Sheikh Al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, his positions with the ruling regime, what he offered to Islam, and his wisdom, Part 6
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00:00Biography of Sheikh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah
00:06Was he suffering from the ruling political system?
00:09His qualities and morals since the emergence of the Islamic message and its spread in the
00:13world.
00:15Part 6
00:17We continue to narrate a stage in the life of Sheikh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah.
00:22During his imprisonment, he encountered opposition from the Maliki and Shafi'i chief justices
00:27of Damascus, Taqi al-Din al-Iknai.
00:31He remained in prison for over two years and ignored the sultan's prohibition by continuing
00:36to deliver fatwas.
00:38During his incarceration Ibn Taymiyyah wrote three works which are extant, Kitab Marif
00:43al-Wusl, Raf al-Malam, and Kitab al-Rad Allah al-Iknai, the response to al-Iknai.
00:51The last book was an attack on Taqi al-Din al-Iknai and explained his views on saints,
00:56especially.
00:57When the Mongols invaded Syria in 1300, he was among those who called for a jihad against
01:03them and he ruled that even though they had recently converted to Islam, they should be
01:06considered unbelievers.
01:09He went to Egypt in order to acquire support for his cause and while he was there, he got
01:13embroiled in religious political disputes.
01:16Ibn Taymiyyah's enemies accused him of advocating anthropomorphism, a view that was objectionable
01:22to the teachings of the Ash'ari school of Islamic theology, and in 1306, he was imprisoned
01:28for more than a year.
01:30Upon his release, he condemned popular Sufi practices and he also condemned the influence
01:35of Ibn Arabi, d. 1240, causing him to earn the enmity of leading Sufi sheikhs in Egypt
01:41and causing him to serve another prison sentence.
01:44In 1310, he was released by the Egyptian sultan.
01:48In 1313, the sultan allowed Ibn Taymiyyah to return to Damascus, where he worked as
01:53a teacher and a jurist.
01:56He had supporters among the powerful, but his outspokenness and his non-conformity to
02:00traditional Sunni doctrines and his denunciation of Sufi ideals and practices continued to
02:05draw the wrath of the religious and political authorities in Syria and Egypt.
02:10He was arrested and released several more times, but while he was in prison, he was
02:14allowed to write fatwas—advisory opinions on matters of law—in defense of his beliefs.
02:20Despite the controversy that surrounded him, Ibn Taymiyyah's influence grew and it spread
02:25from Hanbali circles to members of other Sunni legal schools and Sufi groups.
02:30Among his foremost students were Ibn Kathir, d. 1373, a leading medieval historian and
02:36a Quran commentator, and Ibn Qayyim al-Jaziya, d. 1350, a prominent Hanbali jurist and a
02:43theologian who helped spread his teacher's influence after his teacher's death in 1328.
02:49Ibn Taymiyyah died while he was a prisoner in the citadel of Damascus and he was buried
02:54in the city's Sufi cemetery.
02:56He fell ill in early September 1328 and died at the age of 65, on September 26 of that
03:02year, whilst in prison at the citadel of Damascus.
03:07Once this news reached the public, there was a strong show of support for him from the
03:10people.
03:12After the authorities had given permission, it is reported that thousands of people came
03:16to show their respects.
03:19They gathered in the citadel and lined the streets up to the Umayyad Mosque.
03:23The funeral prayer was held in the citadel by scholar Muhammad Tamim and a second was
03:28held in the mosque.
03:30A third and final funeral prayer was held by Ibn Taymiyyah's brother, Zayn al-Din.
03:36He was buried in Damascus, in Makbara Sufiya, the cemetery of the Sufis.
03:42His brother Sharafuddin had been buried in that cemetery before him.
03:46Oliver Lehman says that being deprived of the means of writing led to Ibn Taymiyyah's
03:50death.
03:52It is reported that 200,000 men and 15-16,000 women attended his funeral prayer.
