Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah | |
|---|---|
اِبْنُ قَيِّمِ الجَوْزِيَّةِ | |
| Personal life | |
| Born | 29 January 1292 CE / 7 Saffar 691 AH |
| Died | 15 September 1350 CE (aged 58) / 13 Rajab 751 AH Damascus, Mamluk Sultanate(present day Syria) |
| Resting place | Bab al-Saghir Cemetery, Damascus, Syria |
| Era | Islamic Golden Age |
| Region | Sham |
| Main interest(s) | |
| Alma mater | Al-Madrasa al-Jawziyya |
| Occupation |
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| Religious life | |
| Religion | Islam |
| Denomination | Sunni |
| Jurisprudence | Hanbali |
| Creed | Athari |
| Muslim leader | |
| Arabic name | |
| Personal (Ism) | Muḥammad محمد |
| Patronymic (Nasab) | Ibn Abī Bakr ibn Ayyūb ibn Saʿd ٱبْن أَبِي بَكْر بْن أَيُّوب بْن سَعْد |
| Teknonymic (Kunya) | Abū ʿAbd Allāh أَبُو عَبْد ٱللَّٰه |
| Epithet (Laqab) | Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya Ibn al-Qayyim Shams al-Dīn ٱبْن قَيِّم ٱلْجَوْزِيَّة ٱبْن ٱلْقَيِّم شَمْس ٱلدِّين |
| Toponymic (Nisba) | Al-Dimashqī ٱلدِّمَشْقِيّ |
Shams ad-DīnʾAbū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammadibn ʾAbī Bakr ibn ʾAyyūb az-Zurʿī ad-Dimashqī al-Ḥanbalī (29 Jan. 1292–15 Sep. 1350 CE / 691–751 AH), commonly known asIbn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah ("The son of the principal of [the school of] Jawziyyah") orIbn al-Qayyim ("Son of the principal"; ابن القيّم) for short, or reverentially asal-Imam Ibn al-Qayyim inSunnitradition, was an importantmedievalIslamic jurisconsult,theologian, andspiritual writer.[4] Belonging to theHanbali school ofFiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence), of which he is regarded as "one of the most important thinkers,"[5] Ibn al-Qayyim was also the foremost disciple and student ofIbn Taymiyyah,[6] with whom he was imprisoned in 1326 for dissenting against established tradition during Ibn Taymiyyah's famous incarceration in theCitadel of Damascus.[4]
Of humble origin, Ibn al-Qayyim's father was theprincipal (qayyim) of theSchool of Jawziyyah, which also served as acourt of law for the Hanbalijudge of Damascus during the period.[4] Ibn al-Qayyim went on to become a prolific scholar, producing a rich corpus of "doctrinal and literary" works.[4] As a result, numerous important Muslim scholars of theMamlukperiod were among Ibn al-Qayyim's students or, at least, greatly influenced by him, including, amongst others, theShafihistorianIbn Kathir (d. 774/1373), theHanbalihadith scholarIbn Rajab (d. 795/1397) andIbn Hajar al-Asqalani (d. 852/1449).[4] In the present day, Ibn al-Qayyim's name has become a controversial one in certain quarters of the Islamic world due to his popularity amongst many adherents ofSalafism,[4] who see in his criticisms of such widespreadSufi practices of the medieval period associated withveneration of saints and theveneration of their graves and relics a classical precursor to their own perspective.[4]
Muḥammad ibn ʾAbī Bakr ibn ʾAyyūb ibn Saʿd ibn Ḥarīz ibn Makkī Zayn ad-Dīn az-Zurʿī (Arabic:محمد بن أبي بكر بن أيوب بن سعد بن حريز بن مكي زين الدين الزُّرعي), al-Dimashqī (Arabic:الدمشقي), withkunya ofʾAbuʿAbd Allah (Arabic:أبو عبد الله), called Shams ad-Dīn (Arabic:شمس الدين). He is usually known as Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, after his father Abu Bakr ibn Ayyub al-Zur'i, who was the superintendent (qayyim) of the Jawziyyah Madrasah, the Hanbali law college in Damascus.[7]
While the main teacher Ibn al-Qayyim studied from was the scholarIbn Taymiyyah, he also studied under a number of other scholars including his father, Abu Bakr ibn Ayoub, Ibn 'Abd ad-Da'im,Shams ad-Dīn adh-Dhahabī, andSafi ad-Din al-Hindi.[8] Ibn al-Qayyim began studying under Ibn Taymiyyah at the age of 21 (1313-1328), after the latter moved back to Damascus from Cairo, and he stayed studying with him and being a close companion of his until Ibn Taymiyyah died in 1328 CE.[9] As a result of this 16-year union, he shared many of his teacher's views on various issues, though his approach in dealing with other scholars has been seen as being less polemic.[10]
