joined the punitive expedition against the Alawites and Shiites, in the Kasrawan region of the Lebanese mountains. Ibn Taymiyya believed that the Alawites were "more heretical than Jews and Christians", and according to Carole Hillenbrand, the confrontation with the Alawites occurred because they "were accused of collaborating with Christians and Mongols." Ibn Taymiyya had further active involvements in campaigns against the Mongols and their alleged Alawite allies.

In 1305, Ibn Taymiyya took part in a second military offensive against the Alawites and the Isma`ilis in the Kasrawan region of the Lebanese mountains where they were defeated. The majority of the Alawis and Ismailis eventually converted to Twelver Shiism and settled in south Lebanon and the Bekaa valley, with a few Shia pockets that survived in the Lebanese mountains.

Involvement in the Mongol invasions

Further information: Mongol invasions of the Levant and Ilkhanate empire

First invasion

See also: Mongol campaign of 1299-1300 and Battle of Wadi al-Khaznadar

The first invasion took place between December 1299 and April 1300 due to the military campaign by the Mamluks against the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia who were allied with the Mongols. Due to the Mongol legal system that neglected sharia and implemented Yassa; Ibn Taymiyya had declared Takfir upon the Ilkhanid regime and its armies for ruling by man-made laws, despite these laws being rarely enforced in Muslim majority regions in an extensive manner. Openly rejecting Ghazan Khan's claim to "pādishāh al-islām" (King of Islam), a title which Ghazan took to legitimise his military campaigns, Ibn Taymiyya denounced him as an "infidel king" and issued numerous fatwas condemning the political order of the Tatars. The Ilkhanate army managed to defeat the Mamluk Sultanate in The Third Battle of Homs and reach Damascus by the end of December 1299. Fearful of Mongol atrocities, many scholars, intellectuals and officers began to flee Damascus in panic. Ibn Taymiyya was one of those clerics who stood firm alongside the vulnerable Damascus citizens and called for an uncompromising and heroic resistance to the Tatar invaders. Ibn Taymiyya drew parallels of their crisis with the Riddah wars (Apostate wars) fought by the first Muslim Caliph, Abu Bakr, against the renegade Arabian tribes that abandoned sharia. Ibn Taymiyya severely rebuked those Muslims escaping in the face of Mongol onslaught and compared their state to the withdrawal of Muslims in the Battle of Uhud. In a passionate letter to the commander of the Damascene Citadel, Ibn Taymiyya appealed:

"Until there stands even a single rock, do everything in your power to not surrender the castle. There is great benefit for the people of Syria. Allah declared it a sanctuary for the people of Shām—where it will remain a land of faith and sunna until the descent of the Prophet Jesus."

Despite political pressure, Ibn Taymiyya's directives were heeded by the Mamluk officer and Mongol negotiations to surrender the Citadel stalled. Shortly after, Ibn Taymiyya and a number of his acolytes and pupils took part in a counter-offensive targeting various Shia tribes allied to the Mongols in the peripheral regions of the city; thereby repelling the Mongol attack. Ibn Taymiyya went with a delegation of Islamic scholars to talk to Ghazan Khan, who was the Khan of the Mongol Ilkhanate of Iran, to plead clemency. By early January 1300, the Mongol allies, the Armenians and Georgians, had caused widespread damage to Damascus and they had taken Syrian prisoners. The Mongols effectively occupied Damascus for the first four months of 1303. Most of the military had fled the city, including most of the civilians. Ibn Taymiyya however, stayed and was one of the leaders of the resistance inside Damascus and he went to speak directly to the Ilkhan, Mahmud Ghazan, and his vizier Rashid al-Din Tabib. He sought the release of Muslim and dhimmi prisoners which the Mongols had taken in Syria, and after negotiation, secured their release.

An artist illustrated of Ghazan Khan, a historical figure harshly rebuked by Ibn Taymiyya, mainly due to his constant state of hostility towards the Mamluks of Egypt.

Second invasion

The second invasion lasted between October 1300 and January 1301. Ibn Taymiyya at this time began giving sermons on jihad at the Umayyad mosque. As the civilians began to flee in panic; Ibn Taymiyya pronounced fatwas declaring the religious duty upon Muslims to fight the Mongol armies to death, inflict a massive defeat and expel them from Syria in its entirety. Ibn Taymiyya also spoke to and encouraged the Governor of Damascus, al-Afram, to achieve victory over the Mongols. He became involved with al-Afram once more, when he was sent to get reinforcements from Cairo. Narrating Ibn Taymiyya's fierce stance on fighting the Mongols, Ibn Kathir reports:

even if you see me on their side with a Qurʾan on my side, kill them immediately!

— Ibn Taymiyya, in Ismail Ibn Kathir, al-Bidāya wa-l-Nihāya, vol. 14, 7–8,

Third invasion and Takfir of Ilkhanate Allies

See also: Excommunication in Islam, Takfirism, and Battle of Marj al-Saffar (1303)

The year 1303 saw the third Mongol invasion of Syria by Ghazan Khan. What has been called Ibn Taymiyya's "most famous" fatwā was his third fatwa issued against the Mongols in the Mamluk's war. Ibn Taymiyya declared that jihad against the Mongol attack on the Malmuk sultanate was not only permissible, but obligatory. The reason being that the Mongols could not, in his opinion, be true Muslims despite the fact that they had converted to Sunni Islam because they ruled using what he considered 'man-made laws' (their traditional Yassa code) rather than Islamic law or Sharia, whilst believing that the Yassa code was better than the Sharia law. Because of this, he reasoned they were living in a state of jahiliyyah, or pre-Islamic pagan ignorance. Not only were Ilkhanate political elites and its military disbelievers in the eyes of Ibn Taymiyya; but anybody who joined their ranks were as guilty of riddah (apostasy) as them:

"Whoever joins them—meaning the Tatars—among commanders of the military and non-commanders, their ruling is the same as theirs, and they have apostatized from the laws . If the righteous forbears have called the withholders from charity apostates despite their fasting, praying, and not fighting the Muslims, how about those who became murderers of the Muslims with the enemies of Allah and His Messenger?"

— Ibn Taymiyya, in Majmu’ al-fatawa, vol. 28, 530,

The fatwa broke new Islamic legal ground because "no jurist had ever before issued a general authorization for the use of lethal force against Muslims in battle", and would later influence modern-day Jihadists in their use of violence against other Muslims whom they deemed as apostates. In his legal verdicts issued to inform the populace, Ibn Taymiyya classified the Tatars and their advocates into four types:

  • Kaafir Asli (i.e., those original non-Muslims fighting in Tatar armies and who never embraced Islam)
  • Muslims of other ethnicities who became apostates due to their alliance with Mongols
  • Irreligious Muslims aligned with Ilkhanids whom Ibn Taymiyya analogized with renegade Arabian tribes of the Riddah wars
  • Personally pious Muslims affiliated with the Mongol armies. Ibn Taymiyya harshly rebuked these people as the "most evil" faction; and argued that their piety was useless because of their decision to ally with non-Muslims who ruled by man-made laws. This rationale was also expanded to excommunicate those "court scholars" who vindicated the Tatar authorities

Ibn Taymiyya called on the Muslims to jihad once again and personally participated in the Battle of Marj al-Saffar against the Ilkhanid army; leading his disciples in the field with a sword. The battle began on April 20 of that year. On the same day, Ibn Taymiyya declared a fatwa which exempted Mamluk soldiers from fasting during Ramadan so that they could preserve their strength. Within two days the Mongols were severely crushed and the battle was won; thus ending Mongol control of Syria. These incidents greatly increased the scholarly prestige and social stature of Ibn Taymiyya amongst the masses, despite opposition from the establishment clergy. He would soon be appointed as the chief professor of the elite scholarly institute "Kāmiliyya Dār al-Haḍīth."