03:58Ibn Kathir says that in the history of Islam, only the funeral of Ahmad ibn Hanbal received
04:03a larger attendance.
04:06This is also mentioned by Ibn Abad al-Hadi.
04:09Katerina Bori says that, in the Islamic tradition, wider popular attendance at funerals was a
04:15mark of public reverence, a demonstration of the deceased's rectitude, and a sign of
04:19divine approbation.
04:21Ibn Taymiyyah is said to have spent a lifetime objecting to tomb veneration, only to cast
04:26a more powerful posthumous spell than any of his Sufi contemporaries.
04:31On his death, his personal effects were in such demand, that bidders for his lice-killing
04:36camphor necklace pushed its price up to 150 dirhams, and his skullcap fetched a full 500.
04:43A few mourners sought and succeeded in drinking the water used for bathing his corpse.
04:48His tomb received pilgrims and sightseers for 600 years.
04:53His resting place is now in the parking lot of a maternity ward, though as of 2009 its
04:58headstone was broken, according to author Sadiqat Qadri.
05:03Several of Ibn Taymiyyah's students became notable scholars in their own right.
05:08His students came from different backgrounds and belonged to various different schools
05:12of thought.
05:13The most well-known of them are Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah and Ibn Kathir, while his other
05:18students include Al-Dahabi, Jamal al-Din al-Mizzi, Ibn Abd al-Hadi, Ibn Mufla, Imad al-Din Ahmad
05:26al-Wasidi, Najm al-Din al-Tufi, al-Balabaki, al-Bazaar, Ibn Qadhi al-Jabal, Ibn Fadl Allah
05:33al-Amri, Muhammad Ibn al-Manj, Ibn Abd al-Salam al-Badi, Ibn al-Wardi, Umar al-Hurani.
05:41In the 21st century, Ibn Taymiyyah is one of the most cited medieval authors and his
05:45treatises are regarded to be of central intellectual importance by several Islamic revivalist
05:50movements.
05:52Ibn Taymiyyah's disciples, consisting of both Hanbalis and non-Hanbalis, were attracted
05:57to his advocacy of ijtihad outside the established boundaries of the madhabs and shared his taste
06:02for activism and religious reform.
06:05Some of his unorthodox legal views in the field of fiqh were also regarded as a challenge
06:10by mainstream fuqaha.
06:12Many scholars have argued that Ibn Taymiyyah did not enjoy popularity among the intelligentsia
06:17of his day.
06:19Yusuf Rapoport and Shahab Ahmed assert that he was a minority figure in his own times
06:23and the centuries that followed.
06:26Katerina Bori goes further, arguing that despite popularity Ibn Taymiyyah may have enjoyed
06:31among the masses, he appears to have been not merely unpopular among the scholars of
06:35his day, but somewhat of an embarrassment.
06:39Khalid al-Ruwayheb notes similarly that Ibn Taymiyyah had very little influence on mainstream
06:44Sunni Islam until the 19th century and that he was a little-read scholar with problematic
06:48and controversial views.
06:51He also comments, the idea that Ibn Taymiyyah had an immediate and significant impact on
06:56the course of Sunni Islamic religious history simply does not cohere with the evidence that
07:00we have from the five centuries that elapsed between his death and the rise of Sunni revivalism
07:05in the modern period.
07:07It was only since the late 19th and the early 20th centuries that the scholarly influence
07:11of Ibn Taymiyyah has come to acquire an unprecedented prominence in Muslim societies, due to the
07:17efforts of Islamic revivalists like Rashid Rida.
07:20On the other hand, Prof. Al-Matrudi of Soas University says that Ibn Taymiyyah was perhaps
07:27the most eminent and influential Hanbali jurist of the Middle Ages and one of the most prolific
07:31among them.
07:33He was also a renowned scholar of Islam whose influence was felt not only during his lifetime
07:38but extended through the centuries until the present day.
