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Taqi ud-Din Abu-l-'Abbas
Ahmad Ibn 'Abd al-Halim Ibn 'Abd as-Salam Ibn Taimiyah al-Harrani al-Hanbali,
was born on Monday the 10th of Rabi' al-Awwal 66l H./22nd of January
1263 C.E. at Harran. His father fled with his family from Harran to
Damascus in the year 667 H./1268 C.E. out of fear of the Tatars who invaded the
land of Islam and were very close to Harran. In Damascus, the center of Islamic
studies at that time, Ahmad Ibn Taimiyah followed in the footsteps of
his father who was a scholar of Islamic studies by studying with the great
scholars of his time, among them a woman scholar by the name Zainab bint
Makki who taught him hadith.
He completed his studies
when he was a teenager and at age 19 he became a professor of Islamic studies.
Well versed in Qur'anic studies, Hadith, fiqh, theology, Arabic grammar
and scholastic theology, etc., he started giving fatwas on religious
legal matters without following any of the traditional legal schools, the
Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali. He defended the sound
prophetic traditions by arguments which, although taken from the Qur'an
and the Sunnah, had hitherto been unfamiliar to people of his time. The
freedom of his polemics made him many enemies among the scholars of the
traditional Orthodox Schools, who falsely accused him, of all kinds of heretical
beliefs. Among them was the famous Muslim medieval traveler, Ibn Batutah,
who visited Damascus while Ibn Taimiyah was in jail. This did not
hinder Ibn Batutah in testifying in his book that "he witnessed Ibn
Taimiyah on the pulpit saying, 'every night Allah descends to the lower
heaven like my descent', and he descended one step down the pulpit".1
From reading this 'aqidah we learn that Ibn Taimiyah accepted
the attributes of Allah without questioning (bi-la kaifa).2
He fought heretical innovations
in religion which were wide spread during his time all over the Muslim world,
especially certain acts and beliefs of some Sufi orders, like saint
worship and visiting saints' tombs, and throwing themselves in the fire. His
attack on the sufis caused him a lot of trouble with the authorities
whose leaders were under the influence of certain sufi leaders.
Ibn Taimiyah's
fight was not limited to the sufis and the people who followed the
heretical innovations; in addition, he fought against the Tatars who
attacked the Muslim world and almost reached Damascus. The people of Syria sent
him to Egypt to urge the Mamluke Sultan, the Sultan of Egypt and Syria to lead
his troops to Syria to save it from the invading Tatars. When he
realized that the Sultan was hesitant to do what he asked of him, he threatened
the Sultan by saying: "If you turn your back on Syria we will appoint a Sultan
over it who can defend it and enjoy it at the time of peace". He was present at
the battle of Shaqhab near Damascus against the Tatars which
took place during the fasting month of Ramadan and gave a fatwa
to the army to break their fast in order to help them against their enemy, as
the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) did during the battle of the liberation
of Makkah. The Muslims won the battle against the Tatars and
drove them away from Damascus and all Syria. Ibn Taimiyah's courage was
expressed when he went with a delegation of 'ulama' to talk to
Qazan the Khan of the Tatars to stop his attack on the
Muslims. Not one of the 'ulama' dared to say anything to him except
Ibn Taimiyah who said: "You claim that you are Muslim and you have with you
mu'adhdhins, judges, Imam and sheikh but you invaded
us and reached our country for what? While your father and your grandfather,
Hulago, were non-believers, they did not attack the land of Islam, rather, they
promised not to attack and they kept their promise. But you promised and broke
your promise."3
All this jihad against
the enemies of Islam did not help Ibn Taimiyah with the 'ulama'.
The authorities put him in jail many times until he died in jail because of his
daring and free progressive opinions on many legal and social issues which
angered his opponents, the followers of the Orthodox Schools of law.
However when Ibn
Taimiyah had the chance to punish his opponents among the 'ulama'
who caused him all kinds of trouble and put him in jail many times, he showed
the utmost of magnanimity and forgave them when the Sultan an-Nasir Qalawun
gave him the chance to do so. He said: "If you kill them you will never
find 'ulama' like them." The Sultan said: "They harmed you many times
and wanted to kill you!" Ibn Taimiyah said: "Whoever harmed me is
absolved, and who harmed the cause of Allah and His Messenger, Allah will punish
him."4
The Muslim historians, like
adh-Dhahabi, Ibn Kathir, Ibn al-'Imad al-Hanbali and many others praised
Ibn Taimiyah and considered him one of the greatest scholars of Islam of all
time.
Ibn Taimiyah died in
jail in Damascus on the night of Sunday-Monday 20th Dhu-l-Qa'dah 728
H./26-27 September 1328 C.E.
The people of Damascus,
who held him in great honor, gave him a splendid funeral and an estimated
200,000 men and 15,000 women attended his funeral. He was buried at the Sufi
cemetery in Damascus5
where his mother was buried.
