Sheikh Al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, his positions with the ruling regime, what he offered to Islam, and his wisdom, Part 7
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00:00Biography of Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah
00:06Was he suffering from the ruling political system?
00:08His qualities and morals since the emergence of the Islamic message and its spread in the
00:13world.
00:14Part 7
00:16We continue to narrate a stage in the life of Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah.
00:21Ibn Taymiyyah issued various fatwas obliging all Muslims to fight the Mongols, declaring
00:26them as Mushrikin, polytheists, similar to the people from the age of Jahiliyyah, pre-Islamic
00:32ignorance.
00:33Thus, he is widely regarded as the spiritual forefather of the Salafi jihadist thought.
00:4020th-century Islamist ideologues like Muhammad Rashid Rida, Saeed Qutbi, Abd al-Salam Faraj,
00:47Usama bin Laden, etc. drew upon these revolutionary ideas to justify armed jihad against the contemporary
00:54nation-states.
00:56Ibn Taymiyyah's fatwa on Alawites as more infidel than Christians and Jews has been
01:01recited by Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi.
01:06Ibn Taymiyyah's role in the Islamist movements of the 20th and 21st century have also been
01:10noted by the previous coordinator for counterterrorism at the United States Department of State,
01:15Daniel Benjamin, who labels the chapter on the history of modern Islamic movements in
01:20his book The Age of Sacred Terror, as, Ibn Taymiyyah and his children.
01:25Yusuf Rapoport, a reader in Islamic history at Queen Mary, however, says this is not a
01:30probable narrative.
01:32Ibn Taymiyyah's intellectual tradition and ideas such as his emphasis on the revival
01:37of pristine ideals and practices of early generations also made an intense impact on
01:41the leading ideologue of revolutionary Islamism in South Asia, Saeed Abul Ala Madhuri, 1903
01:48to 1979 CE, 1321 to 1399 AH.
01:54One of Ibn Taymiyyah's most famous fatwas are regarding the Mongols who had conquered
01:58and destroyed the Abbasid Caliphate in 1258 and had then converted to Islam.
02:04Once they were in control the town of Mardin, they behaved unjustly with their subjects
02:08so the people of Mardin asked Ibn Taymiyyah for a legal verdict regarding the classification
02:13of the territory under which they live.
02:16He categorized the territory as Dar al-Ahd which in some ways is similar to Dar al-Kufr
02:22– domain of unbelievers.
02:25Included in his verdict was declaring the Mongol ruler Ghazan and other Mongols who
02:29did not accept Sharia in full, as unbelievers.
02:33He was also asked whether Muslims living in Mardin had to emigrate, hijra, to Islamic
02:38territories on account of implementation of man-made laws.
02:42Ibn Taymiyyah responded in a detailed fatwa, if he who resides in Mardin is unable to practice
02:48his religion, then he must emigrate.
02:51If this is not the case, then it remains preferable but not mandatory.
02:56The helping of the enemies of the Muslims with their lives and wealth is prohibited
03:00upon them and it is required to abstain from that from whatever route possible.
03:05If that is not possible except by undertaking migration, then it is obligatory.
03:10It is not of the category of the Dar al-Islam nor of the category of Dar al-Harb.
03:16It is a third division by which the Muslim is treated according to what he deserves and
03:20outsiders are dealt with as they deserve.
03:23According to Netler and Ketchichian, Ibn Taymiyyah affirmed that jihad against the Mongols was
03:28not only permissible but obligatory because the latter ruled not according to Sharia but
03:33through their traditional, and therefore man-made, yasa code.
03:37This essentially meant that Mongols were living in a state of jahiliyyah, ignorance.
03:42The authors further state that his two famous students, Ibn Qayyim and Ibn Kathir, agreed
03:47with this ruling.
03:49He called for a defensive jihad to mobilize the people to kill the Mongol rulers and anyone
03:54who supported them, Muslim or non-Muslim.
