is well known.
-
The issue of divorcing a wife during her menstrual period. After citing the ḥadīth of ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿUmar, who divorced his wife while she was menstruating, he writes (p. 340): “The discussion of this ḥadīth and of the other report—‘Tell me, what if he should become incapacitated and act foolishly?’—and the demonstration that there is no contradiction between them, is set out elsewhere.” Imām Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) treated this question at length in Tahdhīb al-Sunan (1/483-516), concluding with the words: “I have composed an independent treatise on this matter in which I presented the various schools of thought and their evidences, established the preponderant view, and answered the proofs advanced by those who hold the opposite position.”
-
The issue of the muḥallil marriage. He writes (p. 299): “In addition to other considerations by which the verse indicates the invalidity of the muḥallil marriage—ten in all—which we have set out elsewhere.” For discussion of the muḥallil marriage, see Zād al-Maʿād (5/154-157) and Ighāthat al-Lahfān (1/473-495).
Fourth: The literary style of Imām Ibn al-Qayyim—unmistakable to anyone familiar with him.
His style is distinguished by the sweetness of his diction, the fluency of his phrasing, and the excellence of his structuring, while he grasps every facet of the issues and quotes copiously from the Qur’an, the Sunnah, and the reports of the early generations. Hence his books combine great force with fairness and eloquence. Al-Shawkānī says in al-Badr al-Ṭāliʿ (2/144-145): “He possesses such skilful command and added sweetness, and such graceful exposition, that most authors cannot match him; minds grow enamoured of his words, hearts incline toward them and come to love them. For the most part he relies on nothing but sound evidence… The predominating quality of his research is fairness and following the proof wherever it leads, without depending on mere hearsay. When he has exhausted the discussion of a subject and extended its branches, he then …”