\u201cIslam is a mercy. \u00a0If you see its opposite, cruelty, then know that is not Islam.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Shams al-D\u012bn Ab\u016b \u02bfAbd All\u0101h Mu\u1e25ammad b. Ab\u012b Bakr b. Ayy\u016bb al-Zur\u02bf\u012b al-Dimashq\u012b al-\u1e24anbal\u012b\u00a0(1292\u20131350 AD) is commonly known as \u201cIbn Qayyim al-Jawziyya\u201d\u00a0(\u201cthe son of the principal of [the school of] Jawziyyah\u201d) or, for short, as \u201cIbn al-Qayyim\u201d\u00a0(\u201cson of the principal\u201d; \u0627\u0628\u0646 \u0642\u064a\u0645 \u0627\u0644\u062c\u0648\u0632\u064a\u0629). \u00a0Sometimes,\u00a0reverentially, he\u2019s referred to as \u201cImam Ibn al-Qayyim\u201d\u00a0in the\u00a0Sunni Muslim\u00a0tradition.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
He was an important\u00a0medieval\u00a0Islamic jurisconsult,\u00a0theologian, and\u00a0spiritual writer who belonged\u00a0to the\u00a0Hanbali\u00a0school of\u00a0orthodox Sunni jurisprudence.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Historically, he\u2019s closely associated with the influential (and controversial) fourteenth-century\u00a0Sunni\u00a0reformer Taq\u012b ad-D\u012bn Ahmad b.\u00a0Taymiyya\u00a0(\u062a\u0642\u064a \u0627\u0644\u062f\u064a\u0646 \u0623\u062d\u0645\u062f \u0627\u0628\u0646 \u062a\u064a\u0645\u064a\u0629). \u00a0He was a student of Ibn Taymiyya\u2019s and, arguably, his\u00a0foremost disciple. \u00a0When Ibn Taymiyya\u00a0was jailed in the Citadel of Damascus\u00a0in 1326 for his dissenting opinions, which\u00a0clashed with and rejected portions of established Islamic tradition,\u00a0Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya was imprisoned with him.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
This is significant, because Ibn Taymiyya was, arguably, a very conservative Muslim thinker. \u00a0He was a\u00a0rather marginal\u00a0figure in his own time and in the centuries that immediately followed,\u00a0but he has become one of the most influential medieval writers in contemporary Islam. \u00a0His Qur\u2019anic\u00a0interpretations and his views on the sunna<\/em> of Muhammad \u2014 the Prophet\u2019s biography seen as a basis for legal, ethical, and theological reflection \u2014\u00a0coupled with\u00a0his willingness to reject certain\u00a0aspects of the classical Islamic tradition, have resonated with today\u2019s fundamentalist Islamic thinkers. \u00a0 Arguably, he has had\u00a0considerable influence on contemporary\u00a0\u201cSalafism\u201d\u00a0and on modern jihadis.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0It\u2019s pretty clear, for instance, that elements of\u00a0his teachings had a profound effect\u00a0on\u00a0Muhammad b.\u00a0Abd al-Wahhab, the eighteenth-century founder of the Hanbali reform movement that is followed \u00a0in\u00a0Saudi Arabia\u00a0under the name of\u00a0\u201cWahhabism.\u201d \u00a0Moreover, al-Qa\u2018ida and other jihadi groups have drawn support for much of their violence from the controversial fatwa written by Ibn Taymiyya that declared\u00a0jihad\u00a0against other Muslims\u00a0legally permissible.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
But would Ibn Taymiyya have wanted to claim the so-called \u201cIslamic State\u201d and al-Qa\u2018ida as his legitimate offspring today? \u00a0I have genuine doubts on that score.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
And his prominent disciple\u2019s statement that \u201cIslam is a mercy\u201d and that mercy\u2019s opposite, cruelty, \u201cis not Islam\u201d suggests that Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya might not\u00a0have approved of them, either.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 Today, of course, is the sixteenth anniversary of the 9\/11 attacks that killed 2,996 people, injured more than 6,000 others, caused over $10 billion in damage, and fundamentally changed world history. \u00a0 Some of you may be unaware that, for\u00a0the tenth anniversary back in 2011, President Thomas S. Monson of the Church of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>