Contemporary Impact

Ibn Taymiyya's three unprecedented fatwas (legal verdicts) that excommunicated the Ilkhanid authorities and their supporters as apostates over their neglect to govern by Sharia (Islamic law) and preference of the traditional Mongol imperial code of Yassa; would form the theological basis of 20th century Islamist and Jihadist scholars and ideologues. Reviving Ibn Taymiyya's fatwas during the late 20th-century, Jihadist ideologues like Sayyid Qutb, Abd al-Salam al-Faraj, Abdullah Azzam, Usama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, etc. made public Takfir (excommunication) of contemporary governments of the Muslim world and called for their revolutionary overthrowal through armed Jihad.

Imprisonment on charges of anthropomorphism

Ibn Taymiyya was a fervent polemicist who zealously launched theological refutations against various religious sects such as the Sufis, Jahmites, Ash'arites, Shias, Falsafa, etc., labelling them as heretics responsible for the crisis of Mongol invasions across the Islamic World. He was imprisoned several times for conflicting with the prevailing opinions of the jurists and theologians of his day. A judge from the city of Wasit, Iraq, requested that Ibn Taymiyya write a book on creed. His subsequent creedal work, Al-Aqidah Al-Waasitiyyah, caused him trouble with the authorities. Ibn Taymiyya adopted the view that God should be described as he was literally described in the Qur'an and in the hadith, and that all Muslims were required to believe this because according to him it was the view held by the early Muslim community (salaf). Within the space of two years (1305–1306) four separate religious council hearings were held to assess the correctness of his creed.

The first hearing was held with Ash'ari scholars who accused Ibn Taymiyya of anthropomorphism. At the time Ibn Taymiyya was 42 years old. He was protected by the then Governor of Damascus, Aqqush al-Afram, during the proceedings. The scholars suggested that he accept that his creed was simply that of the Hanbalites and offered this as a way out of the charge. However, if Ibn Taymiyya ascribed his creed to the Hanbali school of law then it would be just one view out of the four schools which one could follow rather than a creed everybody must adhere to. Uncompromising, Ibn Taymiyya maintained that it was obligatory for all scholars to adhere to his creed.

Two separate councils were held a year later on January 22 and 28, 1306. The first council was in the house of the Governor of Damascus Aqqush al-Afram, who had protected him the year before when facing the Shafii scholars. A second hearing was held six days later where the Indian scholar Safi al-Din al-Hindi found him innocent of all charges and accepted that his creed was in line with the "Qur'an and the Sunnah". Regardless, in April 1306 the chief Islamic judges of the Mamluk state declared Ibn Taymiyya guilty and he was incarcerated. He was released four months later in September.

After his release in Damascus, the doubts regarding his creed seemed to have resolved but this was not the case. A Shafii scholar, Ibn al-Sarsari, was insistent on starting another hearing against Ibn Taymiyya which was held once again at the house of the Governor of Damascus, Al-Afram. His book Al-Aqidah Al-Waasitiyyah was still not found at fault. At the conclusion of this hearing, Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn al-Sarsari were sent to Cairo to settle the problem.

Life in Egypt

His debate on anthropomorphism and his imprisonment

On the arrival of Ibn Taymiyya and the Shafi'ite scholar in Cairo in 1306, an open meeting was held. The Mamluk sultan at the time was Al-Nasir Muhammad and his deputy attended the open meeting. Ibn Taymiyya was found innocent. Despite the open meeting, objections regarding his creed continued and he was summoned to the Citadel in Cairo for a munazara (legal debate), which took place on April 8, 1306. During the munazara, his views on divine attributes, specifically whether a direction could be attributed to God, were debated by the Indian scholar Safi al-Din al-Hindi, in the presence of Islamic judges. Ibn Taymiyya failed to convince the judges of his position and so was incarcerated for the charge of anthropomorphism on the recommendation of al-Hindi. Thereafter, he together with his two brothers were imprisoned in the Citadel of the Mountain (Qal'at al-Jabal), in Cairo until September 25, 1307. He was freed due to the help he received from two amirs; Salar and Muhanna ibn Isa, but he was not allowed to go back to Syria. He was then again summoned for a legal debate, but this time he convinced the judges that his views were correct and he was allowed to go free.

His trial for intercession and his imprisonment

Citadel of Cairo, the place where Ibn Taymiyya was imprisoned for 18 months

Ibn Taymiyya continued to face troubles for his views which were found to be at odds with those of his contemporaries. His strong opposition to what he believed to be religious innovations, caused upset among the prominent Sufis of Egypt including Ibn Ata Allah and Karim al-Din al-Amuli, and the locals who started to protest against him. Their main contention was Ibn Taymiyya's stance on tawassul (intercession). In his view, a person could not ask anyone other than God for help except on the Day of Judgement when intercession in his view would be possible. At the time, the people did not restrict intercession to just the Day of Judgement but rather they said it was allowed in other cases. Due to this, Ibn Taymiyya, now aged 45, was ordered to appear before the Shafi'i judge Badr al-Din in March 1308 and was questioned on his stance regarding intercession. Thereafter, he was incarcerated in the prison of the judges in Cairo for some months. After his release, he was allowed to return to Syria, should he so wish. Ibn Taymiyya however stayed in Egypt for a further five years.

House arrest in Alexandria

1309, the year after his release, saw a new Mamluk sultan accede to the throne, Baibars al-Jashnakir. His reign, marked by economical and political unrest, only lasted a year. In August 1309, Ibn Taymiyya was taken into custody and placed under house arrest for seven months in the new sultan's palace in Alexandria. He was freed when al-Nasir Muhammad retook the position of sultan on March 4, 1310. Having returned to Cairo a week later, he was received by al-Nasir. The sultan would sometimes consult Ibn Taymiyya on religious affairs and policies during the rest of his three-year stay in Cairo. During this time he continued to teach and wrote his famous book Al-Kitab al-Siyasa al-shar'iyya (Treatise on the Government of the Religious Law), a book noted for its account of the role of religion in politics.

Return to Damascus and later years

He spent his last fifteen years in Damascus. Aged 50, Ibn Taymiyya returned to Damascus via Jerusalem on February 28, 1313. Damascus was now under the governorship of Tankiz. There, Ibn Taymiyya continued his teaching role as professor of Hanbali fiqh. This is when he taught his most famous student, Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya, who went on to become a noted scholar in Islamic history. Ibn Qayyim was to share in Ibn Taymiyya's renewed persecution.

Three years after his arrival in the city, Ibn Taymiyya became involved in efforts to deal with the increasing Shia influence amongst Sunni Muslims. An agreement had been made in 1316 between the amir of Mecca and the Ilkhanid ruler Öljaitü, brother of Ghazan Khan, to allow a favourable policy towards Shi'ism in the city. Around the same time the Shia theologian Al-Hilli, who had played a crucial role in the Mongol ruler's decision to make Shi'ism the state religion of Persia, wrote the book Minhaj al-Karamah (The Way of Charisma'), which dealt with the Shia doctrine of the Imamate and also served as a refutation of the Sunni doctrine of the caliphate. In response, Ibn Taymiyya wrote his famous book, Minhaj as-Sunnah an-Nabawiyyah, as a refutation of Al-Hilli's work.