Ibn Taimiyah's Writings
In spite of all the turbulence
in his life, as discussed earlier, Ibn Taimiyah was able to write many
books and pamphlets on all branches of Islamic knowledge. His pupil; Ibn
Qayyim al-Jawziyah, compiled a list of the works of Ibn Taimiyah
which contains 350 works. Here are some of them:
A: Qur'anic Studies and Tafsir:
1. al-Tabyan fi nuzul al-Qur'an.
2. Tafsir surat al-Nur.
3. Tafsir al-Mu'awidhatain
(chapter 113 and 114).
4. Tafsir Surat al-Ikhlas
(chapter 112)
5. Muqaddimah fi 'Usul al-Tafsir.
B: Fiqh (Islamic Law):
1. Majmu'at al-Fatawa al-Kubra.
5 volumes.
2. Majmu' Fatawa Ibn Taimiyah.
37 volumes.
3. al-Qawa'id al-Nuraniyah al-Fiqhiyah.
4. Kitab Manasik al-Hajj.
5. Risalah fi al-'Uqud al-Muharramah.
6. Kitab al-Farq al-Mubin
baina al-Talaq wal-Yamin.
7. Kitab fi 'Usul al-Fiqh.
8. Risalah fi Raf al-Hanafi
Yadaihi fi al-Salah.
9. Risalah fi Sujud al-Sahwu.
10. Mas'alat al-Half bil-Talaq.
C: Tasawwuf (Sufism):
1. al-Furqan baina Awliya' al-Rahman
wa-Awliya' al- Shaitan.
2. Amrad al-Qulub wa-Shifa'uha.
3. al-Tuhfah al-'Iraqiyah fi
A'mal al-Qulub.
4.
al-'Ubudiyah.
5. al-Risalah al-Tadmuriyah.
6. Darajat al-Yaqin.
7. Bughyat al-Murtad (al-sab'iniyah).
8. Ibtal Wahdat al-Wujud.
9. al-Tawassul wal-Wasilah.
10. Risalah fi al-Sama'
Wal-Raqs.
11. al-'Ibadat al-Shar'iyah.
D: 'Usul al-Din and 'Ilm al-Kalam:
1. Risalah fi 'Usul al-Din.
2. Risalah fi al-Ihtijaj
bil-Qadar.
3. Jawab Ahl al-'Ilm wal-Iman.
4. al-Iklil fi al-Mutashabih
wal-Ta'wil.
5. al-Risalah al-Madaniyah.
6. Minhaj al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyah
fi Naqd Kalam al-Shi'ah al-Qadariyah.
7. al-Muntaqa min Akhbar
al-Mustafa.
8. Sharh al-'Aqidah al-Asfahaniyah.
9. Ma'arij al-Wusul ila
Ma'rifat anna Usula al-Din wa-Futu'ahu qadd bayyanaha al-Rasul.
10. Aqwamu ma qila fi al-Mashi'ati
wal-Hikinati wal-Qada'i wal-Qadari wal-Ta'lili wa-Butlani al-Jabri wal- Ta'til.
11. Risalah fi al-Qada'i
wal-Qadar.
12. Kitab al-Iman.
13. al-Furqan baina al-Haqqi
wal-Batil.
14. al-Wasiyah al-Kubra.
15. Naqd Ta'sis al-Taqdis.
16. al-Radd 'ala al-Nusairiyah.
E: Al-Radd 'ala As-hab al-Milal:
(Responding to other religion's followers):
1. al-Jawab al-Sahih li-man
Baddala Dina al-Masih.
2. al-Radd 'ala al-Nasara.
3. Takhjil Ahl al-Injil.
4. al-Risalah al-Qubrusiyah.
5. Iqtida' al-Sirat al-Mustaqim
Mukhalafat As-hab al-Jahim.
F: Al-Mantiq wal-Falsafah:
(Logic and Philosophy):
1. al-Radd 'ala al-Mantiqiyyin.
2. al-Risalah al-Safadiyah.
3. Naqd al-Mantiq.
4. al-Risalah al-'Arshiyah.
G: Al-Akhlaq wal-Siyasah
wal-Ijtima': (Manners, Administration and Sociology)
1. al-Hasanah wal-Sayyi'ah.
2. al-Wasiyah al-Jami'ah
li-Khair al-Dunia wal-Akhirah.
3. Sharh Hadith "Innama al-A'malu
bin-Niyyat".
4. al-Siyasah al-Shar'iyah fi
Islah al-Ra'i wal-Ra'iyah.
5. al-Hisbah fi al-Islam.
6. al-Mazalim al-Mushtarakah.
7. al-Shatranj.
H: Hadith:
1. Ahadith al-Qussas
1-Ibn Batutah - Rihiah,
vol.1,p.110,fn.1.
2- See page 21 of this book.
3-Ibn Kathir, al-Bidayah wan-Nihayah, Vol.7, Part
14, pp.91-92
4-Ibn Kathir, al-Bidayah wan-Nihayah, vol.7, part
14, p.56.
5- For description of Ibn Taimiyah's funeral see
Ibn Kathir; pp.141-145.
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