Sheikh Al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, his positions with the ruling regime, what he offered to Islam, and his wisdom, Part 4

kas today

Ibn Taymiyyah, his positions with the ruling regime, what he offered to Islam and his wisdom  Part 4

Transcript

00:00Biography of Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah

00:06Was he suffering from the ruling political system?

00:09His qualities and morals since the emergence of the Islamic message and its spread in the

00:13world.

00:15Part 4.

00:16We continue to narrate a stage in the life of Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah.

00:21In 1305, Ibn Taymiyyah took part in a second military offensive against the Alawites and

00:27the Isma'il in the Kisrawin region of the Lebanese mountains where they were defeated.

00:33The majority of the Alawis and Ismailis eventually converted to Twelver Shi'ism and settled in

00:38south Lebanon and the Baka'a Valley, with a few Shia pockets that survived in the Lebanese

00:42mountains.

00:44The first invasion took place between December 1299 and April 1300 due to the military campaign

00:50by the Mamluks against the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia who were allied with the Mongols.

00:56Due to the Mongol legal system that neglected Sharia and implemented Yassa, Ibn Taymiyyah

01:01had declared Takfir upon the Ilkhanid regime and its armies for ruling by man-made laws,

01:06despite these laws being rarely enforced in Muslim-majority regions in an extensive manner.

01:12Openly rejecting Ghazan Khan's claim to Padishah al-Islam, King of Islam, a title which Ghazan

01:18took to legitimize his military campaigns, Ibn Taymiyyah denounced him as an infidel

01:23king and issued numerous fatwas condemning the political order of the Tatars.

01:28The Ilkhanid army managed to defeat the Mamluk Sultanate in the Third Battle of Homs and

01:33reached Damascus by the end of December 1299.

01:37Fearful of Mongol atrocities, many scholars, intellectuals and officers began to flee Damascus

01:43in panic.

01:44Ibn Taymiyyah was one of those clerics who stood firm alongside the vulnerable Damascus

01:49citizens and called for an uncompromising and heroic resistance to the Tatar invaders.

01:55Ibn Taymiyyah drew parallels of their crisis with the Ridda Wars, apostate wars, fought

02:00by the first Muslim Caliph, Abu Bakr, against the renegade Arabian tribes that abandoned

02:05Sharia.

02:06Ibn Taymiyyah severely rebuked those Muslims escaping in the face of Mongol onslaught and

02:11compared their state to the withdrawal of Muslims in the Battle of Uhud.

02:16In a passionate letter to the commander of the Damascene citadel, Ibn Taymiyyah appealed,

02:21''Until there stands even a single rock, do everything in your power to not surrender

02:25the castle.

02:27There is great benefit for the people of Syria.''

02:30Allah declared it a sanctuary for the people of Sham where it will remain a land of faith

02:34and sunnah until the descent of the Prophet Jesus.

02:38Despite political pressure, Ibn Taymiyyah's directives were heeded by the Mamluk officer

02:43and Mongol negotiations to surrender the citadel stalled.

02:47Shortly after, Ibn Taymiyyah and a number of his acolytes and pupils took part in a

02:51counter-offensive targeting various Shia tribes allied to the Mongols in the peripheral regions

02:56of the city, thereby repelling the Mongol attack.

03:00Ibn Taymiyyah went with a delegation of Islamic scholars to talk to Ghazan Khan, who was the

03:05Khan of the Mongol Ilkhanate of Iran, to plead clemency.

03:09By early January 1300, the Mongol allies, the Armenians and Georgians, had caused widespread

03:15damage to Damascus and they had taken Syrian prisoners.

03:19The Mongols effectively occupied Damascus for the first four months of 1303.

03:25Most of the military had fled the city, including most of the civilians.

03:30Ibn Taymiyyah, however, stayed and was one of the leaders of the resistance inside Damascus

03:35and he went to speak directly to the Ilkhan, Mahmud Ghazan, and his vizier Rashid al-Din

03:40Tabib.

03:42He sought the release of Muslim and Dimi prisoners which the Mongols had taken in Syria, and

03:46after negotiation, secured their release.

03:50The second invasion lasted between October 1300 and January 1301.