07:41Ibn Taymiyyah's followers often deemed him as Sheikh ul-Islam, an honorific title with
07:46which he is sometimes still termed today.
07:49In the pre-modern era, Ibn Taymiyyah was considered a controversial figure within Sunni Islam
07:54and had a number of critics during his life and in the centuries thereafter.
07:59The Shafi'i scholar Ibn Hajar al-Haytami stated that, Make sure you do not listen to what
08:04is in the books of Ibn Taymiyyah and his student Ibn Qayyim al-Jaziya and other such people
08:09who have taken their own whim as their god, and who have been led astray by god, and whose
08:13hearts and ears have been sealed, and whose eyes have been covered by him.
08:18May god forsake the one who follows them, and purify the earth of their likes.
08:23He also stated that, Ibn Taymiyyah is a servant whom god has forsaken, led astray, made blind
08:29and deaf, and degraded.
08:32Such is the explicit verdict of the leading scholars who have exposed the rottenness of
08:36his ways and the errors of his statements.
08:39Taqi al-Din al-Hizni condemned Ibn Taymiyyah in even stronger terms by referring to him
08:44as the, heretic from Haran and similarly, Munawi considered Ibn Taymiyyah to be an innovator
08:49though not an unbeliever.
08:52Taqi al-Din al-Sabqi criticized Ibn Taymiyyah for contradicting the consensus of the Muslims
08:57by his anthropomorphism, by his claims that accidents exist in god, by suggesting that
09:02god was speaking in time, and by his belief in the eternity of the world.
09:07Ibn Battuta, D. 771,369, famously wrote a work questioning Ibn Taymiyyah's mental state.
09:16The possibility of psychological abnormalities notwithstanding, Ibn Taymiyyah's personality,
09:22by multiple accounts, was fiery and oftentimes unpredictable.
09:27The historian Al-Makrizi said, Regarding the rift between the Sunni Asha'aris and Ibn Taymiyyah,
09:33people are divided into two factions over the question of Ibn Taymiyyah.
09:36For until the present, the latter has retained admirers and disciples in Syria and Egypt.
09:42Both his supporters and rivals grew to respect Ibn Taymiyyah because he was uncompromising
09:47in his views.
09:49Dahabi's views towards Ibn Taymiyyah were ambivalent.
09:53His praise of Ibn Taymiyyah is invariably qualified with criticism and misgivings and
09:57he considered him to be both a brilliant sheikh, and also cocky and, impetuous.
10:03The Hanafi Maturidi scholar, Allah al-Din al-Bukhari said that anyone that gives Ibn
10:08Taymiyyah the title Sheikh al-Islam is a disbeliever.
10:12Despite the prevalent condemnations of Ibn Taymiyyah outside Hanbali school during the
10:16pre-modern period, many prominent non-Hanbali scholars such as Ibrahim al-Qurani, D.1690,
10:24Shah Wali Allah al-Dilawi, D.1762, Mehmet Berghiwi, D.1573, Ibn al-Amir al-Sanani, D.1768,
10:35Muhammad al-Shaqani, D.1834, etc. would come to the defense of Ibn Taymiyyah and advocate
10:42his ideas during this era.
10:45In the 18th century, influential South Asian Islamic scholar and revivalist Shah Walula
10:50Delawi would become the most prominent advocate of the doctrines of Ibn Taymiyyah, and profoundly
10:55transformed the religious thought in South Asia.
10:58His seminary, Madrasa-i Rahimiya, became a hub of intellectual life in the country, and
11:03the ideas developed there quickly spread to wider academic circles.
11:08Making a powerful defense of Ibn Taymiyyah and his doctrines, Shah Walula wrote,
11:13Our assessment of Ibn Taymiyyah after full investigation is that he was a scholar of
11:17the Book of God, and had full command over its etymological and juristic implications.
11:23He remembered by heart the traditions of the Prophet and accounts of elders, Salaf.