03:58Ibn Taymiyyah when talking about those who support the Mongols said, Everyone who is
04:02with them, Mongols, in the state over which they rule has to be regarded as belonging
04:06to the most evil class of men.
04:09He is either an atheist, zindiq, or a hypocrite who does not believe in the essence of the
04:14religion of Islam.
04:16This means that he only outwardly pretends to be Muslim or he belongs to the worst class
04:21of all people who are the people of the bid'ah, heretical innovations.
04:25Yahya Masha'i says that Ibn Taymiyyah's call to war was not simply to cause a rebellion
04:31against the political power in place but to repel an external enemy.
04:36In another series of fatwas, Ibn Taymiyyah reiterated the religious obligation of Muslims
04:40to fight the Ilkhanids on account of their negligence of Islamic laws.
04:45He also took issue with their non-religious approach to dealing with various communities
04:49such as Christians, Jews, Buddhists, etc. and employing a large chunk of their armies
04:55with non-Muslims.
04:58Citing these and various other reasons, Ibn Taymiyyah pronounced, Fighting them, the Tatars,
05:03is obligatory by consensus of the Muslims.
05:07If fighting against the Kurds and the Arabs and others from the Bedouin who do not adhere
05:11to the law of Islam is obligated even if they are not of harm to the people living in the
05:15cities, then how about these people?
05:18Yes, it is required to exhibit the laws in fighting them.
05:22They call to the religion of Islam and praise the religion of these disbelievers over the
05:26religion of the Muslims, and they legislate in what they dispute between themselves with
05:30the legislation of the time of ignorance, not with the legislation of Allah and his
05:34Messenger.
05:36Such is the case of the elders among their viziers and others who put the religion of
05:40Islam similar to the religion of the Jews and Christians, and claiming that these are
05:44all ways to Allah.
05:46Then among them are those who choose the religion of the Jews or Christians, and those who choose
05:51the religion of the Muslims.
05:53This phenomenon is increasing in great number among them, even in their jurists and worshippers,
05:58especially the Jemites from the pharaonic atheists and the like, as philosophy has overtaken
06:03their thought.
06:04The viziers who spread the views of their leader ultimately lead them into the aforementioned
06:09class, i.e., they leave Islam, they become these philosopher-Jews, ascribing to Islam
06:14what they have of their Judaism and philosophy.
06:18In 2010, a group of Islamic scholars at the Mardin conference argued that Ibn Taymiyyah's
06:23famous fatwa about the residence of Mardin when it was under the control of the Mongols
06:27was misprinted into an order to fight the people living under their territory, whereas
06:32the actual statement is, the Muslims living therein should be treated according to their
06:36rights as Muslims, while the non-Muslims living there outside of the authority of Islamic
06:41law should be treated according to their rights.
06:44They have based their understanding on the original manuscript in the al-Zahiriyah library
06:49and the transmission by Ibn Taymiyyah's student Ibn Mufla.
06:53The participants of the Mardin conference also rejected the categorization of the world
06:57into different domains of war and peace, stating that the division was a result of the circumstances
07:02at the time.
07:04The participants further stated that the division has become irrelevant with the existence of
07:08nation-states.
07:09Ibn Taymiyyah, often perceived as a critic of Sufism, had a more nuanced view than is
07:15commonly understood.
07:17While he critiqued certain practices he deemed innovations, bid'ah, he was an admirer of
07:23the spiritual path when it adhered to the foundational principles of Islam.
07:27A notable example of this is his admiration for Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani, a revered Sufi
07:33saint.
07:34Ibn Taymiyyah praised Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani for his adherence to the Sharia, Islamic law,
07:40and his deep spirituality, considering him a model of the correct practice of Sufism.
07:45Ibn Taymiyyah's writings reflect a balanced approach to Sufism.