03:56Ibn Taymiyyah at this time began giving sermons on jihad at the Umayyad Mosque.

04:01As the civilians began to flee in panic, Ibn Taymiyyah pronounced fatwas declaring

04:06the religious duty upon Muslims to fight the Mongol armies to death, inflict a massive

04:11defeat and expel them from Syria in its entirety.

04:14Ibn Taymiyyah also spoke to and encouraged the governor of Damascus, al-Afram, to achieve

04:20victory over the Mongols.

04:22He became involved with al-Afram once more, when he was sent to get reinforcements from

04:26Cairo.

04:28Narrating Ibn Taymiyyah's fierce stance on fighting the Mongols, Ibn Kathir reports,

04:33''Even if you see me on their side with a Qur'an on my side, kill them immediately.''

04:37Ibn Taymiyyah, in Ismail ibn Kathir, al-Bid'ah wa al-Nihayah, Volume 14, 7-8, Third Invasion

04:46and Takfir of Ilkhanid Allies see also, Excommunication in Islam, Takfirism, and Battle of Marj al-Saffar,

04:541303.

04:56The year 1303 saw the third Mongol invasion of Syria by Ghazan Khan.

05:02What has been called Ibn Taymiyyah's ''most famous'' fatwa was his third fatwa issued

05:07against the Mongols in the Mamluks' war.

05:10Ibn Taymiyyah declared that jihad against the Mongol attack on the Malmuk Sultanate

05:14was not only permissible, but obligatory.

05:18The reason being that the Mongols could not, in his opinion, be true Muslims despite the

05:22fact that they had converted to Sunni Islam because they ruled using what he considered

05:26''man-made'' laws, their traditional Yasakod, rather than Islamic law or Sharia, whilst

05:32believing that the Yasakod was better than the Sharia law.

05:36Because of this, he reasoned they were living in a state of Jahiliyyah, or pre-Islamic pagan

05:40ignorance.

05:42Not only were Ilkhanate political elites and its military disbelievers in the eyes of Ibn

05:48But anybody who joined their ranks were as guilty of rida'a, apostasy, as them.

05:53Whoever joins them, meaning the Tatars, among commanders of the military and non-commanders,

05:58their ruling is the same as theirs, and they have apostatized from the laws, Shari'a.

06:04If the righteous forebears, Salaf, have called the withholders from charity apostates despite

06:09their fasting, praying, and not fighting the Muslims, how about those who became murderers

06:14of the Muslims with the enemies of Allah and His Messenger?

06:18Ibn Taymiyyah, in Majmu' al-Fatawa, Volume 28, 530, the fatwa broke new Islamic legal

06:25ground because, no jurist had ever before issued a general authorization for the use

06:30of lethal force against Muslims in battle, and would later influence modern-day jihadists

06:35in their use of violence against other Muslims whom they deemed as apostates.

06:40In his legal verdicts issued to inform the populace, Ibn Taymiyyah classified the Tatars

06:45and their advocates into four types.

06:47Kafir Asli, i.e., those original non-Muslims fighting in Tatar armies and who never embraced

06:53Islam, Muslims of other ethnicities who became apostates due to their alliance with Mongols

06:58irreligious Muslims aligned with Ilkhanids whom Ibn Taymiyyah analogized with renegade

07:02Arabian tribes of the Rida Wars.

07:06Ibn Taymiyyah harshly rebuked these people as the

07:12''most evil'' faction, and argued that their piety was useless because of their decision

07:17to ally with non-Muslims who ruled by man-made laws.

07:21This rationale was also expanded to excommunicate those ''court scholars'' who vindicated

07:26the Tatar authorities.

07:29Ibn Taymiyyah called on the Muslims to jihad once again and personally participated in

07:33the battle of Marj al-Safar against the Ilkhanid army, leading his disciples in the field with

07:38a sword.

07:40The battle began on April 20th of that year.

07:43On the same day, Ibn Taymiyyah declared a fatwa which exempted Mamluk soldiers from

07:48fasting during Ramadan so that they could preserve their strength.

07:53I stop at this point today.

07:55Until next time, stay curious.

07:58Stay informed, and keep exploring the world's incredible stories.

08:03Soon we will publish part 5.

Category

Transcript

Recommended