Ibn Taymiyyah, his positions with the ruling regime, what he offered to Islam and his wisdom Part 4
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00:00Biography of Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah
00:06Was he suffering from the ruling political system?
00:09His qualities and morals since the emergence of the Islamic message and its spread in the
00:13world.
00:15Part 4.
00:16We continue to narrate a stage in the life of Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah.
00:21In 1305, Ibn Taymiyyah took part in a second military offensive against the Alawites and
00:27the Isma'il in the Kisrawin region of the Lebanese mountains where they were defeated.
00:33The majority of the Alawis and Ismailis eventually converted to Twelver Shi'ism and settled in
00:38south Lebanon and the Baka'a Valley, with a few Shia pockets that survived in the Lebanese
00:42mountains.
00:44The first invasion took place between December 1299 and April 1300 due to the military campaign
00:50by the Mamluks against the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia who were allied with the Mongols.
00:56Due to the Mongol legal system that neglected Sharia and implemented Yassa, Ibn Taymiyyah
01:01had declared Takfir upon the Ilkhanid regime and its armies for ruling by man-made laws,
01:06despite these laws being rarely enforced in Muslim-majority regions in an extensive manner.
01:12Openly rejecting Ghazan Khan's claim to Padishah al-Islam, King of Islam, a title which Ghazan
01:18took to legitimize his military campaigns, Ibn Taymiyyah denounced him as an infidel
01:23king and issued numerous fatwas condemning the political order of the Tatars.
01:28The Ilkhanid army managed to defeat the Mamluk Sultanate in the Third Battle of Homs and
01:33reached Damascus by the end of December 1299.
01:37Fearful of Mongol atrocities, many scholars, intellectuals and officers began to flee Damascus
01:43in panic.
01:44Ibn Taymiyyah was one of those clerics who stood firm alongside the vulnerable Damascus
01:49citizens and called for an uncompromising and heroic resistance to the Tatar invaders.
01:55Ibn Taymiyyah drew parallels of their crisis with the Ridda Wars, apostate wars, fought
02:00by the first Muslim Caliph, Abu Bakr, against the renegade Arabian tribes that abandoned
02:05Sharia.
02:06Ibn Taymiyyah severely rebuked those Muslims escaping in the face of Mongol onslaught and
02:11compared their state to the withdrawal of Muslims in the Battle of Uhud.
02:16In a passionate letter to the commander of the Damascene citadel, Ibn Taymiyyah appealed,
02:21''Until there stands even a single rock, do everything in your power to not surrender
02:25the castle.
02:27There is great benefit for the people of Syria.''
02:30Allah declared it a sanctuary for the people of Sham where it will remain a land of faith
02:34and sunnah until the descent of the Prophet Jesus.
02:38Despite political pressure, Ibn Taymiyyah's directives were heeded by the Mamluk officer
02:43and Mongol negotiations to surrender the citadel stalled.
02:47Shortly after, Ibn Taymiyyah and a number of his acolytes and pupils took part in a
02:51counter-offensive targeting various Shia tribes allied to the Mongols in the peripheral regions
02:56of the city, thereby repelling the Mongol attack.
03:00Ibn Taymiyyah went with a delegation of Islamic scholars to talk to Ghazan Khan, who was the
03:05Khan of the Mongol Ilkhanate of Iran, to plead clemency.
03:09By early January 1300, the Mongol allies, the Armenians and Georgians, had caused widespread
03:15damage to Damascus and they had taken Syrian prisoners.
03:19The Mongols effectively occupied Damascus for the first four months of 1303.
03:25Most of the military had fled the city, including most of the civilians.
03:30Ibn Taymiyyah, however, stayed and was one of the leaders of the resistance inside Damascus
03:35and he went to speak directly to the Ilkhan, Mahmud Ghazan, and his vizier Rashid al-Din
03:40Tabib.
03:42He sought the release of Muslim and Dimi prisoners which the Mongols had taken in Syria, and
03:46after negotiation, secured their release.
03:50The second invasion lasted between October 1300 and January 1301.
03:56Ibn Taymiyyah at this time began giving sermons on jihad at the Umayyad Mosque.
