Ibn Taymiyyah—may Allah have mercy on him—possessed a brilliant, penetrating mind, remarkable acumen, and an astonishingly swift grasp of ideas; he was already issuing legal opinions when he was only twenty-two years old.

His treatises and books attest to the vastness of his reading, the depth of his culture, and the strength of his character. Whenever he tackled a particular question or issue, he mustered every rational and empirical proof at his disposal to reinforce his argument and confirm his view. He never tired of quoting Quranic verses to underpin the juridical or doctrinal evidence he advanced, and he would not release the reader until he had convinced him completely of his standpoint and its unshakeable firmness.

It is plain to all that Ibn Taymiyyah hoisted the banner of reviving Islamic thought and renewing the religious sciences. He raised high the standard of tawḥīd (pure monotheism), fought innovations and base desires, and delivered forceful, uncompromising rebuttals to the doomed sects that plotted against Islam. His sharp, biting critique of philosophy, metaphysics, and speculative theology (kalām) went hand in hand with his preference for the method and style of the Book and the Sunnah over every other approach.

Ibn Taymiyyah was a blazing war whose fire never cooled against the insolence of the innovators of his age; he was a drawn sword poised over the necks of those who rebelled, defected, and spread alarm.

The great ḥadith scholar and historian Ibn Kathīr records in his renowned chronicle, al-Bidāyah wa-l-Nihāyah, many of Ibn Taymiyyah’s debates with the jurists of his time.

There were likewise numerous confrontations pitting Ibn Taymiyyah and his student Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah on one side against the Sufis on the other. He was particularly severe with their leading figures—especially those who espoused ḥulūl (incarnation) and waḥdat al-wujūd (the Unity of Being), such as Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn ʿArabī and al-Ḥallāj—whom he branded heretics, unbelievers, and atheists.

Because of his sincerity in calling to the truth, Ibn Taymiyyah—may Allah have mercy on him—endured oppression and torture; his opponents schemed against him, and he was imprisoned many times. He passed away while still in prison—may Allah have mercy on him. May Allah reward him on behalf of Islam and join us with him in His abode of honor. Āmīn.

al-Sayyid al-Jumaylī