Sheikh Al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, his positions with the ruling regime, what he offered to Islam, and his wisdom, Part 2
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00:00Biography of Shaykh al-Islam ibn Taymiyyah
00:07Was he suffering from the ruling political system?
00:10His qualities and morals since the emergence of the Islamic message and its spread in the
00:15world?
00:16Part 2
00:18We continue to narrate a stage in the life of Shaykh al-Islam ibn Taymiyyah.
00:23His grandfather, Majd al-Din ibn Taymiyyah, and his uncle, Far al-Din, were both reputable
00:29scholars of the Hanbali school, and their scholarly achievements well-known.
00:34In 1269, ibn Taymiyyah, aged seven, left Haran together with his father and three brothers.
00:40However, the city was completely destroyed by the ensuing Mongol invasion.
00:45Ibn Taymiyyah's family moved and settled in Damascus, Syria, which was ruled by the Mamluk
00:51Sultanate at the time.
00:53In Damascus, his father served as the director of the Sukkuriyah Madrasah, a place where
00:58ibn Taymiyyah also received his early education.
01:02He acquainted himself with the religious and secular sciences of his time.
01:06His religious studies began in his early teens when he committed the entire Qur'an to memory,
01:11and later came to learn the disciplines of the Qur'an.
01:15From his father, he learnt the religious science of jurisprudence and its principles.
01:20Ibn Taymiyyah studied the works of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Abu Bakr al-Khalil, and ibn Qudamah,
01:26as well as the works of his own grandfather, Majd al-Din.
01:31His study of jurisprudence was not limited to the Hanbali tradition, as he also studied
01:35the other schools of jurisprudence.
01:38The number of scholars under which he studied hadith is said to number more than 200, four
01:42of whom were women.
01:45Those who are known by name amount to 40 hadith teachers, as recorded by ibn Taymiyyah in
01:49his work titled Arba'un Hadith.
01:53Sarah Hul Haque says, Based on this, Ibn Taymiyyah started to hear hadith from the
01:57age of five.
01:59One of Ibn Taymiyyah's teachers was the first Hanbali chief justice of Syria, Shams al-Din
02:05al-Makdisi, who held the newly created position instituted by Baibars as part of a reform
02:10of the judiciary.
02:12Al-Makdisi later came to give Ibn Taymiyyah permission to issue legal verdicts, making
02:17him a judge at the age of 17.
02:20Ibn Taymiyyah's secular studies led him to devote attention to the Arabic language and
02:24literature by studying Arabic grammar and lexicography under Ali ibn Abd al-Qawi al-Tufi.
02:31He went on to master the famous book of Arabic grammar Al-Khattab, written by the grammarian
02:36Sabawayhi.
02:37He also studied mathematics, algebra, calligraphy, speculative theology, philosophy, history,
02:44and heresiography.
02:46With the knowledge he gained from history and philosophy, he set to refute the prevalent
02:51philosophical discourses of his time, one of which was Aristotelianism.
02:56Ibn Taymiyyah also learnt about Sufism and stated he had reflected on the works of Sahl
03:00al-Tusdari, al-Junaid al-Baghdadi, Abu Talib al-Makki, Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, Shihab al-Din
03:08Umar al-Surawarti, and Ibn Arabi.
03:12In 1282, Ibn Taymiyyah completed his education at the age of 20.
03:18After his father died in 1284, he took up the then-vacant post as the head of the Sakaraya
03:23Madrasa and began giving lessons on Hadith.
03:26A year later he started giving lessons, as chair of the Hanbali Zawiyah on Fridays at
03:31the Umayyad Mosque, on the subject of Tafsir, exegesis of Quran.
03:36In November 1292, Ibn Taymiyyah performed the Hajj and after returning four months later,
03:42he wrote his first book age 29 called Manasik al-Hajj, Rites of the Pilgrimage, in which
03:47he criticized and condemned the religious innovations he saw take place there.
03:52Ibn Taymiyyah represented the Hanbali school of thought during this time.
03:57The Hanbali school was seen as the most traditional school out of the four legal systems, Hanafi,
04:02Maliki and Shafi'i, because it was suspicious of the Hellenist disciplines of philosophy
04:07and speculative theology.
04:10He remained faithful throughout his life to this school, whose doctrines he had mastered,
04:14but he nevertheless called for ijtihad, independent reasoning by one who is qualified, and discouraged
04:20taqlid.
04:21Ibn Taymiyyah had a simple life, most of which he dedicated to learning, writing, and teaching.
04:28He never married nor did he have a female companion throughout his years.
04:33Professor Al-Matrudi stated that this may be why he was able to engage fully with the
04:37political affairs of his time without holding any official position such as that of a qadi.
04:42An offer of an official position was made to him but he never accepted.
04:47Ibn Taymiyyah was taught by scholars who were renowned in their time.
04:51However, there is no evidence any of them had a significant influence on him.
04:55A strong influence on Ibn Taymiyyah was the founder of the Hanbali school itself, Ahmad
04:59ibn Hanbal.
05:01Ibn Taymiyyah was trained in his school by studying Ahmad's musnat in great detail, having
05:06studied it multiple times.
05:09I stop at this point today.
05:12Until next time, stay curious.
05:15Stay informed, and keep exploring the world's incredible stories.
05:20Soon we will publish.
05:22Part.
05:233.
05:26For watching.