known as: The Defender of Orthodoxy and Architect of Rational Tawḥīd
Early Life and Background
Imām Taqī al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm ibn ʿAbd al-Salām ibn Taymiyyah al-Ḥarrānī al-Dimashqī
[تقي الدين أحمد بن عبد الحليم بن عبد السلام بن تيمية الحراني الدمشقي]
was born on 10 Rabīʿ al-Awwal 661 AH / 22 January 1263 CE in Ḥarrān (حرّان), near modern-day Şanlıurfa, Turkey.^1
When the Mongols invaded, his family fled to Damascus, which became his lifelong home.
He grew up in an atmosphere of intellectual rigor — his father was a ḥadīth scholar and director of the Madrasah al-Sukkariyyah in Damascus.^2
By age 11, Ibn Taymiyyah had memorized the Qurʾān, mastered Arabic grammar, and began studying ḥadīth, fiqh, logic, and mathematics.
He quickly distinguished himself for extraordinary memory and independence of thought.
Education and Teachers
His early teachers included:
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Shams al-Dīn al-Maqdisī (شمس الدين المقدسي), his first instructor in hadith and tafsīr;
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Shihāb al-Dīn al-ʿĀmirī (شهاب الدين العامري), jurist of the Ḥanbalī school;
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and his own father, ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm ibn Taymiyyah, a leading theologian of his time.^3
He received ijāzāt (إجازات) from scholars of the four madhāhib, though he remained a Ḥanbalī by training — yet open to independent reasoning (ijtihād مستقل).
By his twenties, he was already issuing fatāwā and writing treatises that challenged both philosophical theologians and Sufi exaggerations, while defending the classical balance between text (naṣṣ) and reason (ʿaql).
Historical Context
Ibn Taymiyyah lived in a period of civilizational upheaval:
the Mongol threat, Crusader wars, and moral decline within Muslim society.
He saw these crises not only as political disasters but as spiritual consequences of intellectual deviation — a drift from pure tawḥīd toward imitation (taqlīd تقليد) and speculation (kalām كلام).^4
He became a public figure, leading sermons in the Umayyad Mosque, organizing fatwās against Mongol rulers who violated Islamic law, and defending the doctrine that sovereignty belongs to God alone (ḥākimiyyat Allāh حاكمية الله).
Doctrinal Outlook and Methodology
Ibn Taymiyyah’s thought combined textual fidelity with rational analysis.
He sought to restore what he called “the methodology of the Salaf (منهج السلف)” — the pious first generations — while employing reason as a tool, not a rival, of revelation.
His method rested on three pillars:
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Return to the Qurʾān and authentic Sunnah (rujūʿ ilā al-naṣṣ).
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Critical use of reason (taʿaqqul مع التسليم) — reasoning in submission, not rebellion.
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Rejection of speculative philosophy divorced from scripture.
He wrote:
“Sound reason agrees with authentic transmission; there is no contradiction between two truths.”^5
This principle, later echoed by Ibn al-Qayyim, Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb, and even reformers like ʿAbduh, became a cornerstone of Islamic rational orthodoxy.
Major Works
| Work | Arabic Title | Subject | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā | مجموع الفتاوى | Collected legal and theological opinions | 37-volume encyclopaedia compiled by his students; covers creed, fiqh, Sufism, politics, and ethics.^6 |
| Darʾ Taʿāruḍ al-ʿAql wa al-Naql | درء تعارض العقل والنقل | Reason vs. Revelation | Refutes the claim that philosophy supersedes scripture; reconciles logic and faith. |
| al-ʿAqīdah al-Wāsiṭiyyah | العقيدة الواسطية | Creed | Concise statement of Sunni belief; still a foundational text in theology. |
| al-Ṣārim al-Maslūl ʿalā Shātim al-Rasūl | الصارم المسلول على شاتم الرسول | Prophetic defense | Legal-theological treatise defending the Prophet ﷺ against blasphemy. |
| al-Istiqlāf wa al-Siyāsah al-Sharʿiyyah | السياسة الشرعية في إصلاح الراعي والرعية | Governance & law | Defines just rule as stewardship (amānah) under divine law, not autocracy.^7 |
| Iqtidhāʾ al-Ṣirāṭ al-Mustaqīm | اقتضاء الصراط المستقيم | Cultural criticism | Warns against blind imitation of non-Islamic customs; calls for moral self-renewal. |
Jihād and Reform
Ibn Taymiyyah issued landmark fatāwā declaring legitimate resistance against Mongol rule, arguing that rulers who failed to apply divine law were Muslims in name but not in justice.^8
Yet his vision of jihād was not merely military — it was intellectual and moral, aimed at reforming the ummah’s heart before its politics.