11:29He excelled in intelligence and brilliance.
11:32He argued in defense of all al-Sunnah with great eloquence and force.
11:37No innovation or irreligious act is reported about him.
11:40There is not a single matter on which he is without his defense based on the Qur'an and
11:44the Sunnah.
11:46So it is difficult to find a man in the whole world who possesses the qualities of Ibn Taymiyyah.
11:52No one can come anywhere near him in the force of his speech and writing.
11:56People who harassed him, and got him thrown in prison, did not possess even one-tenth
12:01of his scholarly excellence.
12:03The reputation and stature of Ibn Taymiyyah amongst non-Hanbali Sunni scholars would significantly
12:09improve between the 18th and 20th centuries.
12:12From a little-read scholar considered controversial by many, he would become one of the most popular
12:17scholarly figures in the Sunni religious tradition.
12:21The 19th-century Iraqi scholar Khair al-Din al-Alusi d. 1899, wrote an influential treatise
12:28titled Jala al-Aynayn fi Muhakkamat al-Ahmadayn in defense of Ibn Taymiyyah.
12:35The treatise would make great impact on major scholars of the Salafiyya movement in Syria
12:39and Egypt, such as Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi, d. 1914, and Muhammad Rashid Rida, d. 1935.
12:48Praising Ibn Taymiyyah as a central and heroic Islamic figure of the classical era, Rashid
12:53Rida wrote, After the power of the Asha'aris reigned supreme in the Middle Ages, al-Qur'an
12:59al-Wusta, and the Al-al-Hadith and the followers of the Salaf were weakened, there appeared
13:04in the 8th century, ah, 14th century A.D., the great Mujaddid, Sheikh al-Islam Ahmad
13:10Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyyah, whose like has not been seen in mastery of both the traditional
13:15and rational sciences and in the power of argument.
13:19Egypt and India have revived his books and the books of his student Ibn Qayyim al-Jaziyya,
13:24after a time when they were only available in Najd.
13:27Now, they have spread to both east and west, and will become the main support of the Muslims
13:32of the earth.
13:33Ibn Taymiyyah's works served as an inspiration for later Muslim scholars and historical figures,
13:39who have been regarded as his admirers or disciples.
13:43In the contemporary world, he may be considered at the root of Wahhabism, the Sanussi order
13:48and other later reformist movements.
13:50Ibn Taymiyyah has been noted to have influenced Rashid Rida, Abul A'lamaduri, Sayyid Qutbi,
13:58Hassan al-Banna, Abdullah Azzam, and Osama bin Laden.
14:03The terrorist organization Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant used a fatwa of Ibn Taymiyyah
14:08to justify the burning alive of Jordanian pilot Muwath al-Qasaba.
14:13After the Iranian Revolution, conservative Sunni ulema robustly championed Ibn Taymiyyah's
14:18anti-Shia polemics across the Islamic world since the 1980s, and vast majority of Sunni
14:24intellectual circles adopted Ibn Taymiyyah's rhetoric against Shiism.
14:28Ibn Taymiyyah's appeals to the precedents of the Quran and the Sunnah over the authority
14:33of the Madhhab system has inspired a wide range of Islamic reform movements over the
14:37last few centuries, and especially the Salafiyah reform movement that differ from other Sunnis
14:42who adhere to the four legal schools of fiqh, jurisprudence.
14:46These include the 17th-century Qadizadeli movement, 18th-century Wahhabi movement as
14:52well as the Islamic reformist movement of Ibn al-Amir al-San'ani d. 1768 and Muhammad
14:58al-Shaqqani d. 1834 in Yemen.
15:02In the 19th century, Taymiyyahan tradition would expand across the Islamic world, influencing
15:08the Al-I Hadith movement in South Asia and the Salafiyah movement in Iraq, Syria and
15:13Egypt.
15:14Ibn Taymiyyah adamantly insisted that his theological doctrines constituted the original
15:19creed of the Salaf, as well as that of Abu'l-Hassan al-Ash'ari, the eponym of the Ash'arite
15:25school.
