Introduction

Majmu' al-Fatawa is the most comprehensive collection of the writings of Shaykh al-Islam Ahmad ibn Abd al-Halim ibn Taymiyyah (661–728 AH / 1263–1328 CE), spanning thirty-seven volumes and covering virtually every major discipline of the Islamic sciences. Ibn Taymiyyah was a Hanbali jurist, Athari theologian, and one of the most prolific and controversial scholars in the history of Islamic thought. Born in Harran in what is now southern Turkey, he was raised and educated in Damascus after his family fled the Mongol invasions. He studied under the leading scholars of his day and became a formidable authority in hadith, fiqh, usul, theology, and Quranic interpretation. His outspoken opposition to positions he considered innovations — whether in theology, law, or Sufi practice — brought him into repeated conflict with the Mamluk authorities and led to several periods of imprisonment in Cairo and Damascus, the last of which ended with his death in the citadel of Damascus.

The collection was not compiled by Ibn Taymiyyah himself. It was gathered over many decades by his student Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn Qasim al-Hanbali and subsequently completed and organized by his son Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman, who spent years tracking down manuscripts scattered across Damascus, Cairo, and other centers of learning. The resulting compilation brings together formal fatwas, responses to theological questions, independent treatises, Quranic commentaries, refutations of philosophical and sectarian opponents, and discussions of Islamic spirituality and ethics — a body of work that no single volume could contain.

The organization of the Majmu' is broadly thematic. The first volumes address the foundations of Islamic creed, including foundational texts such as al-Aqeedah al-Wasitiyyah and al-Aqeedah al-Hamawiyyah, which became touchstones of Athari theology and are still widely studied today. Subsequent volumes move through Quranic sciences, hadith methodology, legal theory (usul al-fiqh), and the branches of fiqh covering ritual worship, financial transactions, family law, and criminal law. Later volumes address Sufism, philosophy, logic, and the refutation of groups Ibn Taymiyyah considered to have deviated from the Sunni mainstream, including certain Ash'ari positions, philosophical theology, popular Sufi practices, and various sectarian movements.

Ibn Taymiyyah's method throughout is direct engagement with primary sources. His arguments characteristically begin with Quranic verses, continue through hadith texts and the statements of the Companions and early generations (Salaf), and address the positions of later scholars only after establishing the textual foundation. He is willing to challenge consensus positions when he finds them insufficiently grounded in the primary sources, and he engages opposing arguments with systematic thoroughness rather than dismissal. This makes his writings demanding but intellectually serious.

The twentieth-century publication of Majmu' al-Fatawa in its complete form transformed access to Ibn Taymiyyah's thought, which had previously circulated mainly in selective manuscript excerpts. It has become a primary reference for scholars of Islamic theology, law, and intellectual history, and its influence on contemporary Salafi and reformist movements is profound. Readers new to the collection are advised to begin with the theological volumes, and particularly with the shorter independent treatises, before engaging the longer and more technical legal and philosophical writings. A grounding in classical Islamic sciences, especially hadith and Hanbali fiqh, is essential for following Ibn Taymiyyah's arguments at full depth.