Ibn Taymiyya

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Theology and Influences Ahl al-Hadith Ibn Taymiyya Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya Ibn Kathir Al-Dhahabi Ibn Abd al-Hadi Ibn Muflih Muhammad Hayaat Al-Sindhi Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab Ismail Dehlavi Al-Shawkani
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Ibn Taymiyya^[a] (Arabic: ٱبْن تَيْمِيَّة; 22 January 1263 – 26 September 1328)^[11] was a Sunni Muslim scholar,^[12][13][14] jurist,^[15][16] traditionist, ascetic, proto-Salafi theologian^[b] and iconoclast.^[17][14] 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.^[18] 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.^[19]

A polarizing figure in his own times and 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 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.^[22][23][24]

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.^[25] 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. ^[26] Throughout his treatises, Ibn Taymiyya asserted there is no contradiction between reason and revelation,^[27] and denounced the usage of philosophy as a pre-requisite in seeking religious truth.^[28] 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.^[29]

Within recent history, Ibn Taymiyya has been widely regarded as a major scholarly influence in militant Islamist movements, such as Salafi jihadism.^[30][31][32] 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.^[2][33] 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.^[34][35] 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.^[36][37][38]

Ibn Taymiyya paradoxically has an anti-Sufi reputation, although this is inaccurate.^[39] 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^[40] and praised many Sufi masters.^[41] It was even claimed that he himself was affiliated with the Qadiriyya order.^[41][42][43]

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