His fatwa on divorce and imprisonment

In 1318, Ibn Taymiyya wrote a treatise that would curtail the ease with which a Muslim man could divorce his wife. Ibn Taymiyya's fatwa on divorce was not accepted by the majority of scholars of the time and this continued into the Ottoman era. However, almost every modern Muslim nation-state has come to adopt Ibn Taymiyya's position on this issue of divorce. At the time he issued the fatwa, Ibn Taymiyya revived an edict by the sultan not to issue fatwas on this issue but he continued to do so, saying, "I cannot conceal my knowledge". As in previous instances, he stated that his fatwa was based on the Qur'an and hadith. His view on the issue was at odds with the Hanbali position. This proved controversial among the people in Damascus as well as the Islamic scholars who opposed him on the issue.

According to the scholars of the time, an oath of divorce counted as a full divorce and they were also of the view that three oaths of divorce taken under one occasion counted as three separate divorces. The significance of this was, that a man who divorces the same partner three times is no longer allowed to remarry that person until and if that person marries and divorces another person. Only then could the man, who took the oath, remarry his previous wife. Ibn Taymiyya accepted this but rejected the validity of three oaths taken under one sitting to count as three separate divorces as long as the intention was not to divorce. Moreover, Ibn Taymiyya was of the view that a single oath of divorce uttered but not intended, also does not count as an actual divorce. He stated that since this is an oath much like an oath taken in the name of God, a person must expiate for an unintentional oath in a similar manner.

Due to his views and also by not abiding to the sultan's letter two years before forbidding him from issuing a fatwa on the issue, three council hearings were held, in as many years (1318, 1319 and 1320), to deal with this matter. The hearing were overseen by the Viceroy of Syria, Tankiz. This resulted in Ibn Taymiyya being imprisoned on August 26, 1320, in the Citadel of Damascus. He was released about five months and 18 days later, on February 9, 1321, by order of the Sultan Al-Nasir. Ibn Taymiyya was reinstated as teacher of Hanbali law and he resumed teaching.

His risāla on visits to tombs and his final imprisonment

In 1310, Ibn Taymiyya had written a risāla (treatise) called Ziyārat al-Qubūr or according to another source, Shadd al-rihal. It dealt with the validity and permissibility of making a journey to visit the tombs of prophets and saints. It is reported that in the book "he condemned the cult of saints" and declared that traveling with the sole purpose of visiting Muhammad's grave was a blameworthy religious innovation. For this, Ibn Taymiyya, was imprisoned in the Citadel of Damascus sixteen years later on July 18, 1326, aged 63, along with his student Ibn Qayyim. The sultan also prohibited him from issuing any further fatwas. Hanbali scholar Ahmad ibn Umar al-Maqdisi accused Ibn Taymiyya of apostasy over the treatise.

His life in prison

The Citadel of Damascus, the prison which Ibn Taymiyya died in

Ibn Taymiyya referred to his imprisonment as "a divine blessing". During his incarceration, he wrote that, "when a scholar forsakes what he knows of the Book of God and of the sunnah of His messenger and follows the ruling of a ruler which contravenes a ruling of God and his messenger, he is a renegade, an unbeliever who deserves to be punished in this world and in the hereafter."

During his imprisonment, he encountered opposition from the Maliki and Shafi'i Chief Justices of Damascus, Taḳī al-Dīn al-Ikhnāʾī. He remained in prison for over two years and ignored the sultan's prohibition, by continuing to deliver fatwas. During his incarceration Ibn Taymiyya wrote three works which are extant; Kitāb Maʿārif al-wuṣūl, Rafʿ al-malām, and Kitāb al-Radd ʿala 'l-Ikhnāʾī (The response to al-Ikhnāʾī). The last book was an attack on Taḳī al-Dīn al-Ikhnāʾī and explained his views on saints (wali).

When the Mongols invaded Syria in 1300, he was among those who called for a Jihad against them and he ruled that even though they had recently converted to Islam, they should be considered unbelievers. He went to Egypt in order to acquire support for his cause and while he was there, he got embroiled in religious-political disputes. Ibn Taymiyya's enemies accused him of advocating anthropomorphism, a view that was objectionable to the teachings of the Ash'ari school of Islamic theology, and in 1306, he was imprisoned for more than a year. Upon his release, he condemned popular Sufi practices and he also condemned the influence of Ibn Arabi (d. 1240), causing him to earn the enmity of leading Sufi shaykhs in Egypt and causing him to serve another prison sentence. In 1310, he was released by the Egyptian Sultan.

In 1313, the Sultan allowed Ibn Taymiyya to return to Damascus, where he worked as a teacher and a jurist. He had supporters among the powerful, but his outspokenness and his nonconformity to traditional Sunni doctrines and his denunciation of Sufi ideals and practices continued to draw the wrath of the religious and political authorities in Syria and Egypt. He was arrested and released several more times, but while he was in prison, he was allowed to write Fatwas (advisory opinions on matters of law) in defense of his beliefs. Despite the controversy that surrounded him, Ibn Taymiyya's influence grew and it spread from Hanbali circles to members of other Sunni legal schools and Sufi groups. Among his foremost students were Ibn Kathir (d. 1373), a leading medieval historian and a Quran commentator, and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziya (d. 1350), a prominent Hanbali jurist and a theologian who helped spread his teacher's influence after his teacher's death in 1328. Ibn Taymiyya died while he was a prisoner in the citadel of Damascus and he was buried in the city's Sufi cemetery.

Death

He fell ill in early September 1328 and died at the age of 65, on September 26 of that year, whilst in prison at the Citadel of Damascus. Once this news reached the public, there was a strong show of support for him from the people. After the authorities had given permission, it is reported that thousands of people came to show their respects. They gathered in the Citadel and lined the streets up to the Umayyad Mosque. The funeral prayer was held in the citadel by scholar Muhammad Tammam, and a second was held in the mosque. A third and final funeral prayer was held by Ibn Taymiyya's brother, Zain al-Din. He was buried in Damascus, in Maqbara Sufiyya ("the cemetery of the Sufis"). His brother Sharafuddin had been buried in that cemetery before him.

Oliver Leaman says that being deprived of the means of writing led to Ibn Taymiyya's death. It is reported that two hundred thousand men and fifteen to sixteen thousand women attended his funeral prayer. Ibn Kathir says that in the history of Islam, only the funeral of Ahmad ibn Hanbal received a larger attendance. This is also mentioned by Ibn `Abd al-Hadi. Caterina Bori says that, "In the Islamic tradition, wider popular attendance at funerals was a mark of public reverence, a demonstration of the deceased's rectitude, and a sign of divine approbation."

Ibn Taymiyya is said to have "spent a lifetime objecting to tomb veneration, only to cast a more powerful posthumous spell than any of his Sufi contemporaries." On his death, his personal effects were in such demand "that bidders for his lice-killing camphor necklace pushed its price up to 150 dirhams, and his skullcap fetched a full 500." A few mourners sought and succeeded in "drinking the water used for bathing his corpse." His tomb received "pilgrims and sightseers" for 600 years. His resting place is now "in the parking lot of a maternity ward", though as of 2009 its headstone was broken, according to author Sadakat Kadri.

