Ibn Taymiyyah
Islamic scholar, theologian and logician
Died when: 65 years 248 days (788 months)Star Sign: Aquarius
Ibn Taymiyyah (January 22, 1263 – September 26, 1328;Arabic: ??? ?????), birth name Taqi ad-Din ?A?mad ibn ?Abd al-?alim ibn ?Abd al-Salam al-Numayri al-?arrani (Arabic: ??? ????? ???? ?? ??? ?????? ?? ??? ?????? ??????? ???????), was a Sunni ?Alim, muhaddith, judge, proto-Salafist theologian, and sometimes controversial thinker and political figure.
He is known for his diplomatic involvement with the Ilkhanid ruler Ghazan Khan and for his involvement at the Battle of Marj al-Saffar which ended the Mongol invasions of the Levant.
A member of the Hanbali school, Ibn Taymiyyah's iconoclastic views that condemned numerous folk practices associated with saint veneration and the visitation of tomb-shrines; made him unpopular with many scholars and rulers of the time, and he was imprisoned several times.
A polarising figure in his own times and in the centuries that followed, Ibn Taymiyyah has emerged as one of the most influential medieval writers in contemporary Sunni Islam.
He was also noteworthy for engaging in intense religious polemics that defended Athari school against the followers of rival schools of Kalam (speculative theology); namely Ash'arism and Maturidism.
This would prompt numerous clerics and state authorities to accuse Ibn Taymiyyah and his disciples of being guilty of "tashbih" (anthropomorphism); which eventually led to the censoring of his works and subsequent incarceration.
Nevertheless, Ibn Taymiyya's numerous treatises that advocated "creedal Salafism" (al-salafiyya al-i?tiqadiyya), based on his particular interpretations of the Qur'an and the Sunnah, constitute the most popular classical reference for later Salafi movements.
Ibn Taymiyya's rejection of some aspects of classical Islamic tradition are believed to have had considerable influence on contemporary militant Islamist movements such as Salafi-Jihadism.
Major aspects of his teachings such as upholding the pristine monotheism of the early Muslim generations and campaigns to uproot what he regarded as shirk (idolatry); had a profound influence on Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, the founder of the Hanbali reform movement practiced in Saudi Arabia, and on other later Sunni scholars.
Syrian Salafi theologian Muhammad Rashid Rida (d. 1935 C.E/ 1354 A.H), one of the major modern proponents of his works, designated Ibn Taymiyya as the Mujaddid (renewer) of the Islamic 7th century of Hijri year.
Ibn Taymiyyah's doctrinal positions on the necessity of an Islamic political entity and his controversial fatwas, such as his Takfir (declaration of unbelief) of the Mongol Ilkhanates, allowing jihad against other self-professed Muslims, are referenced by al-Qaeda and other jihadist groups to justify militant overthrowal of contemporary governments of the Muslim world.
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