springtouw
01-03-2007, 22:31
Shaikh Al-Islam Ibn-Taymiyah
One Of The Best Muslim Scholars
Sheikh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah is a very famous Muslim scholar. To understand Ibn Taymiyah
we need to understand the time that Ibn Taymiyah came at. Ibn Taymiyah came at a time when
many people came into Islam but unfortunately wanted to bring some of the stuff from their old
religions into Islam and make a mix. The result of that appeared as groups like the Shi3a & the Sufis
and so on. At that time Islam was drifting away and the people started clinging to the things that
were added to Islam not to Islam itself. Ibn Katheer in his most famous book "al-bidayah walnihayah
(The starting and the beginning)" says that deviation and misguidance speed so much that
Sunnah and true Islam was hard to find (much worst than today), and he actually gives examples of
places and such. He said "and when we come to see the state of the people of Damascus
that time, the people there were worst than the polytheist Kafirs like Christians and
Sabians. Innovations and Shirk spread so commonly that it was thought to be Sunnah
and it was defended vigorously against any kind of reform or return to the sundae."
At these times Ibn Taymiyah came. Obviously, this was around the time of the Crusader
presence. Also, you have a significant of the Christian population becoming Muslim or forming
certain sects and certain people who were already Muslims were forming certain sects. As one
says, you are a product of your environment. A very large percentage of Syrians were Christian and
joining Islam and they were bad influences. Ibn Taymiyah attacked the idea of having saints. The
idea of saints originated from Catholicism and Christian Orthodoxy. As for Druze (1) and Alawite (2),
Ibn Taymiyah call for their persecution since they are worse polytheist than Christians are. The
Mamelukes were not interested in the piety of Orthodox Sunni style. They favored the Mystical
Dervish styles of the Sufis etc.... Today, with Mamelukes and Fatimite influence, Egypt still has
heavy mystical influence and Sufism.
Ibn Taymiyah had one little magnificent idea: Islam was perfect and complete at the days of the
companion, a lot of stuff was added to Islam afterwards by Sufis and others, since Islam WAS
perfect before then these things we do no need. So, he wanted to revive the understanding of Islam
according to what the Companions of the prophet (or al-Salaf al-Salih7) understood. Of course Ibn
Taymiyah did not come up with that concept by himself, the concept was started by the prophet who
used to say in every Friday that people will come and they will add to Islam, and that these additions
are evil and are rejected, and that those who add them will not be forgiven and there will not get
reward for their worship. The Companions understood that and they followed it perfectly. The
guidelines of the concept are very apparent in all the 4 schools especially the last school (mathhab),
the Hanbali which came at a time when deviations and innovations were many so It had a solid and
clear methodology in fighting such things, Imam Ahmad Bin Hanbal spent several years in the jails
of Bani al-3abbas because of his stand against the deviant mu3tazillah when they claimed that the
text of Quran was uttered by Gabriel not by Allah (fitnat khaliq al-Quran).
Anyway as Muslims got deeper and deeper into these deviations, Allah made their situation
worse and worse. First Allah gave the shi3a the upper hand on the Sunnis and they founded states
in Yemen (Zaidiya), eastern Arabia (Qaramita), Iran (Ismailis and Twelvers) and Egypt (Fatimites).
Ibn Katheer says in the same book (al-bidayah wal-nihayah) that this was indeed the long due
punishment that the people deserved with their leaving Islam. But the people still insisted on
deviation and innovation so Allah sent both the Mongol and the Crusaders as punishments on the
Muslims. At such times, came Ibn Taymiyah.
Ibn Taymiyah was a follower of the Hanbali School, his father was the head of that school but
he died when Ibn Taymiyah was 17. When Ibn Taymiyah became 20 he was acknowledged to be
the head of the Hanbali School by all Hanbali major scholars. The nature of the Hanbali school and
the fact that it was the last lead remain away from all the innovation and deviation aground them.
Many Hanbalis deviated too but for some time the only groups that slicked to pure Islam were a
small group among the Hanbalis and the ever-small group of the students of Hadeeth. The rest were
in dissension. Ibn Taymiyah started a revolution. He was sick and tired of all the innovation and
deviation aground him, so he started a merciless war against everything that is not Islam yet
claiming to be Islam. He attacked many people that the people considered holy like al-Ghazali, Ibn
Arabi, Ibn Seena (philosopher from the Mu3tazila (3)) and many others. Ibn Taymiyah was set on
living Islam like the Companions understood it and lived it, without the additions that people added
and without taking anything away from Islam. He was able with his great ability at speech and great
knowledge to gain a huge number of supporters in a short time. Indeed, Ibn Taymiyah enemies had
no argument at all, anyone who studies Quran and Sunnah sees that everything Ibn Taymiyah
called for was good and everything he fought was bad. The guy was so careful not to do or say
anything unless he is sure of the strength of his argument.
Ibn Taymiyah attacked Ibn 3arabi, the famous Sufi that claimed for the first time that Allah
exists everywhere and he claimed that Allah and his creations are the same thing. That is clearly in
contradiction to Quran and Sunnah and to the understanding of the Companions (Qur'an 67:16). So
Ibn Taymiyah declared him a Kafir (non-Muslim) because he attributed to Allah something that we
were never told, and that is Kufr by the agreement of the Sunni Muslims. By doing this, Ibn
Taymiyah made the Sufis his enemies. Ibn Taymiyah was merciless with the Sufis who instead or
worshipping Allah and supplicating to Allah, were worshipping their Awlia' (their leaders) and the
graves, yet he was fair to the few Sufis that were righteous at his time like Abdul Qadir al-Jilani
(unfortunately those Sufis are almost nonexistent today).
