Abu al-Abbas Taqi al-Din Ahmad ibn Abd al-Salaam ibn Abdullah ibn Taymiya al-Harrani (January 22, 1263 - 1328), was an Islamic scholar born in Harran, located in what is now Turkey, close to the Syrian border. He lived during the troubled times of the Mongol invasions.
Life
He is said to have been born on Monday the 10th of Rabi’ al-Awwal 661 H. (January 22, 1263 C.E.) at Harran. Hence his sobriquet of al-Harrani. In 1268 his family fled Mongol invaders and took refuge in Damascus. The elder Taymiya was an Islamic scholar and, subsequently, Ibn Taymiya would follow in his father’s footsteps.
He was an outspoken and controversial scholar. Ibn Taymiya asserted his right to ijtihad, or independent judgement; he denounced the Muslims of his time as given to idolatry (shirk) and innovation (bidah). He denounced what he believed to be the errors of Sufism; he criticized many Sufi practices. He is also said to have preached that resistance to the Mongol ruler Ghazan Khan was jihad, required of all faithful Muslims, even though the the khan had ostensibly converted to Islam.
The Mameluke rulers of Egypt, of which Damascus was a dependency, considered his views heretical and dangerous. Ibn Taymiya was repeatedly imprisoned by the Cairo authorities. His last fifteen years were spent in Damascus, where he had many disciples. He died behind prison walls, in 1328.
Teachings of Ibn Taymiya
Ibn Taymiya believed that the first three generations of Islam – the prophet Muhammad, his Companions, and the children and grandchildren of the first Muslims – were the best role models for Islamic life. Their Sunnah, or practice, together with the Qur’an, constituted a seemingly infallible guide to life. Any deviation from their practice was viewed as bidah, or innovation, and to be forbidden.
He favored an extremely literal interpretation of the Qur’an. His opponents charged that he taught anthropomorphism – 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 creation. Some of his Islamic critics contend that this violates the Islamic concept of tawhid, divine unity.
He also resolutely opposed Sufism, 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.
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.
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 martyrdom; and exile from my town is but a chance to travel.”
Ibn Taymiya and Salafi thought
Some of his students, such as Ibn al-Qayyim, Ibn Kathir, al-Dhahabi, and Ibn Nasir al-Din, are still remembered, but he cannot be said to have founded a school in his lifetime.
Centuries later, in the 18th century, an Arabian scholar named Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab studied the works of Ibn Taymiya’s and aimed to revive his teachings. Abd’ Al-Wahhab acquired a large following thanks to his association with the Saudi royal family. Ibn Taymiya’s works became the basis of the contemporary Wahhabi or Salafi movement in Sunni Islam.
The Islamist thinker Sayyid Qutb also used Ibn Taymiyyah’s writings to justify rebellion against a Muslim ruler and society.
Ibn Taymiyya’s students and intellectual heirs
Ibn Kathir (1301-1372)
Ibn al-Qayyim (1292-1350)
al-Dhahabi (1274-1348)
Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab (1703-1792)
Books on www.islamicbookstore.com
The Decisive Criterion between the friends of Allah and the friends of Shaytaan
Al-Ubudiyyah: Being a True Slave of Allah
Book of Emaan: According to Ibn Taymiyyah
Diseases of The Hearts & Their Cures
Enjoining Good, Forbidding Evil
Ibn Taymiyyah’s Essay on Servitude
Ibn Taymeeyah’s Essay on the Jinns
Ibn Taymeeyah’s Letters from Prison
Economic Concepts of ibn Taymmiyah
Ibn Taymiyya Against the Greek Logicians
Kitab Al-Iman (English trans., Book of Faith)
The Noble Words: Remembrance and Prayers of the Prophet Muhamad PBUH Ibn Taymiyah
Public Duties in Islam: The Institution of the Hisba
Answering Those Who Altered the Religion of Jesus
The Fundamentals of Commanding Good and Forbidding Evil