He was repeatedly imprisoned for his independence — in Cairo, Alexandria, and finally Damascus — where he continued teaching and writing until his death.
From prison he wrote moving letters of patience and devotion, saying:
“My paradise is in my heart; wherever I go, it goes with me.”^9
Students and Successors
Among his most famous students were:
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Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah (ابن القيم الجوزية) — his foremost disciple, author of Zād al-Maʿād and Madarij al-Sālikīn;
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Ibn Kathīr (ابن كثير) — historian and mufassir, author of Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr;
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al-Dhahabī (الذهبي) — hadith master and biographer.
Through them, his influence spread to later reformers — from the Najd movement of the 18th century to modern Egyptian and Syrian Salafī schools, and even ʿAbduh and Riḍā, who cited him as a model of intellectual independence.
Death and Legacy
Ibn Taymiyyah died in 728 AH / 1328 CE in Damascus, at age 65, while imprisoned in the Citadel.
His funeral drew an estimated 200,000 mourners, a testament to his enduring respect.^10
His writings inspired centuries of reformers who viewed him not as a rebel, but as a mujaddid (مجدد) — a renewer of faith who called Muslims back to revelation without abandoning reason.
Legacy and Influence
| Field | Contribution |
|---|---|
| Theology (ʿAqīdah) | Re-established textual creed of early Muslims; reconciled reason and revelation. |
| Fiqh & Ijtihād | Broke rigid taqlīd; encouraged contextual reasoning rooted in Qurʾān and Sunnah. |
| Social Ethics | Linked justice (ʿadl) and governance (siyāsah) to spiritual accountability. |
| Education & Daʿwah | Modeled independent scholarship — fearless before power, faithful to truth. |
Ibn Taymiyyah’s intellectual courage, rational rigor, and moral clarity made him one of Islam’s most polarizing yet transformative figures.
To some, he was Shaykh al-Islām; to others, a relentless reformer — but to all, he remains the symbol of renewal through sincerity (ikhlāṣ إخلاص) and thought.
References (for footnote conversion)
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Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., s.v. “Ibn Taymiyyah.”
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Ibn Kathīr, al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah, vol. 14 (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, 1990), 131.
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Ibn ʿAbd al-Hādī, ʿUqūd al-Durar fī Manāqib Ibn Taymiyyah, ed. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-ʿUthaymīn (Riyadh: King Saʿūd University Press, 1976), 45.
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Jon Hoover, Ibn Taymiyya’s The Theology of Reason and Revelation (New York: Routledge, 2007), 22.
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Ibn Taymiyyah, Darʾ Taʿāruḍ al-ʿAql wa al-Naql, vol. 1, Preface.
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Ibn Taymiyyah, Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā, vol. 28 (Riyadh: al-Riyāḍ Press, 1987).
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Ibn Taymiyyah, al-Siyāsah al-Sharʿiyyah fī Iṣlāḥ al-Rāʿī wa al-Raʿiyyah, Introduction.
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Ibn Kathīr, al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah, vol. 14, 145.
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Ibn Taymiyyah, al-Rasāʾil wa al-Masāʾil, Letter from the Citadel Prison.
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Ibn ʿAbd al-Hādī, ʿUqūd al-Durar, 210.
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