07:50In his Majmu' al-Fatawa, he acknowledges the importance of tasawwuf when practiced
07:55in alignment with the Qur'an and Sunnah.
07:58He wrote about the legitimate spiritual practices that lead to purification of the soul, tazkiyyah,
08:04and the cultivation of sincerity, ikhlas.
08:07Ibn Taymiyyah distinguished between genuine Sufi practices and those he considered deviations.
08:13For instance, he was critical of certain ecstatic utterances, shahf, and practices he viewed
08:19as departures from orthodox Islam, but he appreciated the works of early Sufis like
08:23Junaid al-Baghdadi and Abdul Qadir Jilani who maintained a firm grounding in Sharia.
08:29Moreover, Ibn Taymiyyah himself was buried in a Sufi cemetery, which signifies his recognition
08:35and respect within the broader Sufi community.
08:38His respect for genuine Sufism is evident in his admiration for Abdul Qadir Jilani,
08:44whose teachings emphasized the importance of Sharia compliance along with spiritual
08:48devotion.
08:49This reverence is not merely theoretical.
08:52Ibn Taymiyyah's students and followers, such as Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, also echoed his
08:57views, furthering the integration of Sufi spirituality with orthodox Islamic practice.
09:02Thus, Ibn Taymiyyah's approach to Sufism was one of reform rather than outright rejection.
09:09He supported Sufi practices that stayed true to Islamic principles and critiqued those
09:14that strayed.
09:16This balanced perspective is crucial for understanding his relationship with Tasawwuf and dispelling
09:20the notion that he was entirely against Sufism.
09:24Ibn Taymiyyah is widely regarded as an anti-rationalist, hater of logic, and a strict literalist who
09:30was responsible for the demise of rationalist tendencies within the classical Sunni tradition.
09:35Through his polemical treatises such as al-Rad, ala al-Mantikeyan, Refutation of the Rationalists,
09:42Ibn Taymiyyah zealously denounced syllogism, which provided the rational foundations for
09:46both Kalam, speculative theology, and falsifah.
09:51According to Lebanese philosopher Majid Fakhri, Ibn Taymiyyah protests against the abuses
09:56of philosophy and theology and advocates a return to the orthodox ways of the ancients
10:01In his religious zeal he is determined to abolish centuries of religious truth as they
10:06had been long before they became troubled by theological and philosophical controversies.
10:12Jamaat-e-Islami leader Abdul Haq Ansari contends the ubiquitous notion that Ibn Taymiyyah rejected
10:18Sufism outright as erroneous.
10:21While the popular image of Ibn Taymiyyah is that he criticized Sufism indiscriminately,
10:26was deadly against the Sufis, and saw no place for Sufism in Islam, it is historically
10:32known, according to the same scholar, that Ibn Taymiyyah actually considered Tasawwuf
10:37to be a significant discipline of Islam.
10:40Far from saying, Sufism has no place in Islam, Ibn Taymiyyah was on the whole, sympathetic
10:46towards what everyone at the time considered an important aspect of Islamic life.
10:51Various scholars have also asserted that Ibn Taymiyyah had a deep reverence and appreciation
10:56for the works of such major Sufi aliyah, saints, such as Junaid, Sahl al-Tustari, Abu Talib
11:02al-Makki, Bayazid Bastami, etc., and was part of the Qadiriya Sufi order himself.
11:10Saudi scholar Hatem al-Ani has criticized Ibn Taymiyyah over his sectarian discourse
11:15against Asharite and Maturidite schools as well as his creedal beliefs like threefold
11:19classification of Tawhid, monotheism.
11:23Scholars like Ignak Goldseher described Ibn Taymiyyah as a, Hanbalite zealot who harshly
11:28denounced various practices as bid'ah, religious innovations, and rejected all forms of philosophical
11:34influences, speculative theology, Sufism and pantheistic doctrines like Wadat al-Wujud.
