Against Extremisms

Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328)

Against

Extremisms

Texts translated, annotated and introduced by

YAHYA M. MICHOT

with a foreword by

BRUCE B. LAWRENCE

Interface Publications – Kube Publishing 1432/2011

COVER PHOTOGRAPHS Front: B Back: T

Published by

dédicace

Contents

List of Illustrations XI Foreword XIII Introduction x Translations x

1. The religion of the middle way 1 The ‘saved sect’ 2 A prophetology of the middle way 2 Religious prescriptions of the middle way 3 A theodicy of the middle way 5 An ethic of the middle way 6 A median doctrine about the divine attributes 7 A median doctrine about agency 8 A median doctrine of the faith 9 A median doctrine about the Companions 9 A median position in everything 10

2. Unity and respect for diversity within the community 11 A. The duty of unity 12 B. The duty of tolerance 16

3. Tolerance, strictness, and community unity 19 The Umma and the relativity of belonging 19 Taqwā and walāya: the fear of God and His Friendship 23 Walāya and ukhuwwa: friendship and brotherhood of Muslims 24 The division of the Umma and its impotence 27 ‘Commanding the proper and forbidding the reprehensible’ 29 Obligations and prohibitions of the Sharī`a 31

4. Unbelief and forgiveness 34 A. Fatwa on the Qalandars 51 B. Two astonishing hadiths 58 C. The innocents of the steppe 67

5. God hesitating? 83 ‘I do not hesitate…’ 85 What is hesitating? 86 Two kinds of divine will 89 Ontological and religious realities 91

AGAINST EXTREMISMS VIII

The wisdom of the divine decision 93 6. Some human rights on God? 95

God’s mercy and justice 96 Worshipping God does not give any right over Him 97 Six differences between the Creator and the creatures 100 The servant has, on God, a right that God has imposed

upon Himself 103 7. Love and the health of the heart 105 A. Love (`ishq): a disease of the soul 106

`Ishq and Maḥabba 108 Covetous desire and chastity 113 The finality of the heart: loving (ḥubb) God 116

B. Disquiet and serenity of the heart 121 8. The reality of the love (maḥabba) of God and of man 123

Love of God, hope of the Garden, fear of the Fire 124 The highest felicity: seeing the Face of God 124 The living do not act without love and will 127 The foundation: loving God 127

‘He will love them and they will love Him…’ 128 Loving God, the Messenger, and the Companions 128 The love of the Lord for His servants 130

From Ja`d b. Dirham to the Mu`tazilīs: the rejection of the reality of the love of God 131

The friendship of God (khulla), the perfection of love 133 The two friends of God: Abraham and Muḥammad 134 The tawḥīd of love 136

Loving God is not reduced to loving to serve Him 137 No metaphor in the canonical texts concerning the love of God 140

The love of God is inscribed in the primordial nature (fiṭra) of man 142

To deny the love of God is to deny His lordship and His divinity 143 The greatest of the commandments 143 The Jahmī negation of a correspondence between creature

and Creator 145 Some Sufis deny that God loves 145 The foundation of the acts of the faith: loving God 147 Appendices 148 A. Between the theologians and the Sufis 148

CONTENTS IX

B. In the very hearts of the negators… 150 The ḥanīfiyya: knowledge, love, tawḥīd 151 C. Corrupt theologies 152

9. Faith and Love: from a theoretical to a practised tawḥīd 155 The demands of a truthful proclamation of divine unity 156 Love for God, or the conditions and limits to obedience 157 Tawḥīd, like faith, is speech and action 160 To believe is more than to hold as true 162 ‘Dedication of the religion to God’: from the heart’s full con-

fessing to visible acts 166 10. The servanthood of worship, or perfection in the liberty of the heart 169 A. Perfection in servanthood 170

At the core of revelation, the call to worship 172 Preserved from evil and elect: the servants of God 173

B. Servanthood and expectation in God 175 The paradox of master and slave 175 Human love between subjection and drunkenness 177 From satisfying one’s passion to the experience of dedication

to God 178 Master and slave 180 True and false needs 180 Perfection of faith 181 The realities of jihad and of love 183

11. Love and the Way (sharī`a) 184 The excesses of certain Sufis 184 ‘A fire that burns up, in the heart…’ 186 The pretensions of the Jews and the Nazarenes to love of God 187 Certain Sufis ‘nazarenize’ Islam 189

