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Part of a series on: Salafi movement
Sab'u Masajid, Saudi Arabia
Theology and Influences Salaf Muhammad Sahabah Tabi'un Taba al-Tabi'in Ahl al-Hadith Ahmad ibn Hanbal Ibn Hazm Ibn Taymiyyah Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya Ibn Kathir Al-Dhahabi Ibn Abd al-Hadi Ibn Muflih Muhammad Hayaat Al-Sindhi Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab Shah Waliullah Dehlawi Al-Shawkani
Founders and key figures Syed Nazeer Husain Siddiq Hasan Khan Jamal al-Din Qasimi Sayyid Muhammad Rashid Ridha Muhammad ibn Ibrahim Al ash-Sheikh Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz Ibn al Uthaymeen Nasiruddin Albani Zubair Ali Zai Muhammad Ibn Salih al-Munajjid 'Abd al Aziz al-Ťarifi List of Salafi scholars
Notable universities Umm al-Qura University Islamic University of Madinah Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University Jamia Salafia, Faisalabad Jamia Salafia, Varanasi International Islamic University, Islamabad List of Salafi Islamic universities
Related ideologies Ahl-i Hadith movement Islamism Islamic fundamentalism Madkhalism Manhaj Qutbism Sahwa movement Sailaifengye Salafi jihadism Sufi-Salafi relations Wahhabism International propagation by country/region Hazimism
Associated organizations Al-Nour Party Authenticity Party People Party Takfir wal-Higra Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant al-Qaida
Politics portal  Islam portal
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Ibn Taymiyya (January 22, 1263 – September 26, 1328; Arabic: ابن تيمية), birth name Taqī ad-Dīn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm ibn ʿAbd as-Salām an-Numayrī al-Ḥarrānī (Arabic: تقي الدين أحمد بن عبد الحليم بن عبد السلام النميري الحراني)^[11] was a Sunni Muslim ʿālim,^[12][13][14] muhaddith, judge,^[15][16] proto-Salafist theologian,^[a] ascetic, and iconoclastic theologian.^[17][14] He is known for his diplomatic involvement with the Ilkhanid ruler Ghazan Khan and for his involvement at the Battle of Marj al-Saffar which ended the Mongol invasions of the Levant.^[18] A legal jurist of the Hanbali school, Ibn Taymiyya's condemnation of numerous folk practices associated with saint veneration and visitation of tombs made him a contentious figure with many rulers and scholars of the time, and he was imprisoned several times as a result.^[19]

A polarizing figure in his own times and in the centuries that followed,^[20][21] Ibn Taymiyya has emerged as one of the most influential medieval scholars in late modern Sunni Islam.^[19] He was also noteworthy for engaging in fierce religious polemics that attacked various schools of Kalām (speculative theology); primarily Ash'arism and Maturidism, while defending the doctrines of Athari school. This prompted rival clerics and state authorities to accuse Ibn Taymiyya and his disciples of tashbīh (anthropomorphism); which eventually led to the censoring of his works and subsequent incarceration.^[22][23][24]

Nevertheless, Ibn Taymiyya's numerous treatises that advocates for "creedal Salafism" (al-salafiyya al-iʿtiqādīyya), based on his scholarly interpretations of the Qur'an and the Sunnah, constitute the most popular classical reference for later Salafi movements.^[25] Ibn Taymiyya asserted through his treatises that there is no contradiction between reason and revelation,^[26] and denounced the usage of philosophy as a pre-requisite in seeking religious truth.^[27] As a cleric who viewed Shi'ism as a source of corruption in Muslim societies; Ibn Taymiyya was also known for virulent anti-Shia polemics through treatises like Minhaj al-Sunna, wherein he denounced Imami Shi'ite creed as heretical. Ibn Taymiyya declared a fatwa to wage Jihad against the Shi'ites of Kisrawan and personally fought in the Kisrawan campaigns, accusing Shi'ites of acting as the fifth-columinists of Frank Crusaders and Mongol Ilkhanates.^[28]