Ibn al-Qayyim was imprisoned with his teacherIbn Taymiyyah from 1326 until 1328, when Ibn Taymiyyah died and Ibn al-Qayyim was released.[6] According to the historianal-Maqrizi, two reasons led to his arrest: the first was a sermon Ibn al-Qayyim had delivered in Jerusalem in which he decried the visitation of graves, including Muhammad's grave in Medina, the second was his agreement with Ibn Taymiyyah's view on the matter of divorce, which contradicted the view of the majority of scholars in Damascus.[11]
The campaign to have Ibn al-Qayyim imprisoned was led byShafi'i andMaliki scholars, and was also joined by theHanbali andHanafi judges.[12]
Whilst in prison, Ibn al-Qayyim busied himself with the Qur'an. According toIbn Rajab, Ibn al-Qayyim made the most of his time of imprisonment: the immediate result of his delving into the Qur'an while in prison was a series of mystical experiences (described asdhawq, direct experience of the divine mysteries, and mawjud, ecstasy occasioned by direct encounter with the Divine Reality).[13]
Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah wrote a lengthy spiritual commentary on a treatise written by the Hanbali SufiKhwaja Abdullah Ansari entitledMadarij al-Salikin.[14]
He expressed his love and appreciation for Ansari in this commentary with his statement"Certainly I love the Sheikh, but I love the truth more!'. Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah refers to Ansari with the honorific title "Sheikh al-Islam" in his workAl-Wabil al-Sayyib min al-Kalim al-Tayyab.[1][15]
Ibn al-Qayyim died at the age of 60 years, 5 months, and 5 days, on the 13th night ofRajab, 751 AH (September 15, 1350 CE), and was buried besides his father at theBab al-Saghīr Cemetery.[16]
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Like his teacherIbn Taymiyyah, Ibn Qayyim, supported broad powers for the state and prosecution. He argued, for example, "that it was often right to punish someone of lowly status" who alleged improper behavior by someone "more respectable."[17][18]
Ibn Qayyim "formulated evidential theories" that made judges "less reliant than ever before on the oral testimony." One example was the establishment of a child's paternity by experts scrutinizing the faces of "a child and its alleged father for similarities".[17][18] Another was in determining impotence. If a woman sought a divorce on the grounds of her husband's impotence and her husband contested the claim, a judge might obtain a sample of the husband's ejaculate. According to Ibn Qayyim "only genuine semen left a white residue when boiled".[17][18]
In interrogating the accused, Ibn Qayyim believed that testimony could be beaten out of suspects if they were "disreputable".[19][20] This was in contrast to the majority of Islamic jurists who had always acknowledged "that alleged sinners were entitled to remain silent if accused."[21] Attorney and authorSadakat Kadri states that, "as a matter of straightforward history, torture had originally been forbidden by Islamic jurisprudence."[18] Ibn Qayyim however, believed that "the ProphetMuhammad, theRightly Guided Caliphs, and otherCompanions" would have supported his position.[18][19][20]
Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah opposedalchemy and divination of all varieties, but was particularly opposed toastrology, whose practitioners dared to "think they could know secrets locked within the mystery of God's supreme and all-embracing wisdom."[5] In fact, those who believed that human personalities and events were influenced by heavenly bodies, were "the most ignorant of people, the most in error and the furthest from humanity ... the most ignorant of people concerning his soul and its creator".[5]
In hisMiftah Dar al-Sa'adah, in addition to denouncing the astrologers as worse than infidels, he usesempirical arguments to refute the practice of alchemy andastrology along with the theories associated with them, such asdivination and thetransmutation of metals, for example arguing:
And if you astrologers answer that it is precisely because of this distance and smallness that their influences are negligible, then why is it that you claim a great influence for the smallest heavenly body, Mercury? Why is it that you have given an influence to al-Ra's and al-Dhanab, which are two imaginary points [ascending and descending nodes]?"[5]
