Section Two: Attributing the Book to Its Author

Affirming that this book is the work of its author, Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, is a matter of considerable importance, for researchers and cataloguers have disagreed over it. The dispute has involved both supporters and detractors of the Shaykh, to the point that some have denied the very existence of such a composition by him and have judged anyone who ascribes it to him to be mistaken—even though the one who did so is among the people closest to him and most familiar with his writings, namely his student Ibn al-Qayyim. The matter may be outlined as follows:

The copy of this book housed in Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣriyyah (1) contains no explicit attribution to Shaykh al-Islam. For that reason the cataloguers wavered, and when they listed it they wrote: “It is thought to be by Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah.” (2)

Consequently, Dr. ʿAwad Allah Ḥijāzī, in his book Ibn al-Qayyim and His Stance on Islamic Thought (3), described the treatise as being of unknown authorship, but he immediately followed this with the remark, “It appears to be one of Ibn Taymiyyah’s works.”

Dr. ʿAlī ibn ʿAlī Jābir al-Harbī, on the other hand, has repeatedly denied that Shaykh al-Islam ever held the position that the Fire will perish or that he wrote anything on the subject. He maintains that Ibn al-Qayyim and Ibn al-Wazīr were mistaken in ascribing this view to Shaykh al-Islam, and then sets out to excuse them by