Ibn al-Qayyim | |
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Born | 7 Safar 691 AH / January 28, 1292 AD Damascus |
Died | 13 Rajab 751 AH / September 15, 1350 AD (aged 60 years) Damascus |
Resting place | Bab al-Saghīr Cemetery |
Era | Mamluk |
Region | Sham |
Occupation | Scholar |
Religion | Islam |
Denomination | Sunni Islam |
Jurisprudence | Hanbali |
Creed | Athari |
Main interest(s) | Ethics, Islamic jurisprudence, Islamic theology |
Alma mater | Al-Madrasa al-Jawziyya |
Influenced by
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Arabic name | |
Personal (Ism) | Muhammad محمد |
Patronymic (Nasab) | ibn Abi Bakr ibn Ayyub ibn Sa'ad بن أبي بكر بن أيوب بن سعد |
Teknonymic (Kunya) | Abu Abd Allah أبو عبد الله |
Epithet (Laqab) | Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya ابن قيم الجوزية Ibn al-Qayyim ابن القيم Shams al-Din شمس الدين |
Toponymic (Nisba) | ad-Dimashqi الدمشقي |
Shams al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Ayyūb al-Zurʿī l-Dimashqī l-Ḥanbalī (1292–1350 CE / 691 AH–751 AH), commonly known as Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya ("The son of the principal of [the school of] Jawziyyah") or Ibn al-Qayyim ("Son of the principal"; ابن قيم الجوزية) for short, or reverentially as Imam Ibn al-Qayyim in Sunni tradition, was an important medieval Islamic jurisconsult, theologian, and spiritual writer. Belonging to the Hanbali school of orthodox Sunni jurisprudence, of which he is regarded as "one of the most important thinkers," Ibn al-Qayyim is today best remembered as the foremost disciple and student of the controversial and influential fourteenth-century Sunni reformer Ibn Taymiyyah, with whom he was imprisoned in 1326 for dissenting against established tradition during Ibn Taymiyyah's famous incarceration in the Citadel of Damascus.
Of humble origin, Ibn al-Qayyim's father was the principal (qayyim) of the School of Jawziyya, which also served as a court of law for the Hanbali judge of Damascus during the time period. Ibn al-Qayyim went on to become a prolific scholar, producing a rich corpus of "doctrinal and literary" works. As a result, numerous important Muslim scholars of the Mamluk period were among Ibn al-Qayyim's students or, at least, greatly influenced by him, including, amongst others, the Shafi historian Ibn Kathir (d. 774/1373), the Hanbali hadith scholar Ibn Rajab (d. 795/1397), and the Shafi polymath Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (d. 852/1449). In the present day, Ibn al-Qayyim's name has become a controversial one in certain quarters of the Islamic world due to his popularity amongst many adherents of the Sunni reform movements of Salafism and Wahhabism, who see in his criticisms of such widespread orthodox Sunni practices of the medieval period as the intercession of saints and the veneration of their graves and relics a classical precursor to their own perspective.