11:41Others such as the French scholar Henri Laust, 1905-1983, have argued that such portrayals
11:48of Ibn Taymiyyah are flawed inasmuch as they are often born of a limited reading of the
11:52theologian's substantial corpus of works, many of which have not yet been translated
11:56from the original Arabic.
11:59According to Laust, Ibn Taymiyyah wanted to reform the practice of medieval Sufism as
12:03part of his wider aim to reform Sunni Islam, of which Sufism was a major aspect at the
12:08time, by divesting both these traditions of what he perceived as heretical innovations
12:13within them.
12:15According to James Pavlin, professor of theology at Rutgers University, Ibn Taymiyyah remains
12:20one of the most controversial Islamic thinkers today because of his supposed influence on
12:25many fundamentalist movements.
12:27The common understanding of his ideas have been filtered through the bits and pieces
12:31of his statements that have been misappropriated by alleged supporters and avowed critics alike.
12:37Ibn Taymiyyah left behind a considerable body of work, ranging from 350, according to his
12:42student Ibn Qayyim al-Jaziyya, to 500, according to his student al-Dahhabi.
12:48Oliver Lehman says Ibn Taymiyyah produced some 700 works in the field of Islamic sciences.
12:55His scholarly output has been described as immense with a wide scope and its contents
12:59bear the marks of brilliant insights hastily jotted down.
13:04In his early life, his work was mostly based on theology and the use of reason in interpretation
13:09of scriptural evidences, with later works focusing on refutation of Greek logic, questioning
13:14the prevalent practices of the time, and anti-Christian and anti-Shia polemics.
13:20Ibn Taymiyyah's total works have not all survived and his extant works of 35 volumes are incomplete.
13:26The ascendancy of scholastic interest in his medieval treatises would recommence through
13:31the gradual efforts by 18th-century Islamic reform movements.
13:35Salafi theologians of Syria, Iraq, and Egypt of the late 19th and early 20th centuries
13:41would edit, publish, and mass-circulate many of his censured manuscripts among the Muslim
13:46public, making Ibn Taymiyyah the most read classical Islamic theologian in the world.
13:51However, as his scholarly impact increased, dissensions and altercations over Ibn Taymiyyah's
13:56viewpoints continue to escalate.
13:59Ibn Taymiyyah, 1263-1328, of Damascus was a prominent Sunni religious scholar, activist,
14:06and reformer who sought to root out religious innovation and return Islam to the Quran,
14:10the practice, sunnah, of the Prophet Muhammad, and the interpretations of the early Muslims
14:15– Salaf.
14:17Ibn Taymiyyah is best known today as a major inspiration to the global Salafism movement
14:22– Meier 2009.
14:25Ibn Taymiyyah was in fact very well read in the philosophical and theological literature
14:29of his day – Michaud 2000b, 599, and he deployed extensive hermeneutical reflection
14:36and rational argumentation to defend his interpretation of Islamic revelation as fully
14:40congruent with reason.
14:42While it may go too far to call Ibn Taymiyyah a philosopher, Tamer 2013-373, he was certainly
14:50an apologist for the rationality of Islamic revelation, and there is much a philosophical
14:54interest in his writings.
14:57Ibn Taymiyyah's approach has thus been called philosophical theology, Hoover 2004-295, and
15:04Quranic rational theology, Ozervarli 2010-78.
15:10Mongol invasions shaped Ibn Taymiyyah's childhood and early career.
15:14The Mongols conquered Baghdad in 1258 and established the Ilkhanid Mongol Empire in
15:19Iraq and Persia, one of the four major Mongol empires that together controlled the vast
15:24expanse of territory from Eastern Europe to the Korean Peninsula.
15:28In 1260 the Mamluk rulers of Egypt and Syria halted the Ilkhanid Mongol advance from the
15:33northeast at the Battle of Ain Jalut in Palestine.
15:37Ahmad Ibn Taymiyyah was born in 1263, 661 in the Islamic calendar, in Haran which is
15:44located today in southeastern Turkey.