12. The ‘master of the Children of Adam’ 191 Adam, created from clay but superior to the angels 191 Lawlā-ka… 195 ‘Do not exalt me…’ 199

13. The ‘veneration’ of the Prophet 201 The straight path, between the dangers of ‘judaizing’ or

‘nazarenizing’ deviancy 201 ‘The servant of God and His Messenger’ 203

AGAINST EXTREMISMS X

The rights of the Messenger 205 God alone is worshipped and invoked 208

14. Following Muḥammad out of love of God 211 ‘If you love God, follow me…’ 211 In anomism, there is no love 214 Love of the common people and love of the elite 215 Human loves and love of God 218

15. Obedience to the authorities 220 A. Obeying a perverse and ignorant authority? 221 B. Obeying within obedience to God 226 C. Seeking clarification in all matters 227 D. ‘Sixty years with a tyrannical imam…’ 228

16. ‘God has set a measure for all things’ 231 The prohibition of anathematizing (takfīr) 234 The fighting between Muslims 237 Behind whom to pray? 239 Doing what one is capable of 241

17. Being a Muslim among the ‘unbelievers’… 244 A. Believing unbelievers 246 B. Clandestine faith and willing the best for others 253

18. Like Joseph in the service of the pharaoh 257 True intelligence and the exercice of power 258 Joseph and the pharaoh 262 Weighing the pros and cons… 263 The responsibilities of the ulema 265 A fundamental principle to ponder 267

Bibliography 270 Indexes 287

Qur|ānic quotations 287 Prophetic sayings 289 Biblical books 296 Texts of Ibn Taymiyya translated 296 Geographical terms 297 Persons, groups, doctrines 298 Keywords and concepts 307 Transcribed words 326

List of Illustrations The council of Nicea (325 CE) and Constantine (from S. J. SCHEPPS, Books, 6) 4 `Uthmān, `Alī (Ottoman calligraphies, 19th c.) 10 Scene of battle (from Ibn Tāj al-Dīn ASTARĀBĀDĪ, Tuḥfat, 177) 14 Bosnian number plate 20 Shrine of `Abd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī, Baghdad (from J. DIEULAFOY, Perse, 573) 22 Shrine of `Adī b. Musāfir in Lālish (from G. P. BADGER, Nestorians, i. 155) 29 Safia, Zubayda, Amina and the three qalandars (from GALLAND, Nuits, i. 119) 39 Title of AL-SUHRAWARDĪ, `Awārif, ch. IX (MS Istanbul, Leila Ismail 180, fol. 35r.) 40 Qalandar. Tīmūrid miniature (9th/15th c.; from A. KARAMUSTAFA, Friends, p. 50) 43 The dawsa ceremony, Cairo, 19th c. (from G. EBERS, Egypt, ii. 115) 55 Domestic scene, Iraq, end of 8th/14th c. (from the K. al-Bulhān, MS Oxford, Bodleian Library, Or. 133, fol. 40v.) 60 Divinization of Ramesses II, Thebes, Ramesseum (from G. EBERS, Egypt, ii. 57) 68 Drinkers, Egypt, 755/1354 (from AL-JAZARĪ, K. al-Ḥiyal al-handasiyya, Boston) 70 Shaykh staring at a young man, Lucknow, 1876 (from Ḥ. BĀYQARĀ, Majālis, 62) 74 Man agonizing, Turkey, 16th c. (from SHÜKRÜ, Selimnāmeh, MS Istanbul, Topkapı Palace Museum, H 1597-8, fol. 267r.) 80 Cat-like calligraphy by A. Schimmel, Oxford, 13th May 1999 82 The army of Islam (from M. YĀZIJĪ ZĀDEH, Muḥammadiyya, 1867 edn., 152) 88 The Prophet praying before the corpse of Ḥamza (from M. YĀZIJĪ ZĀDEH, Muḥammadiyya, 1867 edn., 158) 92 Q. al-An`ām, 6: 54. Calligraphy by Ṣādiq `Alī Jum`a, 1393/1973 96 Q. Ibrāhīm, 14: 7. Calligraphy in thuluth characters, 1347/1928 98 Court ceremony in a garden, Seljuk Iran, c. 600/1200 (Boston) 100 Majnūn and Laylā. Painting by R. Q. Āqāsī, Iran, 1330/1912 107 Slave market (from M. JOUANNIN & J. VAN GAVER, Histoire, ii. 51) 112 Joseph and Zulaykha. Tile panel by M. `Abd al-Razzāq, Shīrāz, early 20th c. 118 The Garden (from M. YĀZIJĪ ZĀDEH, Muḥammadiyya, 1889 edn., 344) 125 Mercury (from Z. AL-QAZWĪNĪ, `Ajā|ib, Lucknow edn. of 1879, 34) 132 Q. al-Nisā|, 4: 125. Thuluth calligraphy by the Syrian master Badawī, 1937 135 Q. al-Ra`d, 13: 28. Jalī dīwānī calligraphy by Hāshim Muḥammad, 1952 143 Deuteronomy, 6: 5 in Hebrew. Matthew, 22: 37–38 in Greek 144 There is truly, really, no god but God. Thuluth calligraphy on a tile panel 151 `Alī fighting (from Ibn Tāj al-Dīn ASTARĀBĀDĪ, Tuḥfat, 45) 159 Angels of the seventh heaven (from Z. AL-QAZWĪNĪ, `Ajā|ib, 1879 edn., 94) 164 Prostration. Drawing by Hébraud (from ANONYMOUS, Expérience, 1) 168 Jesus and Mary. Mural fresco in a park, Tehran 171

