Presented by

Nurul Najwa Abd. Latif

Nadalmuhtadi Abd. Razak
Triningsih Ngadimun

Edited by
Dr. Md. Mahmudul Hasan

International Islamic University Malaysia

2011

Ibn Taymiyyahs full name is Taq al-Dn Ab alAbbs Amad ibn Abd al-Salm ibn Abd Allh
ibn Muammad ibn Taymiyyah.

He was born in Harran, Turkey on 22 January

1263. He lived in Harran during the hard time
of Mongol invasions.
Ibn Taymiyyah was a theologian and logician.
His family was very well-known for religious
scholarship.

 He was a member of the school founded by

Ahmad ibn Hanbal.
Like Ahmad ibn Hanbal, he is referred to as
"Sheikh ul-Islam, a title of superior authority
on Islamic knowledge.
Scholarly achievements of ibn Taymiyyah's
father, Shihab al-deen 'Abd al-Haleem ibn
Taymiyyah (d. 1284), were also well-known.
Due to Mongol invasions, his family fled to
Damascus in 1268 when he was still young.
Damascus was then ruled by the Mamluks of
Egypt.

 At that time the Tatar hordes under Hulagu

Khan were inflicting their barbaric onslaughts
throughout the world of Islam - especially the
Mesopotamium region. Ibn Taymiyyah was
only seven when the Tatars launched attacks
on Harraan. Consequently, the populace left
Harraan to seek refuge elsewhere.
Ibn Taymiyyah was later trained by prominent
scholars of his time. Among them a woman
scholar named Zaynab bint Makki who taught
him hadith. Ibn Taymiyyah was always an
industrious student and later he acquainted
himself with secular and religious sciences
and the study of Arabic literature and
lexicography.

 He became an expert in the great Arab

grammarian Seebawayh's al-Kitaab which is
regarded as the greatest authority on grammar
and syntax. He also pointed out the errors
therein.
He commanded knowledge of all the prose and
poetry then available. Furthermore, he studied
the history of both pre-Islamic Arabia and that
of the post-Islamic period. He also learnt
mathematics and calligraphy.

 His scholarly zeal combined with his intense

partisanship and hypergraphia led many
contemporaries and later observers, most
notably Ibn Battuta, to consider him mentally
unbalanced.
Later, he became the representative of the
Hanbali school of thought and studied
jurisprudence from his father, and looked
further in the Quran, Sunnah, and Sirah.
Ibn Taymiyyah had great love for tafsir
(Quranic exegesis). He read over a hundred
commentaries of the Quran.

 He studied theology (kalam), philosophy, and

Sufism. He used to refute the Christians. His
student Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya authored the
famous poem O Christ-Worshipper which
unapologetically examines the dogma of the
Trinity propounded by many Christian sects.
He completed his studies when he was a
teenager and at 19 he became a professor of
Islamic studies.

 He started giving fatwas on religious legal matters

without following any of the traditional legal schools,
the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'ee and Hanbali and he was
well versed in Quranic studies, hadith, fiqh, theology,
Arabic grammar and scholastic theology.
He defended the authentic prophetic traditions by
arguments which, although taken from the Quran and
the Sunnah, had been unfamiliar to people of his time.
The freedom of his polemics made him many enemies
among the scholars of the traditional Orthodox
Schools, who falsely accused him of all kinds of
heretical beliefs.

 He was imprisoned for several times due his

outspokenness and for conflicting with the ijma of
jurists and theologians of his day.
His troubles with government began when he
went with a delegation of ulama to talk to Ghazan
Khan of Iran to stop his attacks on the Muslims. It
is reported that not one of the ulama dared to say
anything to the Khan except Ibn Taymiyyah who
said:
You claim that you are Muslim and you have with you
Muezzins, Muftis, Imams and Shaykhs but you invaded us
and reached our country for what? While your father and
your grandfather, Hulagu were non-believers, they did not
attack and they kept their promise. But you promised and
broke your promise.

 He was banned from having any books, papers

and pen during his imprisonment.
Ibn Taymiyyah died while in prison on 22
Zulkaedah 728 AH (27 September 1328).
Al-Bazzar says, Once the people had heard of his
death, not a single person in Damascus who was
able to attend the prayer and wanted to, remained
until he appeared and took time out for it. As a
result, the markets in Damascus were closed and
all transactions of livelihood were stopped.
Governors, heads, scholars, jurists came out. They
say that none of the majority of the people failed
to turn up, according to my knowledge - except
three individuals; they were well known for their
enmity for Ibn Taymiyyah and thus, hid away from
the people out of fear for their lives."

I. ORDERING THE GOOD AND

FORBIDDING THE EVIL

a) He launched an intellectual attack on

polytheism and innovations by way of intellectual
discourse through direct debates, books and
letters. He presented the opinions of his
opponents only to refute their arguments.
b) He was against the Christian doctrine of Trinity
and persuaded Christians to accept Islam. For
example, he wrote a letter to the then Christian
King of Cyprus to invite him to Islam.

c) His stances against the oppressive rulers. One of

the well-known ones was his stance against Qazan,
the ruler of the Tartars.
d) Ibn Taymiyyah also influenced the rulers to
assume their role of commanding the good and
forbidding the evil.