Within recent history, Ibn Taymiyya has been widely regarded as a major scholarly influence in revolutionary Islamist movements, such as Salafi-Jihadism.^[29][30][31] Major aspects of his teachings such as upholding the pristine monotheism of the early Muslim generations and campaigns to uproot what he regarded as shirk (idolatry); had a profound influence on Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, the founder of the Wahhabist reform movement formed in Arabian Peninsula, and on other later Sunni scholars.^[8][32] Lebanese Salafi theologian Muhammad Rashid Rida (d. 1935 C.E/ 1354 A.H), one of the major modern proponents of his works, designated Ibn Taymiyya as the Mujaddid (renewer) of the Islamic 7th century of Hijri year.^[33][34] Ibn Taymiyya's doctrinal positions, such as his Takfir (declaration of unbelief) of the Mongol Ilkhanates, allowing jihad against other self-professed Muslims, were referenced by Islamic political movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Hizb ut-Tahrir, Al-Qaeda, Islamic State and others to justify social uprisings against contemporary governments across the Muslim world.^[35][36][37]

Name and Lineage

Ibn Taymiyya's full name is Taqiy al-Din 'Abu al-Abbas 'Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm ibn ʿAbd as-Salām ibn ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Khiḍr ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Khiḍr ibn ʾIbrāhīm ibn ʿAli ibn ʿAbdullāh an-Numayrī al-Ḥarrānī^[10] (Arabic: أحمد بن عبد الحليم بن عبد السلام بن عبد الله بن الخضر بن محمد بن الخضر بن إبراهيم بن علي بن عبد الله النميري الحراني).

Biography

Early Years

Family

Ibn Taymiyya was born in Harran, to a family of traditional Hanbali scholars. Ibn Taymiyya had Arab and Kurdish lineages; through his Arab father and by way of his mother, who was of Kurdish descent.^[38][39] Ibn Taymiyya's father, Shihab al-Din Abd al-Halim Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1284 C.E/ 682 A.H), had 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 Şanlıurfa Province.^[40] At the beginning of the Islamic period, Harran was located in the land of the Mudar tribe (Diyar Mudar).^[41] Before its destruction by the Mongols, Harran was also well known since the early days of Islam for its Hanbali school and tradition,^[42] to which Ibn Taymiyya's family belonged.^[40] His grandfather, Abu al-Barkat Majd ad-Din Ibn Taymiyya al-Hanbali (d. 1255) and his uncle, Fakhr al-Din (d. 1225) were reputable scholars of the Hanbali school of law.^[19] Likewise, the scholarly achievements of his father were also well known.

Education

In 1269, aged seven, Ibn Taymiyya, left Harran together with his father and three brothers. The city was completely destroyed by the ensuing Mongol invasion.^[43][19] Ibn Taymiyya's family moved and settled in Damascus, Syria, which at the time was ruled by the Mamluk Sultanate.

In Damascus, his father served as the director of the Sukkariyya Madrasa, a place where Ibn Taymiyya also received his early education.^[44] Ibn Taymiyya acquainted himself with the religious and secular sciences of his time. His religious studies began in his early teens, when he committed the entire Qur'an to memory and later on came to learn the Islamic disciplines of the Qur'an.^[43] From his father he learnt the religious science of fiqh (jurisprudence) and usul al-fiqh (principles of jurisprudence).^[43] Ibn Taymiyya learnt the works of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, al-Khallal, Ibn Qudamah and also the works of his grandfather, Abu al-Barakat Majd ad-Din.^[19] His study of jurisprudence was not limited to the Hanbali tradition but he also learnt the other schools of jurisprudence.^[19]