15:26He also believed that Sharia, Islamic law, was best preserved through the teachings and
15:31practices of the Salaf, the earliest three generations of Muslims.
15:36Modern Islamic revivalist movements salute Ibn Taymiyyah as the architect of Salafism,
15:42which symbolizes the concept of reviving the traditions and values of the Golden Age of
15:46the Prophet.
15:48For Salafiyah movements across the Islamic world, Ibn Taymiyyah is their exemplar scholar
15:52who revived the methodology of the Salaf, and also a social reformer who defiantly stood
15:57against foreign occupation.
15:59Today, Salafi Muslims constitute the most avid readers and promoters of the works of
16:05Ibn Taymiyyah.
16:07Various concepts within modern Islamist movements can be attributed to Ibn Taymiyyah.
16:12Ibn Taymiyyah is highly revered in contemporary militant Islamist and jihadist circles for
16:17his 1303 Fatwa of Takfir, excommunication, against Mongol Ilkhanate rulers, who were
16:23recent converts to Islam, and his assertion that it became obligatory for true Muslims
16:28to wage jihad against the apostate Mongol leaders and Muslim citizens who accepted the
16:33Yassa Code.
16:35Influenced by Ibn Taymiyyah, Sayyid Qutbi would take up Ibn Taymiyyah's anti-Mongol
16:40fatwa and apply it on contemporary regimes across the Islamic world.
16:44Ibn Taymiyyah's other major theological mission was to reassert the primacy of armed
16:49jihad in Islamic faith, which played a major role in shaping future militant interpretations
16:54of Islam.
16:56Along with total, literal adherence to Sharia, he held that waging martial jihad was an Islamic
17:01religious obligation for all Muslims when under foreign invasion.
17:06These ideas would be readily embraced in the 20th century by various militant Islamist
17:11movements and underpin the theological justification for militancy of groups like Al Qaeda, ISIS,
17:17etc.
17:18Scholars like Yahya Misho have noted that Ibn Taymiyyah has thus become a sort of forefather
17:23of Al Qaeda.
17:25One of main arguments put forth by Ibn Taymiyyah was his categorizing the world into distinct
17:30territories.
17:31The domain of Islam, Dar al-Islam, where the rule is of Islam and Sharia law is enforced.
17:37The domain of unbelief, Dar al-Khufr, ruled by unbelievers.
17:41And the domain of war, Dar al-Harb, which is territory under the rule of unbelievers
17:46who are involved in an active or potential conflict with the domain of Islam.
17:51Ibn Taymiyyah included a fourth.
17:54When the Mongols, whom he considered unbelievers, took control of the city of Mardin, the population
17:59included many Muslims.
18:02Believing Mardin was neither the domain of Islam, as Islam was not legally applied with
18:06an armed forces consisting of Muslims, nor the domain of war because the inhabitants
18:10were Muslim, Ibn Taymiyyah created a new, composite, category, known as Dar al-Ahd.
18:18A second concept is making a declaration of apostasy, Takfir, against a Muslim who does
18:23not obey Islam.
18:25But at the same time Ibn Taymiyyah maintained that no one can question another's faith and
18:30curse them as based on one's own desire, because faith is defined by God and the Prophet.
18:36He said, rather than cursing or condemning them, an approach should be taken where they
18:40are educated about the religion.
18:43Another concept attributed to Ibn Taymiyyah is, the duty to oppose and kill Muslim rulers
18:47who do not implement the revealed law, Shari'a.
18:52Based on this doctrine, Ibn Taymiyyah excommunicated the Ilkhanid state for not ruling by Sharia,
18:58Islamic law, despite officially professing Islam.
19:01I stop at this point today.
19:04Until next time, stay curious, stay informed, and keep exploring the world's incredible
19:10stories.
19:11Soon we will publish part 7.