II. HIS JIHAD AGAINST THE TARTARS

He clarified the reality of their condition and

showed that it was an obligation to fight them.
He elucidated the causes for victory and explained
that it was not impossible or difficult to achieve
victory over them if the Muslims adopted the
causes that achieve victory such as judging by
Islamic law, putting an end to oppression,
spreading justice and being sincere in one's
intention when performingjihadin Allahs cause.

 The existing works of Ibn Taymiyyah are great in

number, despite the fact that a proportion of his
works have perished.
He left a considerable body of work; 350 works
listed by his student, Ibn Qayyim al Jawziyyaand
500 by other student, al Dhahabi.
His works have been republished extensively in
Syria,Egypt, Arabia, andIndia and some of them
have been translated into English.

Some of his works

Majmu al Fatwa al Kubra
Majmu' al-Fatawa(Compilation of Fatawa)
al-Aqeedah al-Hamawiyyah(The Creed to the
People of Hamawiyyah)
Al-Aqidah al-Wasitiyyah(The Creed)
al-Asma wa's-Sifaat(Allah's Names and
Attributes) Volumes 12
'al-Iman(Faith)
Kitabul Wasitiyyah (Principles of Islamic Faith)
Kitab Iqtida al- Sirat al-Mustaqim (On the
Necessity of the Straight Path)

 al-Jawab as Sahih li man Baddala Din alMasih(The Correct Response to those who
have Corrupted the Deen(Religion) of Jesus
Christ [A Muslim theologian's response to
Christianity])seven volumes, over a
thousand pages.
as-Sarim al-Maslul ala Shatim
Fatawa al-Kubra
Fatawa al-Misriyyah
ar-Radd 'ala al-Mantiqiyyin(Refutation of
Greek Logicians)
al-Uboodiyyah(Subjection to God)

al-Aqeedah alWasittiyah

This famous book was written in response to a

request from a judge from Wasith asking him
to write his views on theology in Islam.
In the first chapter Ibn Taymiyyah defines one
group which he calledAl Firq An-Najiyah(the
group of survival).
He quotes a hadith that the Prophet (peace be
upon him) says that there will be one group of
his followers who will stay on the truth until
the day of Resurrection.

 Chapter two contains the view of AhlusSunnah wa'l Jamaah regarding the attributes
of God based on the Quran and Sunnah
without ta'teel (rejection), tamtsil
(anthropomorphism), tahreef (changing His
Attribute), and tayif (questioning His
Attribute).
This book also contains the six parts of faith
for Muslims, namely belief in God, His Angels,
His Messengers, His Books, the Day of
Resurrection, and taqdeer (pre-decree).

Al Sarim al-Maslul ala Shatim al

Rasul
(The Drawn Sword against those who insult the
Messenger)

The book was written in response to an

incident in which Ibn Taymiyyah heard a
Christian insulting Prophet Muhammad (peace
be upon him).
It was written entirely by memory while he
was in prison and quoting more than hundreds
of references.

Some of his works translated into

English

The Friends of God and the Friends ofSatan

Kitab al Iman: The Book of Faith
Diseases of the Hearts and their Cures
The Relief from Distress
Fundamentals of Enjoining Good & Forbidding Evil
The Concise Legacy
The Goodly Word
The Madinan Way
Ibn Taymiyyah against Greek Logicians

Letters from Prison

Letter to His Mother

In the letter Ibn Taymiyyah apologises to his mother for his

stay in Egypt, a stay he felt was necessary to educate the
people.
Extract
from the
From Ahmad
bin letter:
Taymiyyah to my dear and honourable
Mother
our stay in Egypt is for an important issue. The
abandonment of such a task leads to the corruption of our
Deen and of our life.
Yet it was not our choice to be far from you. Had birds been
able to carry us, we would have come to you. But the absent
one has his reason; and had you been able to look deeply
into the affairs of the Muslims, you would not choose for me
another place to the one I am in now.

Letter to his brothers and

students in Damascus

His words in the letters are full of his love and

advice to his beloved brothers and students.
He also extends forgiveness to those who
conspired to imprison him.

Letter to the King of

Cyprus

He wrote a letter to the then Christian King of Cyprus,

inviting him to Islam and exposing the lies and
corruption being committed by the priests and monks
whilst they knew fully well that they were upon
falsehood.
After mentioning the devoutness of the King, his love for
knowledge and good conduct towards the people, Ibn
Taymiyyah then invites him to embrace Islam and adopt
the correct belief. He does this in a gentle and
exemplary manner addressing his intellect, and entrusts
him to behave benevolently towards the Muslims in
Cyprus, not to strive to change the religion of a single
one of them.

Conclusion

Ibn Taymiyyah is a distinguished figure and a

great mujahid in Islam whose knowledge
encompasses various field of studies.
His dedication in conveying the teachings of
Islam, writing books and spreading knowledge
inspires every Muslim to do the same.
May God help us benefit from his knowledge!