Views

Further information: Views of Ibn Taymiyya

Students

Several of Ibn Taymiyya's students became notable scholars in their own right. His students came from different backgrounds and belonged to various different schools of thought. The most well-known of them are Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya and Ibn Kathir, while his other students include:

Influence in his time

In the 21st century, Ibn Taymiyya is one of the most cited medieval authors and his treatises are regarded to be of central intellectual importance by several Islamic revivalist movements. Ibn Taymiyya's disciples, consisting of both Hanbalis and non-Hanbalis, were attracted to his advocacy of ijtihad outside the established boundaries of the madhabs and shared his taste for activism and religious reform. Some of his unorthodox legal views in the field of Fiqh were also regarded as a challenge by mainstream Fuqaha. Many scholars have argued that Ibn Taymiyya did not enjoy popularity among the intelligentsia of his day. Yossef Rapoport and Shahab Ahmed assert that he was a minority figure in his own times and the centuries that followed. Caterina Bori goes further, arguing that despite popularity Ibn Taymiyya may have enjoyed among the masses, he appears to have been not merely unpopular among the scholars of his day, but somewhat of an embarrassment. Khalid El-Rouayheb notes similarly that Ibn Taymiyya had "very little influence on mainstream Sunni Islam until the nineteenth century" and that he was "a little-read scholar with problematic and controversial views." He also comments "the idea that Ibn Taymiyya had an immediate and significant impact on the course of Sunni Islamic religious history simply does not cohere with the evidence that we have from the five centuries that elapsed between his death and the rise of Sunni revivalism in the modern period." It was only since the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries that the scholarly influence of Ibn Taymiyya has come to acquire an unprecedented prominence in Muslim societies, due to the efforts of Islamic revivalists like Rashid Rida. On the other hand, Prof. Al-Matroudi of SOAS university says that Ibn Taymiyya, "was perhaps the most eminent and influential Hanbali jurist of the Middle Ages and one of the most prolific among them. He was also a renowned scholar of Islam whose influence was felt not only during his lifetime but extended through the centuries until the present day." Ibn Taymiyya's followers often deemed him as Sheikh ul-Islam, an honorific title with which he is sometimes still termed today.

In the pre-modern era, Ibn Taymiyya was considered a controversial figure within Sunni Islam and had a number of critics during his life and in the centuries thereafter. The Shafi'i scholar Ibn Hajar al-Haytami stated that,

Make sure you do not listen to what is in the books of Ibn Taymiyya and his student Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya and other such people who have taken their own whim as their God, and who have been led astray by God, and whose hearts and ears have been sealed, and whose eyes have been covered by Him... May God forsake the one who follows them, and purify the earth of their likes.

He also stated that,

Ibn Taymiyya is a servant whom God has forsaken, led astray, made blind and deaf, and degraded. Such is the explicit verdict of the leading scholars who have exposed the rottenness of his ways and the errors of his statements.

Taqi al-Din al-Hisni condemned Ibn Taymiyya in even stronger terms by referring to him as the "heretic from Harran" and similarly, Munawi considered Ibn Taymiyya to be an innovator though not an unbeliever. Taqi al-Din al-Subki criticised Ibn Taymiyya for "contradicting the consensus of the Muslims by his anthropomorphism, by his claims that accidents exist in God, by suggesting that God was speaking in time, and by his belief in the eternity of the world." Ibn Battūta (d. 770/1369) famously wrote a work questioning Ibn Taymiyya's mental state. The possibility of psychological abnormalities not with-standing, Ibn Taymiyya's personality, by multiple accounts, was fiery and oftentimes unpredictable. The historian Al-Maqrizi said, regarding the rift between the Sunni Ash'ari's and Ibn Taymiyya, "People are divided into two factions over the question of Ibn Taymiyya; for until the present, the latter has retained admirers and disciples in Syria and Egypt." Both his supporters and rivals grew to respect Ibn Taymiyya because he was uncompromising in his views. Dhahabi's views towards Ibn Taymiyya were ambivalent. His praise of Ibn Taymiyya is invariably qualified with criticism and misgivings and he considered him to be both a "brilliant Shaykh" and also "cocky" and "impetuous". The Hanafi-Maturidi scholar 'Ala' al-Din al-Bukhari said that anyone that gives Ibn Taymiyya the title Shaykh al-Islām is a disbeliever.

Despite the prevalent condemnations of Ibn Taymiyya outside Hanbali school during the pre-modern period, many prominent non-Hanbali scholars such as Ibrahim al-Kurrani (d.1690), Shāh Walī Allāh al-Dihlawi (d. 1762), Mehmet Birgiwi (d. 1573), Ibn al-Amīr Al-San'ani (d. 1768), Muḥammad al-Shawkānī (d. 1834), etc. would come to the defense of Ibn Taymiyya and advocate his ideas during this era. In the 18th century, influential South Asian Islamic scholar and revivalist Shah Waliullah Dehlawi would become the most prominent advocate of the doctrines of Ibn Taymiyya, and profoundly transformed the religious thought in South Asia. His seminary, Madrasah-i-Rahimya, became a hub of intellectual life in the country, and the ideas developed there quickly spread to wider academic circles. Making a powerful defense of Ibn Taymiyya and his doctrines, Shah Waliullah wrote:

Our assessment of Ibn Taimiyya after full investigation is that he was a scholar of the 'Book of God' and had full command over its etymological and juristic implications. He remembered by heart the traditions of the prophet and accounts of elders (salaf)... He excelled in intelligence and brilliance. He argued in defence of Ahl al-Sunnah with great eloquence and force. No innovation or irreligious act is reported about him... there is not a single matter on which he is without his defence based on the Qur'an and the Sunnah. So it is difficult to find a man in the whole world who possesses the qualities of Ibn Taimiyya. No one can come anywhere near him in the force of his speech and writing. People who harassed him did not possess even one-tenth of his scholarly excellence...

The reputation and stature of Ibn Taymiyya amongst non-Ḥanbalī Sunni scholars would significantly improve between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. From a little-read scholar considered controversial by many, he would become one of the most popular scholarly figures in the Sunni religious tradition. The nineteenth-century Iraqi scholar Khayr al-Dīn al-Ālūsī (d. 1899) wrote an influential treatise titled Jalā’ al-‘aynayn fi muḥākamat al-Aḥmadayn in defense of Ibn Taymiyya. The treatise would make great impact on major scholars of the Salafiyya movement in Syria and Egypt, such as Jamāl al-Dīn al-Qāsimī (d. 1914) and Muḥammad Rashīd Riḍā (d. 1935). Praising Ibn Taymiyya as a central and heroic Islamic figure of the classical era, Rashid Rida wrote:

...after the power of the Ash‘aris reigned supreme in the Middle Ages (al-qurūn al-wusṭā) and the ahl al-ḥadīth and the followers of the salaf were weakened, there appeared in the eighth century the great mujaddid, Shaykh al-Islam Aḥmad Taqī al-Dīn Ibn Taymiyya, whose like has not been seen in mastery of both the traditional and rational sciences and in the power of argument. Egypt and India have revived his books and the books of his student Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, after a time when they were only available in Najd. Now, they have spread to both east and west, and will become the main support of the Muslims of the earth.

Ibn Taymiyya's works served as an inspiration for later Muslim scholars and historical figures, who have been regarded as his admirers or disciples. In the contemporary world, he may be considered at the root of Wahhabism, the Senussi order and other later reformist movements. Ibn Taymiyya has been noted to have influenced Rashid Rida, Abul A`la Maududi, Sayyid Qutb, Hassan al-Banna, Abdullah Azzam, and Osama bin Laden. The terrorist organization Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant used a fatwa of Ibn Taymiyya to justify the burning alive of Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kasasbeh. After the Iranian revolution, conservative Sunni ulema robustly championed Ibn Taymiyya's anti-Shia polemics across the Islamic World since the 1980s; and vast majority of Sunni intellectual circles adopted Ibn Taymiyya's rhetoric against Shi'ism.

