4. Imam Ibn Abdul Hadi al-Hanbali – wrote a full biography of Ibn Taymiyyah’s life.

• His Jihad against the Mongols Ibn Taymiyyah personally participated in the battle field against the Mongols, and he personally recruited the people - even the ‘umera’- to fight. He went to the ‘umera’, the political leaders of Ash-Sham, who escaped and went to Egypt after the invasion of the Mongols. He told the ‘umera’ that he will lead the people so all they need to do is to give their support. Unfortunately most of the Mamluk ‘umera’ were busy fighting against each other to take the rule. This created a lot of animosity among the ‘umera’, and even the fuqaha’ would support one ameer over the other. Ibn Taymiyyah also asked the people of Egypt to support the people of Ash-Sham. To prepare for battle, Ibn Taymiyyah would do exercises such as hiking a famous mountain in Damashq two or three times a day. When the Mongols started claiming that they were becoming Muslims, he went to debate with one of their leaders. Due to their own strong personality, the kings were impressed with how strong Ibn Taymiyyah was. He asked the leader to release the prisoners of war who were both Muslims and Ahl al-Dhimma. The leaders were not happy with this, but Ibn Taymiyyah insisted that Ahl al-Dhimma belonged to the Muslims and were the responsibility of the Muslims so they must be released also. Thus, he was able to get the Muslim and non-Muslim prisoners released after one battle. • His works Everyone admitted that his knowledge was so great that they had to accept his opinions in many issues, even if they didn’t like him. During his life he wrote a book called al-Wasatiyyah. This was a book in ‘aqeedah of Ahl as-Sunnah wal-Jama’a that was given as a response to the Iraqis. Although, the book is relatively well sized, it was just a response to a question that Ibn Taymiyyah was asked, and he wrote it between Dhuhr and ‘Asr. Many of his books were written just in order to respond to questions from different people and sometimes they were completed in just one session. Ibn Taymiyyah was the one who revived the Aqeedah of Ahl as-Sunnah when it was almost dead. Even today, the extreme modernists take Ibn Taymiyyah as a model of their movement. We don’t take these people’s extreme ideas even though he was a model of reform in his time. He revived the notion of ijtihad and because of this, many later fuqaha’ opened their eyes and said that taqleed is not a must. However, it took the people a few generations to realize that. He was not the first person to go independent but he was exceptional. He started to establish the affairs of the people without considering himself a political figure so the people did take him as their unofficial leader. Even in modern day, those who established Fiqh alhadeeth took a lot of their principles from Ibn Taymiyyah; even in Africa they are following the same example. He left a great legacy, and in ‘aqeedah as well he left a great amount of books. Qabeelat Tayybah TCE Notes Revolution 113