Although Ibn al-Qayyim is sometimes characterized today as an unabashed enemy of Islamic mysticism, it is historically known that he actually had a “great interest inSufism,” which arose out of his vast exposure to the practice given Sufism's widespread practice among Muslims at his time.[22] Some of his major works, such asMadārij, Ṭarīq al-hijratayn (Path of the Two Migrations) andMiftāḥ dār al-saʿāda (Key to the Joyous Dwelling), "are devoted almost entirely to Sufi themes," yet allusions to such "themes are found in nearly all his writings,"[22] including in such influential works of spiritual devotion such asal-Wābil al-Ṣayyib, a highly important treatise detailing the importance of the practice ofdhikr, and his reveredmagnum opus,Madārij al-sālikīn (The Wayfarers' Stages), which is an extended commentary on a work written by the eleventh-centuryHanbalitesaint andmysticAbdullah Ansari, whom Ibn al-Qayyim referred to reverentially as "Shaykh al-Islām."[22] In all such writings, it is evident Ibn al-Qayyim wrote to address "those interested in Sufism in particular and ... 'the matters of the heart' ... in general,"[22] and proof of this lies in the fact that he states, in the introduction to his short bookPatience and Gratitude, "This is a book to benefit kings and princes, the wealthy and the indigent, Sufis and religious scholars; (a book) to inspire the sedentary to set out, accompany the wayfarer on the Way (al-sā'ir fī l-ṭariq) and inform the one journeying towards the Goal." Some scholars have compared Ibn al-Qayyim's role to that ofGhazali two-hundred years prior, in that he tried "rediscover and restate the orthodox roots of Islam's interior dimension."[22]
It is also true, however, that Ibn al-Qayyim did indeed share some of his teacher Ibn Taymiyyah's more negative sentiments towards what he perceived to be excesses in mystical practice.[23] For example, he felt that the pervasive and powerful influence the works ofIbn Arabi had begun to wield over the entire Sunni world was leading to errors in doctrine. As a result, he rejected Ibn Arabi's concept ofwahdat al-wajud or the "oneness of being,[23] " and opposed, moreover, some of the more extreme "forms of Sufism that had gained currency particularly in the new seat of Muslim power,Mamluk Egypt andSyria."[23] That said, he never condemned Sufism outright, and his many works bear witness, as it has been noted above, to the immense reverence in which he held the vast majority of Sufi tradition.[22] In this connection, it is also significant that Ibn al-Qayyim followed Ibn Taymiyyah in "consistently praising" the early spiritual masteral-Junayd, one of the most famous saints in the Sufi tradition,[24] as well as "other early spiritual masters ofBaghdad who later became known as 'sober' Sufis." As a matter of fact, Ibn al-Qayyim did not condemn the ecstatic Sufis either, regarding their mystical outbursts as signs of spiritual "weakness" rather thanheresy.[24] Ibn al-Qayyim's highly nuanced position on this matter led to his composing apologies for the ecstatic outbursts of several early Sufis, just as many Sufis had done so before him.[25]
Ibn Qayyim was respected by a number of scholars during and after his life.Ibn Kathir stated that Ibn al-Qayyim,
was the most affectionate person. He was never envious of anyone, nor did he hurt anyone. He never disgraced anyone, nor did he hate anyone.[7] ... I do not know in this world in our time someone who is more dedicated to acts of devotion[26]
Ibn Rajab, one of Ibn Qayyim's students, stated that,
Although, he was by no means infallible, no one could compete with him in the understanding of the texts.[7]
Ibn Qayyim was criticized by several scholars, including:
Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah's contributions to the Islamic library are extensive, and they particularly deal with the Qur'anic commentaries, understanding, and analysis of the prophetic traditions (Fiqh-us Sunnah). He "wrote about a hundred books",[31] including:
{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)In doing so, he also declares Ibn Taymiyya and his student Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya to be heretics.
on divine attributes; al-Haytami had described their position as anthropomorphist.
