Part 2

opinions that most of the people of his time in both Syria and Egypt, especially scholars of the different sects and madhabs, became either ardent supporters or staunch opponents. Included among the latter were some of the Mamlik rulers of Egypt and Syria.

THE MIHAN, TRIALS, OF IBN TAYMIYYAH

The period in which Ibn Taymiyyah lived witnessed political, social, and religious unrest. In fact, one of the greatest blows was directed against the institution of the Caliphate, which emerged only a few years before the birth of Ibn Taymiyyah. During the fall of Baghdad in 656/1258, the Mongols under Hulagu wreaked mass destruction and brutal murder throughout the city and the area around it. This calamity, which also brought about the death of the ‘Abbasid Caliph and the

IBN TAYMIYYAH AND KITAB AL-IMAN 5

In his writing Ibn Taymiyyah followed the Hanbalite school of thought and many times came into direct conflict with the prevailing religious scholars. “As a class they [the religious scholars] were nearly all mainly interested in their own promotion in their academic or judicial careers; and, since promotion was in the hands of the rulers, they were subservient to the rulers. Ibn Taymiyyah, following in the tradition of Ibn Hanbal, stood up for what he believed to be right, regardless of the suffering it might bring upon him personally.”” Undoubtedly Ibn Taymiyyah encountered more than his share of trouble throughout his active life.

Some people in the city of Hamat in Syria asked Ibn Taymiyyah to write on the question of the attributes of Allah and in 698/1298 he produced a treatise known as al-Hamawiyyah al-Kubra. His ideas in this treatise apparently disagreed with the position of certain scholars in Damascus, particularly the Ash‘arites, who accused him of tashbth, anthropomorphism, with regard to his interpretation of those attributes. The Ayyiibids, who ruled over Syria and Egypt before Ibn Taymiyyah’s time, were great supporters of the Ash‘arites, who based their argument on philosophical reasoning, in contrast to Ibn Taymiyyah’s theology, which was based more directly on the teachings of the pious ancestors. A council of jurists, set up to examine the accusations against Ibn Taymiyyah, decided that

* Ibn Kathir, vol. 13, pp. 213-26, Laoust, (E/ 2) and Laoust’s Essai.

* Montgomery Watt, Islamic Philosophy and Theology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press,

the Hamawiyyah contained nothing contradictory to the Qur’an or the Sunnah and therefore vindicated him of any wrongdoing."

Some of Ibn Taymiyyah’s enemies, however, intensified their attacks and succeeded in influencing the authorities in Damascus to hold a council on what became known as the al-Wasitiyyah, a treatise that Ibn Taymiyyah wrote on the request of a man from the city of WAsit in Iraq. The treatise, as became obvious, adhered to traditional Islamic teachings and, as a result, his enemies raised some questions about his religious views. Two other councils were held on the same account, but in both cases he again was vindicated. However, the matter did not stop there and he was summoned to Cairo by the Sultan of Egypt.

Against the advice of his close friends and the viceroy in Damascus, Ibn Taymiyyah was determined to go to Cairo and face the consequences. His trip to Egypt in 705/1305 was full of the triumphs and tribulations that he experienced throughout his life. Upon his arrival in Cairo the council of judges of the different madhabs, schools, met with Ibn Taymiyyah at the Citadel. The Maliki, chief judge, Ibn Makhlif, a strong opponent of Ibn Taymiyyah’s Hanbali way of thinking and teaching, would not allow him to defend himself. A decree issued by the council resulted in the imprisonment of Ibn Taymiyyah and two of his brothers for almost two years. During this period the Hanbalis, in both Egypt and Syria, were treated harshly and some were even imprisoned.

Upon Ibn Taymiyyah’s release from prison he was allowed to return to Syria on the condition that he refrain from openly attacking rational thinking, Sufism, and other nontraditional Islamic thinking. He declined this offer, however, and was once again imprisoned several months later, this time in Alexandria, although he was released and honored soon afterward when the Sultan, Malik al-Nasir

1" Al-‘Ugid, pp. 132-37; Watts, p. 143; Laoust (EI.2), p. 951; and Qamar-ud-Din Khan, The Political Thought of Ibn Taymiyyah. Istamabad: Islamic Research Institute, 1973, pp. 3-4. Sherman Jackson, in an article entitled "Ibn Taymiyyah on Trial in Damascus," translates a “memoir written by Ibn Taymiyyah himself." This translation is a well-documented account of the Damascus trial. Published in Journal of Semitic Studies, vol. 39.1, 1994, pp. 41-85.

” For further details, see Merlin Swartz’s translation of this treatise, with brief introductory remarks, entitled "A Seventh-Century (A.H.) Sunni Creed: The ‘aqeedah Wasitiya of Ibn Taymiya," Humanioura Islamica I, eds, H. W. Mason, R. L. Nettler, and J. Waardenburg. The Hague: Mouton, 1973, pp. 91-103.

IBN TAYMIYYAH AND KITAB AL-IMAN 7

Muhammad Ibn Qalawin, regained his authority in Egypt in 710/1311. The Sultan had great respect for Ibn Taymiyyah as both a person and a scholar. The next two years that Ibn Taymiyyah spent in Egypt were probably the happiest and most productive of his life. During this period he wrote one of his most important treatises, Kitab al-Siyasah al-Shar‘iyyah. In the year 712/1313 he returned to Damascus.*

In Damascus he continued writing, teaching, and issuing fatwas, formal legal opinions. Some of these fatwas agitated Ibn Taymiyyah’s opponents and they began to criticize him. Still, it was his fatwa on divorce, which contradicted even the Hanbali’s prevailing doctrine on this matter, that landed him in prison again by order of the Sultan. After about five months, again by order of the Sultan, he was released from prison.

Other incidents occurred when Ibn Taymiyyah wrote his treatise concerning ziyarat al-qubir, visits to tombs. In 726/1326, because of this treatise and his incessant issuing of fatwas on various matters, he was arrested and held in the Citadel of Damascus without trial until his death on 20 Dhii al-Qa‘dah 728/26 September 1328. During the last few months of his life he was forbidden to have paper, ink, or anything with which to write. However, his brother, Zayn al-Din, was allowed to take care of him in prison. Ibn Kathir gives a detailed, emotional description of Ibn Taymiyyah’s death and funeral in which he asserts that the whole city of Damascus, even women and children, took part in the funeral procession.'* Ibn Taymiyyah is buried in a small graveyard on the southern edge of the campus at the University of Damascus. On his marble tombstone is written: “Here lies Shaykh al-Islam Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyyah, 728 A.H.”!5

THE OBJECTIVES OF KITAB AL-IMAN

Ibn Taymiyyah’s main objective in writing Kitab al-Iman was to explain the concept of Iman and to correct its prevailing misconceptions. He wanted to explain the concept of Iman in accordance with and on the basis of the Quran and

The seven years that Ibn Taymiyyah spent in Egypt is fully detailed by Ibn Kathir, vol. 14, pp. 37-70; Abu Zahrah, pp. 49-75; and Laoust (EI.2).

* Ibn Kathir, vol. 14, pp. 141-45, * Adnan al-Khatib, "Ibn Taymiyyah," Mahrajan 1963, p. 653.