Influence in the modern period

Salafism

See also: Salafiyya Movement

Ibn Taymiyya's appeals to the precedence of the Qur’an and the Sunna over the authority of the madh'hab system has inspired a wide range of Islamic reform movements over the last few centuries, and especially the Salafiyya reform movement that differ from other Sunnis who adhere to the four legal schools of Fiqh (jurisprudence). These include the 17th century Kadizadeli movement, 18th century Wahhabi movement as well as the Islamic reformist movement of Ibn al-Amīr Al-San’ani (d. 1768) and Muḥammad al-Shawkānī (d. 1834) in Yemen. In the nineteenth century, Taymiyyan tradition would expand across the Islamic World; influencing the Ahl-i Hadith movement in South Asia and the Salafiyya movement in Iraq, Syria and Egypt.

Ibn Taymiyya adamantly insisted that his theological doctrines constituted the original creed of the Salaf, as well as that of Abul Hasan al-Ash'ari; the eponym of the Ash'arite school. He also believed that Sharia (Islamic law) was best preserved through the teachings and practices of the Salaf, the earliest three generations of Muslims. Modern Islamic revivalist movements salute Ibn Taymiyya as "the architect of Salafism", which symbolises the concept of reviving the traditions and values of the Golden Age of the prophet. For Salafiyya movements across the Islamic World, Ibn Taymiyya is their exemplar scholar who revived the methodology of the Salaf, and also a social reformer who defiantly stood against foreign occupation. Today, Salafi Muslims constitute the most avid readers and promoters of the works of Ibn Taymiyya.

Modern Islamism

See also: Islamism, Jihadism, Salafi Jihadism, Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda, and ISIL

Various concepts within modern Islamist movements can be attributed to Ibn Taymiyya. Ibn Taymiyya is highly revered in contemporary militant Islamist and Jihadist circles for his 1303 Fatwa of Takfir (excommunication) against Mongol Ilkhanate rulers (who were recent converts to Islam) and his assertion that it became obligatory for "true Muslims" to wage Jihad against the apostate Mongol leaders and Muslim citizens who accepted the Yassa code. Influenced by Ibn Taymiyya, Sayyid Qutb would take up Ibn Taymiyya's anti-Mongol fatwa and apply it on contemporary regimes across the Islamic World. Ibn Taymiyya's other major theological mission was to re-assert the primacy of armed jihad in Islamic faith, which played a major role in shaping future militant interpretations of Islam. Along with total, literal adherence to Sharia, he held that waging martial jihad was an Islamic religious obligation for all Muslims, when under foreign invasion. These ideas would be readily embraced in the 20th century by various militant Islamist movements and underpinned the theological justification for militancy of groups like Al-Qaeda, ISIS, etc. Scholars like Yahya Michot have noted that Ibn Taymiyya "has thus become a sort of forefather of al-Qaeda."

One of main arguments put forth by Ibn Taymiyya was his categorising the world into distinct territories: the domain of Islam (dar al-Islam), where the rule is of Islam and sharia law is enforced; the domain of unbelief (dar-al-kufr) ruled by unbelievers; and the domain of war (dar al-harb) which is territory under the rule of unbelievers who are involved in an active or potential conflict with the domain of Islam. (Ibn Taymiyya included a fourth. When the Mongols, whom he considered unbelievers, took control of the city of Mardin the population included many Muslims. Believing Mardin was neither the domain of Islam, as Islam was not legally applied with an armed forces consisting of Muslims, nor the domain of war because the inhabitants were Muslim, Ibn Taymiyya created a new "composite" category, known as dar al-`ahd.) A second concept is making a declaration of apostasy (takfir) against a Muslim who does not obey Islam. But at the same time Ibn Taymiyya maintained that no one can question anothers faith and curse them as based on one's own desire, because faith is defined by God and the prophet. He said, rather than cursing or condemning them, an approach should be taken where they are educated about the religion.

Another concept attributed to Ibn Taymiyya is, "the duty to oppose and kill Muslim rulers who do not implement the revealed law (shari'a). Based on this doctrine, Ibn Taymiyya excommunicated the Ilkhanid state for not ruling by Sharia (Islamic law); despite officially professing Islam. Ibn Taymiyya issued various fatwas obliging all Muslims to fight the Mongols; declaring them as mushrikun (polytheists) similar to the people from the age of Jahiliyya (pre-Islamic ignorance). Thus, he is widely regarded as the "spiritual forefather" of the Salafi-Jihadist thought. 20th century Islamist ideologues like Muhammad Rashid Rida, Sayyid Qutb, Abd al Salam Faraj, Usama bin Laden, etc. drew upon these revolutionary ideas to justify armed Jihad against the contemporary nation-states. Ibn Taymiyya's fatwa on Alawites as "more infidel than Christians and Jews" has been recited by Muslim Brotherhood affiliated scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi.

Ibn Taymiyya's role in the Islamist movements of the twentieth and twenty first century have also been noted by the previous Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the United States Department of State, Daniel Benjamin, who labels the chapter on the history of modern Islamic movements in his book The Age of Sacred Terror, as "Ibn Taymiyya and His children". Yossef Rapoport, a reader in Islamic history at Queen Mary, however, says this is not a probable narrative. Ibn Taymiyya's intellectual tradition and ideas such as his emphasis on the revival of pristine ideals and practices of early generations also made an intense impact on the leading ideologue of revolutionary Islamism in South Asia, Sayyid Abul A'la Maududi (1903–1979 C.E/ 1321–1399 A.H).

Mardin fatwas and the Mardin Conference

One of Ibn Taymiyya's most famous fatwas are regarding the Mongols who had conquered and destroyed the Abbasid caliphate in 1258 and had then converted to Islam. Once they were in control the town of Mardin, they behaved unjustly with their subjects so the people of Mardin asked Ibn Taymiyya for a legal verdict regarding the classification of the territory under which they live. He categorized the territory as dar al-`ahd which in some ways is similar to dar al-kufr (domain of unbelievers). Included in his verdict was declaring the Mongol ruler Ghazan and other Mongols who did not accept shari'a in full, as unbelievers. He was also asked whether Muslims living in Mardin had to emigrate (Hijrah) to Islamic territories on account of implementation of man-made laws. Ibn Taymiyya responded in a detailed fatwa:

"If he who resides in (Mārdīn) is unable to practice his religion, then he must emigrate. If this is not the case, then it remains preferable but not mandatory. The helping of the enemies of the Muslims with their lives and wealth is prohibited upon them and it is required to abstain from that from whatever route possible.. if that is not possible except by undertaking migration, then it is obligatory... It is not of the category of the Dar al-Islam nor of the category of Dar al-Harb. It is a third division by which the Muslim is treated according to what he deserves, and outsiders are dealt with as they deserve."

— Ibn Taymiyya, in Majmu’ al-fatawa, vol. 28: 240-41,

According to Nettler and Kéchichian, Ibn Taymiyya affirmed that Jihad against the Mongols, "was not only permissible but obligatory because the latter ruled not according to Sharīʿah but through their traditional, and therefore manmade, Yassa code. This essentially meant that Mongols were living in a state of jāhilīyah (ignorance)." The authors further state that his two famous students, Ibn Qayyim and Ibn Kathir, agreed with this ruling. He called for a defensive jihad to mobilize the people to kill the Mongol rulers and any one who supported them, Muslim or non-Muslim. Ibn Taymiyya when talking about those who support the Mongols said, "Everyone who is with them (Mongols) in the state over which they rule has to be regarded as belonging to the most evil class of men. He is either an atheist (zindīq) or a hypocrite who does not believe in the essence of the religion of Islam. This means that he (only) outwardly pretends to be Muslim or he belongs to the worst class of all people who are the people of the bida` (heretical innovations)." Yahya Mochet says that, Ibn Taymiyya's call to war was not simply to cause a "rebellion against the political power in place" but to repel an "external enemy".

