and the page itself contains the following words:

“Section on the annihilation of Paradise and Hell, and the fact that people have differed on this into three opinions,”

and he proceeded to list the three (1).

This heading is fully in keeping with the substance of the work.

Yet at the very opening of the epistle, immediately after the basmalah and the ḥamdalah, one reads:

“A question dealing with the refutation of those who claim that Paradise and Hell will perish, and of those who say… (2) — such as the Farābiyyah — while noting the various positions of the people.”

Opposite this, in the left-hand margin of the manuscript, appears the note:

“Marginal note: A question concerning the refutation of those who say that Paradise and Hell will perish or remain, and a clarification of the correct view on the matter,”

followed by the words, “This occurs in one copy.”

This shows that the titles of the epistle have differed from manuscript to manuscript, each scribe choosing a designation in line with his understanding of its contents.

One of the Shaykh’s contemporaries and adversaries, Shaykh ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-Kāfī al-Subkī (d. 756 AH), wrote a treatise entitled “al-Iʿtibār bi-Baqāʾ al-Janna wa-l-Nār” (Reflection on the Everlastingness of Paradise and Hell) as a rebuttal to Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah’s epistle, in which he said:

“We have begun with the discussion of the Fire, for we have come across a composition by one of the scholars of our time asserting its annihilation” (3).

Dr. ʿAlī al-Ḥarbī has likewise stated that the epistle is “a Refutation of Those Who Claim that the Fire Will Perish,” and that, for this reason, the opponents have no right to adduce it as proof that Ibn Taymiyyah believed Hell would come to an end; rather, it is evidence against them, not for them, as the very title of the alleged epistle makes plain (4).

From all the foregoing it is clear that the work has been ascribed multiple titles, both in the manuscript copies available to us and in the statements of certain scholars and researchers who have dealt with its subject.