Shaykhul Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, A Bright Star In The World

There was one short and concise message that Shaykhul Islam Ibn Taymiyyah left for the strugglers until the end of time, a message that he constructed in the form of a beautiful and sharp poem:

أين ما رحت فهي معي ..
أنا حبسي خلوة ..
و نفيي سياحة ..( يعني الترحيل عن البلد )
و قتلي شهادة ..
المأسور من أسره هواه ..
و المحبوس من حبس قلبه عن ربه

“What can my enemies do to me?
I have in my breast both my heaven and my garden.
If I travel they are with me, never leaving me.
Imprisonment for me is a chance to be alone with my Lord.
To be killed is martyrdom and to be exiled from my land is a spiritual journey.”

(Ibn Taymiyyah)

On 20th Dhul Qaidah 1430 H or equivalent to 8th November 2009, it was exactly seven hundred and two (702) years that the Islamic ummah had lost one of its warriors in history. The warrior was also a commander, ulama, mujtahid and mujahid, the defender of Islam. His life was never free from the shadows of the tyrannical government and iron bars. The warrior’s name is Abul-Abbas Taqiyud-Din Ahmad ibn Abdul-Salaam ibn Abdullah ibn Taymiyah al-Harrani or better known by the name Ibn Taymiyyah.

He was born into the circle of a religious family from a strong intellectual background. His father, Shihabuddin bin Taymiyyah was a judge and a khatib (speaker) at the same time. His grandfather named Majduddin Abul Birkan Abdussalam bin Abdullah bin Taymiyyah Al-Harrani was an ulama in fiqh, 'Ilmu 'I-Usul, tafseer, and an ahlul hadith.
 

Ibn Taymiyyah was born in Harran, on the 10th Rabiul Awwal 661 H when Baghdad was the centre of authority and Islamic culture during the Abbasid Dynasty. When Ibn Taymiyyah was six years old (year 1268), he was taken by his father to Damascus as Iraq was under attack by the Mongol army then.

Like his father and grandfather, Ibn Taymiyyah also possessed a high IQ. The signs of his intelligence could already be seen at a very young age. Once, when he was still a kid, there was a great ulama from Halab (ed- in Syria) who purposely came to Damascus, only to see this prodigious child named Ibn Taymiyyah whose intelligence and marvelous retentive power became the talk of the town. During the meeting, he gave Ibn Taymiyyah a test by means of presenting 11 or 13 matn (text) of hadith at once. Evidently, Ibn Taymiyyah could memorize them precisely in a very short period of time. The same goes when a number of sanad (the chain of narrators of the hadith) were presented to him, he could memorize and repeat them all exactly without a single mistake. Astonished at the feat of the boy's memory he remarked: “If Allah wills him to live, he would be a genius without a peer in the whole world.”
Before reaching his teenage years he had already mastered most of the religious and secular sciences of his time giving special attention to Arabic literature, Nahwu (grammar), mathematics, khat (calligraphy) and lexicography. He also learned the laws of Shari'ah, Jurisprudence, Hadith and Quranic sciences, . At that age, he had already studied the musnad of Imam Ahmad for some times, then the Kutubu-Sittah and Mu’jam At-Thabarani Al-Kabir.

In his youth, he had been stuffed with pouring important knowledge from important personalities. He studied with over 200 sheikhs, among them his own father and four women. As he was endowed by Allah Ta’ala with the ability to easily memorize and hardly forget, he had already memorized the Qur’an since he was young.

Ibn Taymiyyah especially mastered the Rijalul Hadith (narrators of hadith) and Fununul Hadith (varieties of hadith) whether it be the weak, faulty or sahih hadiths. He understood all the hadiths contained in Kutubus Sittah and various Al-Musnad. He had an extraordinary brilliance in presenting the verses as hujjah, to the extent that he could easily bring up the mistakes and weakness of the mufassir. He wrote tafseer, fiqh, ilmu ‘usul every night while at the same time commenting on the philosophers. In one day and night, he managed to write four kurrosah (small book) which contained a variety of his opinion in the field of shari’ah. Ibnl Wardi said in Tarikul Ibnl Warid that Ibn Taymiyyah had written five hundred titles.

Although Ibn Taymiyyah’s love for knowledge was very deep, he did not right away abandon the amaliyah activities of da’wah and jihad like many of today’s ulamas who are only satisfied by involving themselves with books. Ibn Taymiyyah did not remain quiet seeing the munkars that were prevalent in his time. He personally jumped into the midst of society establishing amar ma’ruf and nahi munkar. He did not adopt the uzlah (the breaking off) approach seeing the rampant vices and munkars. Once, on his way to Damascus, in a “café” that normally became a meeting place for the blacksmiths, he saw people playing chess (a game that he considered as immoral - ed). He immediately approached the place, took the chess board and turned it over. Those who were playing the game could only be taken aback and silenced.

Not only that, with his own hands, he had also smashed up a drinking place and harassed its visitors. [Something nearly the same done by the Front Pembela Islam (Islamic Defenders Front) in Indonesia especially in the month of Ramadhan.] In fact, Ibn Taymiyyah and his followers had on one Friday fought the people who lived in the mountain of Jurdu and Kasrawan because they had strayed and their aqeedah had been corrupted as a result of the Tar-Tar army invasion which had destroyed the city. He then explained the truth of Islam to them.