04:01As the civilians began to flee in panic, Ibn Taymiyyah pronounced fatwas declaring
04:06the religious duty upon Muslims to fight the Mongol armies to death, inflict a massive
04:11defeat and expel them from Syria in its entirety.
04:14Ibn Taymiyyah also spoke to and encouraged the governor of Damascus, al-Afram, to achieve
04:20victory over the Mongols.
04:22He became involved with al-Afram once more, when he was sent to get reinforcements from
04:26Cairo.
04:28Narrating Ibn Taymiyyah's fierce stance on fighting the Mongols, Ibn Kathir reports,
04:33''Even if you see me on their side with a Qur'an on my side, kill them immediately.''
04:37Ibn Taymiyyah, in Ismail ibn Kathir, al-Bid'ah wa al-Nihayah, Volume 14, 7-8, Third Invasion
04:46and Takfir of Ilkhanid Allies see also, Excommunication in Islam, Takfirism, and Battle of Marj al-Saffar,
04:541303.
04:56The year 1303 saw the third Mongol invasion of Syria by Ghazan Khan.
05:02What has been called Ibn Taymiyyah's ''most famous'' fatwa was his third fatwa issued
05:07against the Mongols in the Mamluks' war.
05:10Ibn Taymiyyah declared that jihad against the Mongol attack on the Malmuk Sultanate
05:14was not only permissible, but obligatory.
05:18The reason being that the Mongols could not, in his opinion, be true Muslims despite the
05:22fact that they had converted to Sunni Islam because they ruled using what he considered
05:26''man-made'' laws, their traditional Yasakod, rather than Islamic law or Sharia, whilst
05:32believing that the Yasakod was better than the Sharia law.
05:36Because of this, he reasoned they were living in a state of Jahiliyyah, or pre-Islamic pagan
05:40ignorance.
05:42Not only were Ilkhanate political elites and its military disbelievers in the eyes of Ibn
05:48But anybody who joined their ranks were as guilty of rida'a, apostasy, as them.
05:53Whoever joins them, meaning the Tatars, among commanders of the military and non-commanders,
05:58their ruling is the same as theirs, and they have apostatized from the laws, Shari'a.
06:04If the righteous forebears, Salaf, have called the withholders from charity apostates despite
06:09their fasting, praying, and not fighting the Muslims, how about those who became murderers
06:14of the Muslims with the enemies of Allah and His Messenger?
06:18Ibn Taymiyyah, in Majmu' al-Fatawa, Volume 28, 530, the fatwa broke new Islamic legal
06:25ground because, no jurist had ever before issued a general authorization for the use
06:30of lethal force against Muslims in battle, and would later influence modern-day jihadists
06:35in their use of violence against other Muslims whom they deemed as apostates.
06:40In his legal verdicts issued to inform the populace, Ibn Taymiyyah classified the Tatars
06:45and their advocates into four types.
06:47Kafir Asli, i.e., those original non-Muslims fighting in Tatar armies and who never embraced
06:53Islam, Muslims of other ethnicities who became apostates due to their alliance with Mongols
06:58irreligious Muslims aligned with Ilkhanids whom Ibn Taymiyyah analogized with renegade
07:02Arabian tribes of the Rida Wars.
07:06Ibn Taymiyyah harshly rebuked these people as the
07:12''most evil'' faction, and argued that their piety was useless because of their decision
07:17to ally with non-Muslims who ruled by man-made laws.
07:21This rationale was also expanded to excommunicate those ''court scholars'' who vindicated
07:26the Tatar authorities.
07:29Ibn Taymiyyah called on the Muslims to jihad once again and personally participated in
07:33the battle of Marj al-Safar against the Ilkhanid army, leading his disciples in the field with
07:38a sword.
07:40The battle began on April 20th of that year.
07:43On the same day, Ibn Taymiyyah declared a fatwa which exempted Mamluk soldiers from
07:48fasting during Ramadan so that they could preserve their strength.
07:53I stop at this point today.
07:55Until next time, stay curious.
07:58Stay informed, and keep exploring the world's incredible stories.
08:03Soon we will publish part 5.