In another series of fatwas, Ibn Taymiyya reiterated the religious obligation of Muslims to fight the Ilkhanids on account of their negligence of Islamic laws. He also took issue with their non-religious approach to dealing with various communities such as Christians, Jews, Buddhists, etc. and employing a large chunk of their armies with non-Muslims. Citing these and various other reasons, Ibn Taymiyya pronounced:

"Fighting them is obligatory by consensus of the Muslims.. If fighting against the Kurds and the Arabs and others from the Bedouins who do not adhere to the Law of Islam is obligated even if they are not of harm to the people living in the cities, then how about these people? Yes, it is required to exhibit the laws in fighting them.. They call to the religion of Islam and praise the religion of these disbelievers over the religion of the Muslims,.. and they legislate in what they dispute between themselves with the legislation of the time of ignorance, not with the legislation of Allah and His Messenger. Such is the case of the elders among their viziers and others who put the religion of Islam similar to the religion of the Jews and Christians, and claiming that these are all ways to Allah.. Then among them are those who choose the religion of the Jews or Christians, and those who choose the religion of the Muslims. This phenomenon is increasing in great number among them, even in their jurists and worshippers, especially the Jahmites from the Pharaonic Atheists and the like, as philosophy has overtaken their thought... The viziers who spread the views of their leader ultimately lead them into the aforementioned class , they become these Philosopher Jews, ascribing to Islam what they have of their Judaism and philosophy."

— Ibn Taymiyya, in Majmu’ al-fatawa, vol. 28: 501-506, 521-524,

In 2010, a group of Islamic Scholars at the Mardin conference argued that Ibn Taymiyya's famous fatwa about the residents of Mardin when it was under the control of the Mongols was misprinted into an order to "fight" the people living under their territory, whereas the actual statement is, "The Muslims living therein should be treated according to their rights as Muslims, while the non-Muslims living there outside of the authority of Islamic Law should be treated according to their rights." They have based their understanding on the original manuscript in the Al-Zahiriyah Library, and the transmission by Ibn Taymiyya's student Ibn Muflih. The participants of the Mardin conference also rejected the categorization of the world into different domains of war and peace, stating that the division was a result of the circumstances at the time. The participants further stated that the division has become irrelevant with the existence of nation states.

His view on Sufism

Ibn Taymiyyah, often perceived as a critic of Sufism, had a more nuanced view than is commonly understood. While he critiqued certain practices he deemed innovations (bid'ah), he was an admirer of the spiritual path when it adhered to the foundational principles of Islam. A notable example of this is his admiration for Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani, a revered Sufi saint. Ibn Taymiyyah praised Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani for his adherence to the Sharia (Islamic law) and his deep spirituality, considering him a model of the correct practice of Sufism . Ibn Taymiyyah's writings reflect a balanced approach to Sufism. In his "Majmu' al-Fatawa," he acknowledges the importance of Tasawwuf when practiced in alignment with the Qur'an and Sunnah. He wrote about the legitimate spiritual practices that lead to purification of the soul (tazkiyah) and the cultivation of sincerity (ikhlas). Ibn Taymiyyah distinguished between genuine Sufi practices and those he considered deviations. For instance, he was critical of certain ecstatic utterances (shath) and practices he viewed as departures from orthodox Islam, but he appreciated the works of early Sufis like Junayd al-Baghdadi and Abdul Qadir Jilani who maintained a firm grounding in Sharia. Moreover, Ibn Taymiyyah himself was buried in a Sufi cemetery, which signifies his recognition and respect within the broader Sufi community . His respect for genuine Sufism is evident in his admiration for Abdul Qadir Jilani, whose teachings emphasized the importance of Sharia compliance along with spiritual devotion . This reverence is not merely theoretical; Ibn Taymiyyah's students and followers, such as Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, also echoed his views, furthering the integration of Sufi spirituality with orthodox Islamic practice . Thus, Ibn Taymiyyah's approach to Sufism was one of reform rather than outright rejection. He supported Sufi practices that stayed true to Islamic principles and critiqued those that strayed. This balanced perspective is crucial for understanding his relationship with Tasawwuf and dispelling the notion that he was entirely against Sufism .

Opinions about him

Pre-modern opinions

Modern opinions

Islamic scholarship

Ibn Taymiyya is widely regarded as an anti-rationalist "hater of logic" and a strict literalist who was responsible for the demise of rationalist tendencies within the classical Sunni tradition. Through his polemical treatises such as al-Radd ‘ala al-mantiqiyyın (Refutation of the Rationalists); Ibn Taymiyya zealously denounced syllogism, which provided the rational foundations for both Kalam (speculative theology) and Falsafa.

According to Lebanese philosopher Majid Fakhry, "Ibn Taymiyah protests against the abuses of philosophy and theology and advocates a return to the orthodox ways of the ancients (al-salaf)... in his religious zeal he is determined to abolish centuries of religious truth as they had been long before they became troubled by theological and philosophical controversies."

Jamaat-e Islami leader Abdul Haq Ansari contends the ubiquitous notion that Ibn Taymiyya rejected Sufism outright as erroneous. While "the popular image of Ibn Taymiyya ... that he Sufism indiscriminately ... deadly against the Sufis, and ... no place for Sufism in Islam," it is historically known, according to the same scholar, that Ibn Taymiyya actually considered Tasawwuf to be a significant discipline of Islam. "Far from saying has no place in Islam", Ibn Taymiyya was on the whole "sympathetic" towards what everyone at the time considered an important aspect of Islamic life. Various scholars have also asserted that Ibn Taymiyya had a deep reverence and appreciation for the works of such major Sufi Awliyaa (saints) such as Junayd, Sahl al-Tustari, Abu Talib al-Makki, Bayazid Bastami, etc., and was part of the Qadiriyya Sufi order himself. Saudi scholar Hatem al-Awni has criticised Ibn Taymiyya over his sectarian discourse against Ash'arite and Maturidite schools as well as his creedal beliefs like three-fold classification of Tawhid (monotheism).

Western scholarship

Scholars like Ignac Goldziher described Ibn Taymiyya as a "Hanbalite zealot" who harshly denounced various practices as bid'ah (religious innovations) and rejected all forms of philosophical influences, speculative theology, Sufism and pantheistic doctrines like Wahdat al-Wujud.

Others such as the French scholar Henri Laoust (1905–1983) have argued that such portrayals of Ibn Taymiyya are flawed inasmuch as they are often borne of a limited reading of the theologian's substantial corpus of works, many of which have not yet been translated from the original Arabic. According to Laoust, Ibn Taymiyya wanted to reform the practice of medieval Sufism as part of his wider aim to reform Sunni Islam (of which Sufism was a major aspect at the time) by divesting both these traditions of what he perceived as heretical innovations within them.

According to James Pavlin, Professor of theology at Rutgers University: "Ibn Taymiyya remains one of the most controversial Islamic thinkers today because of his supposed influence on many fundamentalist movements. The common understanding of his ideas have been filtered through the bits and pieces of his statements that have been misappropriated by alleged supporters and avowed critics alike."

Works

Ibn Taymiyya left behind a considerable body of work, ranging from 350 (according to his student Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya) to 500 (according to his student al-Dhahabi). Oliver Leaman says Ibn Taymiyya produced some 700 works in the field of Islamic sciences. His scholarly output has been described as immense with a wide scope and its contents "bear the marks of brilliant insights hastily jotted down". In his early life, his work was mostly based on theology and the use of reason in interpretation of scriptural evidences, with later works focusing on refutation of Greek logic, questioning the prevalent practices of the time, and anti-Christian and anti-Shia polemics. Ibn Taymiyya's total works have not all survived and his extant works of 35 volumes are incomplete. The ascendancy of scholastic interest in his medieval treatises would recommence through the gradual efforts by 18th-century Islamic reform movements. Salafi theologians of Syria, Iraq, and Egypt of the late 19th and early 20th centuries would edit, publish, and mass-circulate many of his censured manuscripts among the Muslim public, making Ibn Taymiyya the most-read classical Islamic theologian in the world; however, as his scholarly impact increased, dissensions and altercations over Ibn Taymiyya's viewpoints continue to escalate.