AGAINST EXTREMISMS XII

Scheherazade. Fresco by Walaa El-Mnini, Toronto 176 Lovers. From a bowl, Seljuk Iran, c. 1200 (Boston) 179 The Gehenna (from Ibn Tāj al-Dīn ASTARĀBĀDĪ, Tuḥfat, 99) 185 To God we belong and to Him we go back. Inscription on an Ottoman tomb headstone, Selçuk, Turkey 189 The angels prostrating before Adam (from Ḥusayn GĀZURGĀHĪ, Majālis al-`Ushshāq, Iran, c. 1575. Paris, B.N.F., MS Suppl. Persan 776, fol. 11v.) 194 Hadith Lawlā-ka. Modern, anonymous, calligraphy (from the internet) 196 The cenotaph of the Prophet, in Madina. Egyptian popular image, Cairo, c. 1970 204 Q. al-Fatḥ, 48: 8. Calligraphy in thuluth jalī by the sultan Maḥmūd II 206 Q. Ibrāhīm, 14: 12. Calligraphy in thuluth jalī by Ṣalāḥ Shīrzāde, 1971 209 Q. Āl `Imrān, 3: 31 (from a printed copy of the Qur|ān, Lucknow, 1870) 213 Q. al-Kahf, 18: 24. Thuluth calligraphy by Mahdī l-Jabūrī, 1970 217 Massacre. Detail from an enamelled plate, Iran, 7th/13th c. (Washington) 222 Bahram receiving the head of an opponent. Detail from an enamelled plate, Iran, c. 596/1200 (Qatar) 222 Scholar kissing the hand of an emir. Detail of a ewer by Yūnus b. Yūsuf al-Mawṣilī, Iraq, 644/1246 (Baltimore) 225 Massacre. Detail from an enamelled plate, Iran, 7th/13th c. (Washington) 222 ‘Oriental’ despotism (from GALLAND, Nuits, iii. frontispiece) 229 Cartoon by Yaakov Kirschen, 8 May 2009 (from the internet) 231 `Ammār b. Yāsir at the battle of Ṣiffīn (from an Iranian VCD) 235 Prisoner before a prince. ‘Harari’ bowl, 8th/14th

c. (from D. S. RICE, Seasons, 36) 238 The Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem 242 The Negus welcoming the Muslim refugees (from M. Akkad, al-Risāla, 1976) 245 Enthronement of Joseph in Egypt. Tile panel, Iran, 20th c. 247 Pharaoh, the Negus (from A. KAMĀL, Sabḥa, 11, 15) 249 The emigrant is the one who flees what God has prohibited. Calligraphy on a window blind, Aydınoğlu Mehmet Bey mosque, Birgi, 712/1312–13 252 Joseph, Zulaykha and the pharaoh. Egyptian popular image, Cairo, c. 1970 254 Doctor bleeding a patient. Detail of a polychrome bowl, Iran, c. 1200 (Berlin) 259 Joseph receiving his brothers. Fa|lnāmeh, Iran, 16th c. (Washington) 261 Execution (from GALLAND, Nuits, ii. 187) 265 Joseph in the service of the pharaoh (from G. EBERS, Egypt, i. 96) 268