Ibn Taymīyah, Aḥmad ibn ʻAbd al-Ḥalīm, 1263-1328

Ibn Taymiyya (Arabic: ٱبْن تَيْمِيَّة; 22 January 1263 – 26 September 1328) was a Sunni Muslim scholar, jurist, Mujtahid, traditionist, Qadiri Sufi, proto-Salafist theologian and iconoclast. Born in Harran in 1263 CE and fleeing from the Mongol invasion, he was taught by his grandfather and father in the principles of Islamic Jurisprudence at Damascus. Ibn Taymiyya proved to be a controversial figure among both his contemporaries and in later centuries. Syrian Salafi theologian Muhammad Rashid Rida, one of the major modern proponents of Ibn Taymiyya's works, designated him as the Mujaddid of the 7th Islamic century. Clerics and state authorities accused Ibn Taymiyya and his disciples of anthropomorphism, which eventually led to the censoring of his works and subsequent incarceration. Nevertheless, Ibn Taymiyyah has become influential among Sunni scholarly circles in recent times, and his creedal treatises are widely regarded by adherents of the contemporary Salafi movement as important classical scholarly references. Throughout his treatises, Ibn Taymiyya asserted there is no contradiction between reason and revelation, and denounced the usage of philosophy as a pre-requisite in seeking religious truth. He is also notable for his vigorous polemics against various schools of Kalam, particularly Ash'arism. As a cleric who viewed Shiism as a source of corruption in Muslim societies, Ibn Taymiyya was also known for his anti-Shia polemics throughout treatises such as Minhaj al-Sunna, wherein he denounced the Imami Shia creed as heretical. He issued a ruling to wage jihad against the Shias of Kisrawan and personally fought in the Kisrawan campaigns himself, accusing Shias of acting as the fifth-columnists of the Frank Crusaders and Mongol Ilkhanids. He is also known for his diplomatic involvement with the Ilkhanid ruler Ghazan Khan at the Battle of Marj al-Saffar, which ended the Mongol invasions of the Levant. A legal jurist of the Hanbali school, Ibn Taymiyya's condemnation of numerous Sufi practices associated with saint veneration and visitation of tombs made him a controversial figure with many rulers and scholars of the time, which caused him to be imprisoned several times as a result. Within recent history, Ibn Taymiyya has been widely regarded as a major scholarly influence in militant Islamist movements, such as Salafi jihadism. Major aspects of his teachings, had a profound influence on Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, the founder of the Wahhabism reform movement formed in the Arabian Peninsula, as well as other later Sunni scholars. Ibn Taymiyya's doctrinal positions, such as his takfir of the Mongol Ilkhanids and allowing jihad against other Muslims, were referenced by later Islamist political movements, including the Muslim Brotherhood, Hizb ut-Tahrir, al-Qaeda, and Islamic State, to justify social uprisings against the contemporary governments of the Muslim world. Although Ibn Taymiyya is frequently cited by followers of the Wahhabi movement in anti-Sufi polemics, portrayals of him as anti-Sufi are widely considered inaccurate, arising from selective and out-of-context interpretations of some of his writings. While he sometimes criticized certain practices associated with Sufism, he acknowledged that Sufism is an integral part of Islam and praised many Sufi masters; he himself was affiliated with the Qadiriyya order.