Extant books and essays

  • Majmu' al-Fatawa al-Kubra – collected centuries after his death, and contains several of the works mentioned below; 36 volumes.
  • Minhaj al-Sunna al-Nabawiyya – four volumes; in modern critical editions it amounts to more than 2,000 pages.
  • Al-Aqida al-Wasitiyya
  • Al-Jawab al-Sahih li-man Baddala Din al-Masih – a response to Christianity; seven volumes; in modern critical editions it amounts to more than 2,000 pages.
  • Dar Ta'arud al-Aql wa-l-Naql (also called al-Muwafaqa) – 11 volumes; in modern critical editions it amounts to some 4,000 pages.
  • Al-Aqida al-Hamawiyya
  • Al-Asma' wa-l-Sifat – two volumes
  • Kitab al-Iman
  • Kitab al-Safadiyya – a refutation of the philosophers who claim the miracles of Muhammad are merely manifestations of the strength of inherent faculties, and who claim the universe is eternal
  • Al-Sarim al-Maslul ala Shatim al-Rasul — written in response to an incident in which Ibn Taymiyya heard a Christian insulting Muhammad
  • Fatawa al-Kubra
  • Fatawa al-Misriyya
  • Al-Radd ala al-Mantiqiyyin
  • Naqd al-Ta'sis
  • Al-Ubudiyya
  • Iqtida' al-Sirat al-Mustaqim
  • Al-Siyasa al-Shar'iyya
  • Risala fi al-Ruh wa-l-Aql
  • Al-Tawassul wa-l-Wasila
  • Sharh Futuh al-Ghayb – a commentary on Futuh al-Ghayb by Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani
  • Al-Hisba fi al-Islam – a book on Islamic economics

English translations

  • 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
  • Muslims Under Non-Muslim Rule

Lost works

Many of Ibn Taymiyya's books are thought to be lost. Their existence is only known through various reports written by scholars throughout history as well as some treatises written by Ibn Taymiyya himself. One particularly notable lost work is al-Bahr al-Muhit, which was 40 volumes of Quranic exegesis that Ibn Taymiyya wrote in the prison of Damascus. Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani mentions the existence of this work in his work, al-Durar al-Kamina.

References

Notes

  1. Full name Taqī ad-Dīn Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm ibn ʿAbd as-Salām ibn ʿAbd Allāh an-Numayrī al-Ḥarrānī (Arabic: تَقِيّ ٱلدِّين أَبُو ٱلْعَبَّاس أَحْمَد بْن عَبْد ٱلْحَلِيم بْن عَبْد ٱلسَّلَام بْن عَبْد ٱللَّٰه ٱلنُّمَيْرِيّ ٱلْحَرَّانِيّ); he is also known by the title Shaykh al-Islam (Arabic: شيخ الإسلام).
  2. Sources describing Ibn Taymiyya as a proto-Salafi theologian:
    • James Fromherz, Allen; Samin, Nadav (2021). Social, Economic and Political Studies of the Middle East and Asia. The Netherlands: Brill. p. 182. ISBN 978-90-04-43952-8. The circle surrounding the paradigmatic proto-Salafi scholar Ibn Taymiyya and his influential disciple Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 751/1350) played a central role among them. Ibn Taymiyya's theology,.. passionately opposed and polemicized against the Murjiʾite views of other Sunnis, particularly Hanafis and the followers of Ashʿarite speculative theology (kalam)
    • Medoff, Louis Abraham (2007). Ijtihad and Renewal in Qurʼanic Hermeneutics. Berkeley, California, USA: University of California. p. 33. Ibn Taymiyah lives up to his reputation as a fiercely polemical proto-Salafi
    • Wainscott, Ann Marie (2017). Bureaucratizing Islam: Morocco and the War on Terror. Liberty Plaza, New York, USA: Cambridge University Press. p. 85. ISBN 978-1-316-51049-0. the medieval theologian and proto-Salafi Ibn Taymiyya was a critic of Ash'arism. He argued that the approach relied too heavily on philosophy. Instead, he advocated an approach that looked to the Salaf for guidance on correct beliefs.
    • Haynes, Jeffrey; Sheikh, Naveed S. (2022). "Making Sense of Salafism: Theological foundations, ideological iterations and political manifestations". The Routledge handbook of Religion, Politics and Ideology. New York, USA: Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group. p. 179. ISBN 978-0-367-41782-6. What might be referred to as 'proto-Salafism', or creedal Salafism (al-salafiyya al iʿtiqādīyya), became emblematic in the scholarship of the fourteenth-century imam Taqi al-Din Ahmad Ibn 'Abd al-Halim al-Harrani