One Of The Best Muslim Scholars
Sheikh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah is a very famous Muslim scholar. To understand Ibn Taymiyah
we need to understand the time that Ibn Taymiyah came at. Ibn Taymiyah came at a time when
many people came into Islam but unfortunately wanted to bring some of the stuff from their old
religions into Islam and make a mix. The result of that appeared as groups like the Shi3a & the Sufis
and so on. At that time Islam was drifting away and the people started clinging to the things that
were added to Islam not to Islam itself. Ibn Katheer in his most famous book "al-bidayah walnihayah
(The starting and the beginning)" says that deviation and misguidance speed so much that
Sunnah and true Islam was hard to find (much worst than today), and he actually gives examples of
places and such. He said "and when we come to see the state of the people of Damascus
that time, the people there were worst than the polytheist Kafirs like Christians and
Sabians. Innovations and Shirk spread so commonly that it was thought to be Sunnah
and it was defended vigorously against any kind of reform or return to the sundae."
At these times Ibn Taymiyah came. Obviously, this was around the time of the Crusader
presence. Also, you have a significant of the Christian population becoming Muslim or forming
certain sects and certain people who were already Muslims were forming certain sects. As one
says, you are a product of your environment. A very large percentage of Syrians were Christian and
joining Islam and they were bad influences. Ibn Taymiyah attacked the idea of having saints. The
idea of saints originated from Catholicism and Christian Orthodoxy. As for Druze (1) and Alawite (2),
Ibn Taymiyah call for their persecution since they are worse polytheist than Christians are. The
Mamelukes were not interested in the piety of Orthodox Sunni style. They favored the Mystical
Dervish styles of the Sufis etc.... Today, with Mamelukes and Fatimite influence, Egypt still has
heavy mystical influence and Sufism.
Ibn Taymiyah had one little magnificent idea: Islam was perfect and complete at the days of the
companion, a lot of stuff was added to Islam afterwards by Sufis and others, since Islam WAS
perfect before then these things we do no need. So, he wanted to revive the understanding of Islam
according to what the Companions of the prophet (or al-Salaf al-Salih7) understood. Of course Ibn
Taymiyah did not come up with that concept by himself, the concept was started by the prophet who
used to say in every Friday that people will come and they will add to Islam, and that these additions
are evil and are rejected, and that those who add them will not be forgiven and there will not get
reward for their worship. The Companions understood that and they followed it perfectly. The
guidelines of the concept are very apparent in all the 4 schools especially the last school (mathhab),
the Hanbali which came at a time when deviations and innovations were many so It had a solid and
clear methodology in fighting such things, Imam Ahmad Bin Hanbal spent several years in the jails
of Bani al-3abbas because of his stand against the deviant mu3tazillah when they claimed that the
text of Quran was uttered by Gabriel not by Allah (fitnat khaliq al-Quran).
Anyway as Muslims got deeper and deeper into these deviations, Allah made their situation
worse and worse. First Allah gave the shi3a the upper hand on the Sunnis and they founded states
in Yemen (Zaidiya), eastern Arabia (Qaramita), Iran (Ismailis and Twelvers) and Egypt (Fatimites).
Ibn Katheer says in the same book (al-bidayah wal-nihayah) that this was indeed the long due
punishment that the people deserved with their leaving Islam. But the people still insisted on
deviation and innovation so Allah sent both the Mongol and the Crusaders as punishments on the
Muslims. At such times, came Ibn Taymiyah.
Ibn Taymiyah was a follower of the Hanbali School, his father was the head of that school but
he died when Ibn Taymiyah was 17. When Ibn Taymiyah became 20 he was acknowledged to be
the head of the Hanbali School by all Hanbali major scholars. The nature of the Hanbali school and
the fact that it was the last lead remain away from all the innovation and deviation aground them.
Many Hanbalis deviated too but for some time the only groups that slicked to pure Islam were a
small group among the Hanbalis and the ever-small group of the students of Hadeeth. The rest were
in dissension. Ibn Taymiyah started a revolution. He was sick and tired of all the innovation and
deviation aground him, so he started a merciless war against everything that is not Islam yet
claiming to be Islam. He attacked many people that the people considered holy like al-Ghazali, Ibn
Arabi, Ibn Seena (philosopher from the Mu3tazila (3)) and many others. Ibn Taymiyah was set on
living Islam like the Companions understood it and lived it, without the additions that people added
and without taking anything away from Islam. He was able with his great ability at speech and great
knowledge to gain a huge number of supporters in a short time. Indeed, Ibn Taymiyah enemies had
no argument at all, anyone who studies Quran and Sunnah sees that everything Ibn Taymiyah
called for was good and everything he fought was bad. The guy was so careful not to do or say
anything unless he is sure of the strength of his argument.
Ibn Taymiyah attacked Ibn 3arabi, the famous Sufi that claimed for the first time that Allah
exists everywhere and he claimed that Allah and his creations are the same thing. That is clearly in
contradiction to Quran and Sunnah and to the understanding of the Companions (Qur'an 67:16). So
Ibn Taymiyah declared him a Kafir (non-Muslim) because he attributed to Allah something that we
were never told, and that is Kufr by the agreement of the Sunni Muslims. By doing this, Ibn
Taymiyah made the Sufis his enemies. Ibn Taymiyah was merciless with the Sufis who instead or
worshipping Allah and supplicating to Allah, were worshipping their Awlia' (their leaders) and the
graves, yet he was fair to the few Sufis that were righteous at his time like Abdul Qadir al-Jilani
(unfortunately those Sufis are almost nonexistent today).