• His Ordeal, Death and Funeral On account of his courage and his outspokenness, he was against the general fatwa of following one madhab. He would follow the hadith and sunnah of RasulAllah sal Allahu alayhi wa Sallam instead of blindly following the opinion from one madhab, even though he grew up as Hanbali. He also believed in a level of ijtihad. Therefore, some of his fatawa provoked the Muslims of his time. For instance, although all the scholars of his time said that three divorces in one session was a final divorce, Ibn Taymiyyah said that this was only one divorce because this was the practice in the time of RasulAllah sal Allahu alayhi wa Sallam and also the hadith is in Sahih al-Bukhari. Ibn Taymiyyah also said that visiting the grave of the Prophet as part of Hajj was a Bid’ah, and the correct thing to do is to visit the masjid of RasulAllah sal Allahu alayhi wa Sallam. Because of his fatawa, the other fuqaha’ considered this a deviation on the part of Ibn Taymiyyah so they had him imprisoned many times in Syria and in Egypt. They also insisted that Ibn Taymiyyah stop giving fatawa. After getting permission from the muftis of the four madhahib, one of the ‘umera’ of the Mamluk placed Ibn Taymiyyah in prison. Ibn Taymiyyah would be imprisoned and released and then imprisoned again, back and forth depending on the Ameer. Ibn Kathir, one of the students of Ibn Taymiyyah said that in one instance when An-Naasir ibn Qalawun, who loved Ibn Taymiyyah, became the Ameer he released Ibn Taymiyyah. When Ibn Taymiyyah was brought in the royal court in front of the muftis who had him imprisoned, Naasir jumped up and hugged him and then they went onto the balcony to have a conversation. This created tension in the room because everyone was expecting Ibn Taymiyyah to take retaliation; however when they returned from the balcony they were holding hands, and Ibn Taymiyyah was thanking and praising Naasir and speaking highly of his muftis. Ibn Kathir said that he later asked Ibn Taymiyyah about the conversation on the balcony and Ibn Taymiyyah replied that Naasir was trying to take a consultation as to what to do with the muftis; should they be assassinated for their support of the other Mamluk Ameer. However, Ibn Taymiyyah said no, because the Muftis are the elite of the ummah so if they are killed then there will be no one to lead the people. One of the judges of the Maliki madhab said that they had never seen anyone who was more righteous than Ibn Taymiyyah; he said, "We tried everything to get rid of him even trying to provoke the Ameer to kill him but when Ibn Taymiyyah was given the chance to retaliate, he forgave us". The fact that he forgave the people who imprisoned him at a time when he could have easily retaliated shows us something about Ibn Taymiyyah. The muftis continued to provoke the Ameer until Ibn Qalawun told Ibn Taymiyyah to stop giving fatawa in public; however Ibn Taymiyyah insisted so Ibn Qalawun imprisoned him. Ibn Taymiyyah asked to be imprisoned in Egypt and this was where he spent the last days of his life. Although, Ibn Taymiyyah was imprisoned during the last few months of his life, he still corresponded with his mom, friends and students. Eventually, the leaders took away Ibn Taymiyyah’s writing materials because the Fuqaha’ complained that his opinions were still coming out even though he was in prison. Ibn al-Qayyim, his student, was in jail with him at the same time. When his writing materials were taken away, Ibn Taymiyyah became really depressed and this lead to his death. Ibn Kathir was amongst those who helped prepare Ibn Taymiyyah for burial and he said that Ibn Taymiyyah had changed a lot. Ibn Kathir explained that "You could see that his hair turned grey". When he was taken out to be buried, the people said that they had never seen anything as big as his Janazah except for the Janazah of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal in Baghdad. Qabeelat Tayybah TCE Notes Revolution 114

Ibn Taymiyyah In the eyes of his supporters and his opponents His opponents tried everything to get rid of him, even to kill him. But, when he was given the chance to retaliate, he chose to forgive them. Many Fuquha’ of the time praised him for his righteousness. Today, there are claims that he is the founder of Wahhabbism. This is absolutely false; his statements were exactly the same as the early scholars and sahabah. Ibn Taymiyyah is unjustly labeled as the one causing all of the fitnah of modern era. Other groups label him as anti-Sufi, anti Ash’ariy, etc. Ibn Hajr, who came after Ibn Taymiyyah, mentioned Ibn Taymiyyah many times in his book Fath al-Bari, even though he did not like Ibn Taymiyyah’s attitude in the community. Ibn Hajr compared Ibn Taymiyyah to Ibn Hazm in that they both had harsh attitudes towards the Fuqaha’ of their time. Nevertheless, they all accepted Ibn Taymiyyah’s opinions because of his great intelligence and knowledge. His contributions of Fiqh Ibn Taymiyyah revived Ijtihad and opened the eyes and minds of people to the fact that taqleed is not required. Even some extreme modernists today take Ibn Taymiyyah as model of revolution. He was considered a revolutionist imam who revived the following of the Qur’an and Sunnah. Ibn Taymiyyah In the eyes of our contemporaries Imam Hassan An-Nadawai was a comtemporary scholar from India who wrote 300 pages on his biography and praised Ibn Taymiyyah. Sheikh Muhammad Abu Zuhra from Azhar wrote a biography on Ibn Taymiyyah as well. Prominent Fuqaha’ of this Stage Fuqaha’ of the Hanafi Madhab