15:47The Mamluks controlled Haran at the time, but later in 1269 Ibn Taymiyyah's family fled
15:52a Mongol incursion and settled in Damascus.
15:56His father was a Hanbali religious scholar who became head of the Sukkuraya Madrasa.
16:01Ibn Taymiyyah excelled at the religious sciences and took over as head of the Sukkuraya in
16:061284 when his father died.
16:09Ibn Taymiyyah found himself in theological difficulty in 1298 for writing against the
16:14Ash'ari Kalam theology of God's attributes.
16:18He was charged with ascribing a body to God, Tajsim, interrogated, and then released.
16:24The issue of theological corporealism would re-emerge several years later.
16:29In the meantime, the Mongols invaded Syria three times between 1299 and 1303.
16:36The Ilkhanid Mongols had converted to Islam in 1295, which raised the ethical problem
16:41of Muslims fighting Muslims.
16:44Ibn Taymiyyah argued that the Mamluks must defend Islam against the Mongols because the
16:48latter did not adhere to all the laws of Islam and were motivated by their own interests
16:52rather than the interests of religion.
16:55The Mamluks eventually repelled the Mongols and enjoyed an extended period of peace and
17:00economic prosperity.
17:02With the passing of the Mongol threat, Ibn Taymiyyah agitated against Sufi theology and
17:07popular religious practices that he believed deviated from Islam and weakened Muslim society.
17:13In response, his enemies among the religious scholars gained the support of the Mamluk
17:18political authorities to have him tried again for theological corporealism.
17:23Three trials held in Damascus in January and February 1306 were inconclusive.
17:29He was then summoned to Cairo, the Mamluk capital, where he was convicted of corporealism
17:34and related issues in April 1306 and imprisoned for 18 months.
17:39In April 1308 he was imprisoned again in Cairo for another 16 months following a disturbance
17:44with Sufis.
17:46He was transferred to Alexandria in August 1309 and placed under house arrest for eight
17:51more months.
17:53Ibn Taymiyyah then enjoyed three years of calm in Cairo.
17:57In 1313 he returned to Damascus where he spent the rest of his life writing and teaching
18:02a small circle of disciples.
18:04This period was punctuated by disputes with religious scholars that led to Mamluk state
18:09intervention.
18:11In 1318 he was imprisoned for five and one half months for issuing unorthodox opinions
18:16about divorce oaths.
18:18He suffered further imprisonment in 1326 for teaching against undertaking travel to graves
18:23to seek intercession through the dead.
18:26He remained in prison until his death in September 1328, 728 in the Islamic calendar.
18:33Ibn Taymiyyah did not write systematic works of theology or philosophy.
18:38He instead left a vast corpus of refutations and fatwas of widely varying lengths and degrees
18:43of organization.
18:45It is difficult to date Ibn Taymiyyah's writings and it is for this reason challenging to trace
18:50development in his thought.
18:52Nonetheless, it is possible to sequence his three largest theological tomes.
18:58Ibn Taymiyyah wrote Explication of the Deceit of the Jemaya, Bayan Talbis al-Jemaya, a refutation
19:04of Ash'ari in corporealism, during his first twelve months in prison in Egypt, that is,
19:09between April 1306 and April 1307.
19:13He composed his masterwork Averting the Conflict Between Reason and Revealed Tradition, Dar
19:18Tahrid al-Aquel wa al-Niquel, sometime after 1313 followed by his refutation of Twelver
19:25Shi'ism The Way of the Prophetic Sunnah, Manaj al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyya.
19:30These three works take up ten, eleven, and nine volumes, respectively, in their modern
19:35Arabic critical editions.
19:38I stop at this point today.
19:41Until next time, stay curious.
19:44Stay informed, and keep exploring the world's incredible stories.
19:49Soon we will publish.
19:51Part. 8.