The number of scholars under which he studied hadith is said to number more than two hundred,^[45][43][46] four of whom were women.^[47] Those who are known by name amount to forty hadith teachers, as recorded by Ibn Taymiyya in his book called Arba`un Hadithan.^[48] Serajul Haque says, based on this, Ibn Taymiyya started to hear hadith from the age of five.^[48] One of his teachers was the first Hanbali Chief Justice of Syria, Shams ud-Din Al-Maqdisi who held the newly created position instituted by Baibars as part of a reform of the judiciary.^[19] Al-Maqdisi later on, came to give Ibn Taymiyya permission to issue Fatawa (legal verdicts) when he became a mufti at the age of 17.^[45][49][50]

Ibn Taymiyya's secular studies led him to devote attention to Arabic language and Arabic literature by studying Arabic grammar and lexicography under Ali ibn `Abd al-Qawi al-Tufi.^[43][51] He went on to master the famous book of Arabic grammar, Al-Kitab, by the Persian grammarian Sibawayhi.^[43] He also studied mathematics, algebra, calligraphy, theology (kalam), philosophy, history and heresiography.^{[45][49][19][52]} Based on the knowledge he gained from history and philosophy, he used to refute the prevalent philosophical discourses of his time, one of which was Aristotelian philosophy.^[45] Ibn Taymiyya learnt about Sufism and stated that he had reflected on the works of; Sahl al-Tustari, Junayd of Baghdad, Abu Talib al-Makki, Abdul-Qadir Gilani, Abu Hafs Umar al-Suhrawardi and Ibn Arabi.^[19] At the age of 20 in the year 1282, Ibn Taymiyya completed his education.^[53]

Life as a scholar

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.^[49][19][54] 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).^[49][51][55] 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.^[19][44] 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."^[44] 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.^[53]

Possible influences

Ibn Taymiyya was taught by scholars who were renowned in their time.^[56] However, there is no evidence that any of the contemporary scholars influenced him.^[56]

A strong influence on Ibn Taymiyya was the founder of the Hanbali school of Islamic jurisprudence, Ahmad ibn Hanbal.^[56] Ibn Taymiyya was trained in this school and he had studied Ibn Hanbal's Musnad in great detail, having studied it over multiple times.^[57] Though he spent much of his life following this school, in the end he renounced taqlid (blind following).^[53]

His work was most influenced by the sayings and actions of the Salaf (first three generations of Muslims) and this showed in his work where he would give preference to the Salaf over his contemporaries.^[56] The modern Salafi movement derives its name from this school of thought.^[56]

Relationship with the authorities

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.^[58][19][59] He accepted the invitation and delivered his fatwa, calling for the man to receive the death penalty.^[58] Despite the fact that public opinion was very much on Ibn Taymiyya's side,^[44] the Governor of Syria attempted to resolve the situation by asking Assaf to accept Islam in return for his life, to which he agreed.^[44] 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,^[44] on the grounds that any person—Muslim or non-Muslim—who insults Muhammad must be killed.^[49][44] 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.^[19] 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)."^[19] 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.^[49][60] 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."^[49] 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.^[55]

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.^[19][44][61] This is seen by some to be the peak of his scholarly career.^[44] 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.^[62] 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.^[19][44]

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).^[63][64] The book is about divine attributes and it served as an answer to a question from the city of Hama, Syria.^[63][64] 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.^[63] Ibn Taymiyya in his book strongly disagreed with their views and this heavy opposition to the common Ash'ari position, caused considerable controversy.^[63]

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.^[58][19] Ibn Taymiyya believed that the Alawites were "more heretical than Jews and Christians",^[65][66] and according to Carole Hillenbrand, the confrontation with the Alawites occurred because they "were accused of collaborating with Christians and Mongols."^[58] Ibn Taymiyya had further active involvements in campaigns against the Mongols and their alleged Alawite allies.^[44]

In 1305, Ibn Taymiyya took part in a second military offensive against the Alawites and the Isma`ilis^[67] in the Kasrawan region of the Lebanese mountains where they were defeated.^[19][65][68] 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.^[69][70]

Involvement in the Mongol invasions

First invasion