Ibn Jahbal on Ibn Taymiyya

Ibn Jahbal on Ibn Taymiyya
by Sh. G. F. Haddad

The publication of the full English translation of this work with introduction, notes, and indexes is forthcoming insha Allah, x L 20120703 .

"The reason for this small work is that recently someone produced something in which he asserted direction (jiha) for Allāh Most High. He deceived those who have no firm foothold in learning, no mastery in knowledge, no share of understanding, and no ability to see with the light of wisdom. I decided to speak about the doctrine of Ahl al-Sunna wal-Jamāʿa and then show the corrupt nature of what he said.... Then I produced proofs from the doctrine of Ahl al-Sunna and what pertains thereunto." - Ibn Jahbal.

Outline Of Qadi Ibn Jahbal Al-Kilabi's (670-733) Refutation Of Ibn Taymiyya's (661-728) Attribution Of Direction To The Deity In His Fatwa Hamawiyya (698)
( Al-Raddu ʿala Man Qāla bil-Jiha )

Translator's Introduction:

The Controversy Around Ibn Taymiyya's Orthodoxy
The Sunni Stand Against Anthropomorphism

I. Author's Introduction

The Hashwiyya or Vulgar Anthropomorphists
Mālik and al-Shāfiʿī's Understanding of Tawhīd
The Ashʿarīs are Near the Salaf Unlike the Hashwiyya
The Doctrine of Ahl al-Sunna
The Requisites of Transcendence (Wazā'if al-Taqdīs)

II. Refutation of Ibn Taymiyya's Claims

The Fallacy of His "Proofs from the Qur'ān"
and the Hashwiyya's Self-Contradictions
The Fallacy of His "Proofs From the Sunna"
His Peculiar Understanding of "with," "in," "above," and "on"
His Understanding of the Heaven to Mean "the Height"
His Rhetoric Against the Mutakallimūn
The Absurdity of His Literalism
His Calumnies Against the Sunnī Theologians
His Attribution of Unbelief and Heresy to the Ulema
His Unreliable Manner of Quoting the Salaf
Imām al-Ghazzāli's Ethics of Tawhīd
(i) Upholding Divine transcendence (al-taqdīs)
(ii) Belief (al-īmān)
(iii) Confirmation (al-tasdīq)
(iv) Admission of Incapacity (al-iʿtirāfu bil-ʿajz)
(v) Keeping Silent (al-sukūt)
(vi) Refraining from Paraphrasing (al-imsāk ʿan al-tasarruf)
(vii) Stopping Cogitation (kaff al-bātin)
(viii) Holding firmly that the Prophet ﷺ- upon him blessings
and peace - Knows (iʿtiqād ʿilm al-Nabī Sallallahu ʿalayhi wa-Sallam)
Kalām Dialectic in the Qur'ān and the Rejection of Imitation
Warnings of the Great Sūfī Shaykhs against Literalism
Leave Qur'anic Exegesis to Its Experts
Qur'anic Proofs in Negation of Direction
Qur'ān and Sunna Yield no Evidence to Anthropomorphists

Ibn Jahbal Al-Kilabi The Mufti Of The Muslims

Ahmad ibn Muhyī al-Dīn Yahyā ibn Tāj al-Dīn Ismāʿīl ibn Tāhir ibn Nasr Allāh ibn Jahbal, al-Qādī Shihāb al-Dīn or Nāsir al-Dīn Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Kilābī al-Halabī al-Dimashqī al-Shāfiʿī al-Ashʿarī, known as Ibn Jahbal (670-733), is described in al-Dhahabī's Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalā' as "the erudite scholar, the guiding leader of Muslims" and in his ʿIbar fī Khabari Man ʿAbar as "The mufti of the Muslims."1 He took fiqh from Abū al-Faraj Sharaf al-Dīn al-Maqdisī, al-Sadr ibn al-Wakīl, Ibn al-Naqīb, Muhammad ibn ʿUmar Sadr al-Dīn ibn al-Murahhal al-ʿUthmānī, and hadīth from Abū al-Hasan ibn al-Bukhārī, ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-Munʿim ibn al-Qawwās, Ahmad ibn Hibat Allāh ibn ʿAsākir, and others. He narrated in Makka, Madīna, al-Qudus, and Damascus He taught in the Salāhiyya School in al-Qudus then moved to Damascus where he assumed the headmastership of Dār al-Hadīth at al-Zāhiriyya. When the headmaster of the Bādirā'iyya School died he replaced him while al-Dhahabī took over Dār al-Hadīth. He died in Damascus at age sixty-three and was buried in Maqbarat al-Sūfiyya. His older brother, the headmaster of the Atābakiyya School, vice-governor of Damascus and qādī of Tripoli, Muhyī al-Dīn Abū al-Fidā Ismāʿīl ibn Yahyā (666-740) survived him seven years and was buried next to him.

Al-Dhahabī said of Ibn Jahbal: "There was great goodness and pious devotion in him; he possessed excellent traits, great merits, and perspicuity in the ramifications of knowledge." Ibn Kathīr named him "the Shaykh, the admirable Imām, the Mufti of the Muslims" and said: "He was among the authoritative fuqahā'. He took nothing from the Bādira'iyya nor the Zāhiriyya which he did not already know." Ibn al-Kutbī said: "He was a scrupulously Godwary ʿālim. When he fell sick he spent a great deal in charity, including his clothes." After relating the above, Ibn Hajar said: "Our Shaykh al-Burhān al-Shāmī narrated to us what he heard from him." Ibn Jahbal also taught the historian and hadīth Master ʿAlam al-Dīn al-Birzālī and the lexicographer Majd al-Dīn al-Fayrūzābādī who read Sahīh Muslim to him in Damascus in three days.2 Allāh have mercy on him and benefit us and all Muslims with his knowledge. Amīn.

notes

1 Al-Dhahabī, al-ʿIbar (4:96-97).
2 Cf. al-Qāsimī's Qawāʿid al-Tahdīth (p. 262).

Hajj Gibril
GF Haddad
[5 May 2003]