Citations

  1. Ibn Taymiyya, Ahmad ibn ʻAbd al-Ḥalīm (1999). Kitab Al-Iman. Kuala Lumpur: Islamic Book Trust. ISBN 978-967-5062-28-5. Retrieved January 16, 2015.
  2. ^ "Ibn Taymiyya". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on February 13, 2015. Retrieved January 16, 2015.
  3. Halverson, Jeffry R. (2010). Theology and Creed in Sunni Islam. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 48. ISBN 978-0-230-10279-8.
  4. Spevack, Aaron (2014). The Archetypal Scholar: Law, Theology, and Mysticism in the Synthesis of Al-Bajuri. State University of New York Press. p. 45. ISBN 978-1-4384-5370-5.
  5. ^ Makdisi, ', American Journal of Arabic Studies 1, part 1 (1973), pp. 118–28
  6. ^ Spevack, Aaron (2014). The Archetypal Sunni: Law, Theology, and Mysticism in the Synthesis of Al-Bajuri. State University of New York Press. p. 91. ISBN 978-1438453712.
  7. ^ Rapoport & Ahmed 2010, p. 334
  8. ^ Halverson, Jeffry R. (2010). Theology and Creed in Wahabi Islam: The Muslim Brotherhood, Ash'arism, and Political Wahabism. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 48–49. ISBN 978-0230102798.
  9. Hoover, J. (2018). Ibn Taymiyya's use of Ibn Rushd to refute the incorporealism of Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī. In A. Al Ghouz (Ed.), Islamic Philosophy from the 12th till the 14th Century (469-492). Goettingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
  10. ^ Haque 1982
  11. Ibn Taymiyya, Taqi al-Din Ahmad, The Oxford Dictionary of Islam. http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195125580.001.0001/acref-9780195125580-e-959 Archived December 20, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  12. Yahya An Najmi, Shaykh Ahmad. Explanation Of Al-Qasidah Al-Lamiyah (PDF). Philadelphia: Hikmah Publications. p. 5. ISBN 9781495196805. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 26, 2023. Retrieved April 13, 2022.
  13. Woodward, Mark. The Garebeg Malud: Veneration of the Prophet as Imperial Ritual. p. 170.
  14. ^ Ghobadzdeh, Naser; Akbarzadeh, Shahram (May 18, 2015). "Sectarianism and the prevalence of 'othering' in Islamic thought". Third World Quarterly. 36 (4): 691–704. doi:10.1080/01436597.2015.1024433. S2CID 145364873. Retrieved June 6, 2020. Yet Ibn Taymiyya remained unconvinced and issued three controversial fatwas to justify revolt against mongol rule.
  15. Nadvi, Syed Suleiman (2012). "Muslims and Greek Schools of Philosophy". Islamic Studies. 51 (2): 218. JSTOR 23643961. All his works are full of condemnation of philosophy and yet he was a great philosopher himself.
  16. Kokoschka, Alina (2013). Islamic Theology, Philosophy and Law: Debating Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya. De Gruyter. p. 218. Identifying him, especially in regards to his comprehensive view, as a true philosopher, they describe him as an equal to or even superseding the most famous medieval Muslim philosophers.
  17. Nettler, R. and Kéchichian, J.A., 2009. Ibn Taymīyah, Taqī al-Dīn Aḥmad. The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World, 2, pp.502–4.
  18. ^ Kadri, Sadakat (2012). Heaven on Earth: A Journey Through Shari'a Law from the Deserts of Ancient Arabia ... macmillan. p. 187. ISBN 978-0-09-952327-7. Archived from the original on July 1, 2020. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
  19. ^ Laoust 2012.
  20. Tim Winter The Cambridge Companion to Classical Islamic Theology Cambridge University Press, May 22, 2008 ISBN 978-0-521-78058-2 p. 84
  21. ^ Rapoport & Ahmed 2010, p. 6.
  22. Haynes, Jeffrey; S. Sheikh, Naveed (2022). "Making Sense of Salafism: Theological foundations, ideological iterations and political manifestations". The Routledge handbook of Religion, Politics and Ideology. New York, USA: Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group. p. 180. ISBN 978-0-367-41782-6. His denouncement of both the (high-church) ʿulamāʾ of the rival theological schools—particularly the Ash'aris, even as he muddied the waters by calling them anachronistic names such as 'Jahmis' after the heterodox theologian Jahm Ibn Safwan (d. 745)—and (low-church) folk religion steeped in local understandings of Sufism, earned him the authorities' wrath. He was imprisoned on charges of corporealism (tajsīm) and likening the attributes of God to those of His creation (tashbīḥ), a dual charge that his followers from Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (1292–1350) onwards have also faced.
  23. ^ Sinani, Besnik (April 10, 2022). "Post-Salafism: Religious Revisionism in Contemporary Saudi Arabia". Religions. 13 (4): 344. doi:10.3390/rel13040340. A key aspect of the legacy of Ibn Taymiyya is his opposition to the two dominant schools of Sunni theology (kalam), Ashaʿrism and Maturidism
  24. Nettler, Ronald L. (2009). "Ibn Taymīyah, Taqī al-Dīn Aḥmad". In L. Esposito, John (ed.). The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195305135.001.0001. ISBN 9780195305135. Archived from the original on November 1, 2022. He incurred the wrath of some Shāfiʿī and other ʿulamāʿ (religious scholars) and theologians for some of his teachings on theology and law. He was persecuted and imprisoned in Syria and Egypt, for his tashbīh (anthropomorphism), several of his rulings derived through ijtihād (independent reason), and his idiosyncratic legal judgments
  25. Haynes, Jeffrey; S. Sheikh, Naveed (2022). "Making Sense of Salafism: Theological foundations, ideological iterations and political manifestations". The Routledge handbook of Religion, Politics and Ideology. New York, USA: Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group. p. 180. ISBN 978-0-367-41782-6. What might be referred to as 'proto-Salafism', or creedal Salafism (al-salafiyya al-iʿtiqādīyya), became emblematic in the scholarship of the fourteenth-century imam Taqi al-Din Ahmad Ibn 'Abd al-Halim al-Harrani (1263–1328)—better known by his matronymic Ibn Taymiyya—the most important medieval reference for contemporary Salafism
  26. Ibn Taymiyya, Maǧmūʿ al-Fatāwā, ed. by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad b. Qāsim (Beyrouth: Muʾassasat al-risāla, 1978), t. XI, p. 10.
  27. El-Tobgui, Carl Sharif (2022). Ibn Taymiyya on reason and revelation : a study of Darʾ ta'āruḍ al-ʻaql wa-l-naql. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-51101-9. OCLC 1296947160.
  28. "Atheism and Radical Skepticism: Ibn Taymiyya's Epistemic Critique". Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research. Retrieved March 21, 2023. The most voluminous and vociferous intellectual opposition to the use of philosophical argumentation to establish religious doctrine was to come in the writings of Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymīyyah..
  29. al-Jamil, Tariq (2010). "8: Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn al-Mutahhar al-Hilli". In Ahmed, Shahab; Rapoport, Yossef (eds.). Ibn Taymiyya and His Times. New York, USA: Oxford University Press. pp. 229–241. ISBN 9780199402069. Archived from the original on August 12, 2021.
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Sources

Further reading

  • 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
  • Michot, Yahya. Ibn Taymiyya: Against Extremisms. Texts translated, annotated and introduced. With a foreword by Bruce B. LAWRENCE. Beirut & Paris: Albouraq, 2012, xxxii & 334 p. — ISBN 9782841615551.
  • 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.
  • Michot, Yahya. "Ibn Taymiyya's 'New Mardin Fatwa'. Is genetically modified Islam (GMI) carcinogenic?" in The Muslim World, 101/2, April 2011, pp. 130–181.
  • Michot, Yahya. "From al-Ma'mūn to Ibn Sab'īn, via Avicenna: Ibn Taymiyya's Historiography of Falsafa", in F. OPWIS & D. REISMAN (eds.), Islamic Philosophy, Science, Culture, and Religion. Studies in Honor of Dimitri Gutas (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2012), pp. 453–475.
  • Michot, Yahya. "Between Entertainment and Religion: Ibn Taymiyya's Views on Superstition", in The Muslim World, 99/1, January 2009, pp. 1–20.
  • Michot, Yahya. "Misled and Misleading... Yet Central in their Influence: Ibn Taymiyya's Views on the Ikhwān al-Safā'", in The Ikhwān al-Safā' and their Rasā'il. An Introduction. Edited by Nader EL-BIZRI. Foreword by Farhad DAFTARY (Oxford: Oxford University Press, in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, Epistles of the Brethren of Purity), 2008, pp. 139–179.
  • Michot, Yahya. "Ibn Taymiyya's Commentary on the Creed of al-Hallâj", in A. SHIHADEH (ed.), Sufism and Theology (Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2007), pp. 123–136.
  • Michot, Yahya. "A Mamlûk Theologian's Commentary on Avicenna's Risāla Aḍḥawiyya. Being a Translation of a Part of the Dar' al-Ta'āruḍ of Ibn Taymiyya, with Introduction, Annotation, and Appendices, Part I", in Journal of Islamic Studies, 14:2, Oxford, 2003, pp. 149–203.
  • Michot, Yahya. "A Mamlûk Theologian's Commentary on Avicenna's Risāla Aḍḥawiyya. Being a Translation of a Part of the Dar' al-Ta'āruḍ of Ibn Taymiyya, with Introduction, Annotation, and Appendices, Part II", in Journal of Islamic Studies, 14:3, Oxford, 2003, pp. 309–363.
  • Michot, Yahya. "Ibn Taymiyya on Astrology. Annotated Translation of Three Fatwas", in Journal of Islamic Studies, 11/2, Oxford, May 2000, pp. 147–208.
  • Michot, Yahya. "Ibn Taymiyya's Critique of Shī'ī Imāmology. Translation of Three Sections of his Minhāj al-Sunna", in The Muslim World, 104/1–2, Hartford, Jan–April 2014, pp. 109–149.
  • Michot, Yahya. "An Important Reader of al-Ghazālī: Ibn Taymiyya", in The Muslim World, 103/1, Hartford, January 2013, pp. 131–160.

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