His amaliyah of amar ma’ruf nahi munkar did not stop there. He then continued to conduct jihad, in the sense of “fighting a war”, something that is a far cry from most of today’s ulamas. He was a Mujahid who made Jihad as his way of life. In the year 700 H, when Sham was sieged by the Tar-Tar army, he immediately approached the mayor of Sham in order to crush any possibility that could happen by presenting verses from the Qur’an. He generated the spirit to defend a homeland and drive away the enemies. Because of his determination, he became a trusted person and was able to get help from the forces of the Sultan of Cairo. With mature and precise argumentations he managed to awaken the heart of the Sultan. Then, the sultan deployed his entire army forces to Sham until they achieved victory at last.

In Ramadhan 702 H, he personally jumped into the battle arena during the battle of Syuquq, which became the command centre of the Tar-Tar forces. Together with the army forces from Egypt, they all advanced under the command of the Sultan. With the spirit of “Allahu Akbar” that echoed, they managed to expel the Tar-Tar forces and Syuquq could be reclaimed.

The personality of Ibn Taymiyyah had a lot of different aspects. One role that could always be seen was his activity in fighting all bid’ahkhurafat (superstitious notion) and views that according to him was astray. It’s not surprising that he received heavy oppositions and hard times from the ahlul bid’ah during his time.
(innovation),
A big part of them wanted to eliminate the pure shari’at of Muhammad, which is above all the other religions and hukm (rules). The leaders of those deviated stream caused the people to be in doubts about the fundamentals of their religion.

“They are the zindiq people who are not confident with their religion. After seeing all those, it was clear to me that it is compulsory for anyone capable to fight their falsehood and overcome their arguments, to muster all energy to expose their ugliness and rebuff their theorems.” Thus was some of his view which had received challenges from those who felt cornered and faulted by him.

Year 705 H, the ability and credibility of Ibn Taymiyyah was tested. The Qadhi’s and the sultan assembled in the palace. After going through a fierce debate between them, it was clear in the end that Ibn Taymiyyah held a true aqeedah. Many amongst them realized the truth in Ibn Taymiyyah.

However, the attempt to discredit the personality of Ibn Taymiyyah continued to happen. In one meeting in Cairo, he was accused of causing restless in the society through his controversial viewpoints. The Qadhi who had been influenced by the gossips pronounced Ibn Taymiyyah as guilty. He was sentenced to one year and a few months in jail.

In the journey of his life, it was not only once that he felt life inside the prison. In the year 726 H, in accordance with twisted facts, the Sultan issued an order of his arrest. Hearing that he said, “I am waiting for it. There is a lot of goodness there.”
That was Ibn Taimiyah, a great ulama who cowered inside the prison of Egypt. He was just freed from prison and then he was arrested again and imprisoned for a second time for another half a year. It was because of his writings in which the contents were about issues of theology that could not be accepted by the many. So, the personality of Ibn Taymiyyah was not one considered as nearer to the government and become a lackey who sucks up to the ruler’s side. Not a few, including ulamas considered him to be deviated and deviating. In the prison, where he only spent for half a year, he managed to enlighten and bring home the occupants of the prison who stayed with him until all of them were repentant and became his faithful followers.

He made the most of the life in prison by reading and writing. His writings were still resounding with the strength of the hujjah and enthusiasm, as well as his strong viewpoints. But it was precisely that stance that restricted Ibn Taymiyyah’s moving space. On 9th Jumadil Akhir 728 H, all his books, papers, pens and ink were confiscated and it became such a big blow to Ibn Taymiyyah. After he was banned from writing, he spent more time reading holy verses (reciting Qur’an) and worshipping, intensifying his tahajjud until his confidence became even more fortified. Despite being a hafidz, he used the Holy Qur’an which was the only book he had left after all the other books were confiscated. He kept reading the Qu’ran until he got tired, then he performed zikr and solat. Thus was his routine, to the extent that he had completed reading the Qur’an 80 times since then.

And when he read for 81st time, when he came to the verse that means, "…Lo! The righteous will dwell among gardens and rivers firmly established in the favor of a Mighty King." [54:54- 55] . He was not able to complete this recitation because he fell ill for 20 days.

At that time he was already 67 years of age and he had been cowering inside the last prison for more than 20 months and his illness was never reducing. The public did not know that he was in an ill condition because the only one who administered him was Ibnl Qayyim Al-Jauziyah, his faithful student. Only when the muadzzin called out from the minaret announcing he had returned to his Lord that people started to come in droves and swarmed the gate of the prison.

A massive crowd was mourning his death in their sobs and cries. They all struggled to get close and see his face, hold his janaza and there were even those who attempted to kiss him.

He passed away on Monday, 20th Dhul Qaidah 728 H (26-28th September 1328 M), at the age of 67, after being ill in the prison for more than 20 days. He breathed his last on his prayer mat while in the state of reading the Qur’an. He eventually had to die defending the truth inside a prison. The baazars and streets of Damascus were quiet. Livelihoods stopped for a while. The Emirs, leaders, ulama and fuqaha, soldiers, men and women and children, they all came down to send off his janaza. According to historians, there had never been a janazajanaza of Ibn Taymiyyah and Imam Ahmad bin Hambal. He was buried at about the ‘Asr time beside the grave of his brother Sheikh Jamal Al-Islam Syarafuddin.

NB: In order to know more in detail about the life of Ibn Taymiyyah and the condition of the Muslim Ummah in the seventh century after Hijrah i.e. at his time, please read the more complete books that discuss about his life, such as:
1. Shaikhul Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, by Abul Hasan Ali An-Nadwi.
2. Ibn Taymiyyah, Bathal Al-Islah Ad-Diny. Mahmud Mahdi Al-Istambuli, ed. II 1397 H/1977 M. Maktabah Dar-Al-Ma’rifah–Dimasyq