A Muslim Theologian’s Response to Christianity: Ibn Taymiyya’s al-Jawab al-sahih PDF
Preview A Muslim Theologian’s Response to Christianity: Ibn Taymiyya’s al-Jawab al-sahih
STUDIES IN ISLAMIC PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE Published under the auspices of the Society for the Study of Islamic Philosophy and Science EDITORIAL BOARD George F. Hourani, State University of New York at Buffalo Muhsin Mahdi, Harvard University Parviz Morewedge, Baruch College of City University of New York Nicholas Rescher, University of Pittsburgh Ehsan Yar-Shater, Columbia University A MUSLIM THEOLOGIAN'S RESPONSE TO CHRISTIANI1Y IBN TAYMIYYA'S ALJAWAB AL-SAHJH EDITED AND TRANSLATED BY THOMAS F. MICHEL, SJ. CARAVAN BOOKS DELMAR, NEW YORK, 1984 For Fazlur Rahman, who introduced me to the thought of Ibn Taymiyya and generously directed my research Published by Caravan Books Delmar, New York 12054, U.S.A. © 1984 Thomas F. Michel All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Ibn Taymiyah, Ahmad ibn 'Abd al-Halim, 1263-1328. A Muslim theologian's response to Christianity. ( Studies in Islamic philosophy and science) Translation of: Jawab al-sahili li-man baddala din al-Masili. 1. Christianity-Controversial literature. 2. Islam-Apologetic works. I. Michel, Thomas F., 1941- . II. Title. III. Series. BP170.118913 1983 297'.293 83-15430 ISBN 0-88206-058-9 CONTENTS Foreword vii PART ONE: THE THEOLOGY OF IBN TAYMIYYA AND HIS CRI TIQUE OF CHRISTIANITY Introduction 1 1. The polemic against wahdat al-wujud 5 2. The polemic against the philosophers 15 3. The polemic against the Sufis 24 4. The polemic against the speculative theologians 40 5. The polemic against the Shi'a 56 6. Ibn Taymiyya's polemical writings against Christianity 68 7. Paul of Antioch's challenge to Islam 87 8. lbn Taymiyya's argumentation against Christianity in Al- 99 Jawab al-Sahib PART TWO: A TRANSLATION OF ALJAWAB AL-SAHIH LI-MAN BADDAL DIN AL-MASIH I. THE UNNERSAL NATURE OF MUHAMMAD'S PROPHETHOOD A. Foreword: The purpose ofwritingAlJawab al-Sahib 137 B. The Nature of prophethood 146 C. Qur'anic testimony for the universality of the 164 prophethood of Muhammad D. Signs of the prophethood of Muhammad 173 E. Implications of denying Muhammad's prophetic call 181 F. God's treatment of those in error 192 G. Causes of error among Christians and those like them 198 II. TAHRIF: THE CORRUPTION OF THE SCRIPTURE A. Corruption of Scripture before the time of ?.10 Muhammad B. Corruption of Scripture after the time of Muhammad 220 v vi IBN TAYMIYYA C. Extent of corruption in the Bible 231 D. Claims of Qur'anic approval for Christianity 240 III. TRINITARIAN QUESTIONS A. Philosophical explanation of Trinity 255 B. The divine hypostases 266 C. The incarnation of the divine word in Christ 279 D. Hulul: Indwelling of God in Christ 288 E. Qur'anic teaching about Jesus 303 F. Ittibad: Union of God with a creature 312 IV: FINAL QUESTIONS A. The compatibility of rational and revealed knowledge 325 B. Adequacy of philosophical or prophetic language 337 for discussing the nature of God C. Superiority and necessity of Islam 350 Appendix: The relationship of AlJawab al-Sahib to Takhjil 370 Ahl al-Injil List of Abbreviations 382 Bibliography 439 Glossary 455 Index 461 FOREWORD In 717/ 13171 the Hanbali scholar Taqi al-Din Ahmad ibn Tay miyya, residing in Damascus, received a treatise sent to him by Christians in Cyprus. The work was an enlarged version2 of an apology for Christianity composed about the year 1150 by Paul of Antioch, the Melkite bishop of the Crusader see of Saida. In re sponse, Ibn Taymiyya composed Al-]awab al-Sahib Ii-Man Bad dal Din al-Masih [The correct answer to those who changed3 the religion of Christ], a work whose length and scope have never been equalled in Muslim critiques of the Christian religion and whose depth of insight into the issues that separate Christianity and Islam sets it among the masterpieces of Muslim polemic against Christianity. Al-]awab al-Sahib is far more than a rebuttal of Paul of Anti och's 25-page treatise, and it cannot be viewed simply as contain ing Ibn Taymiyya's attitude towards Christianity. In this work his concern-as always in his writings-was Islam. Ibn Taymiyya was essentially a dialogical type of thinker; among his voluminous writings4 there exists hardly any extended work in which the po lemical element is missing. He seemed best able to say what Islam is ( or should be) by pointing up its contradistinction to what Islam is not ( or must not become). Ibn Taymiyya viewed Christianity as an example instructive for Muslims on how the recipients of the one and eternal divine mes sage, delivered to them by their infallible prophet Jesus, went astray by substituting their own teachings and practices for those com manded by their prophet. Hence the title of Al-]awab al-Sahib. Ibn Taymiyya's concern was that he saw the same tendencies in the practices and teachings of Muslims of his time. He observed world views and theologies current among many Muslims of his day which he considered parallel to and sometimes even farther from the truth-embodied in the Qur'an and hadith rightly inter preted by the salaf-than what was held and practiced by Christians. The crucial difference is that whereas the Christian community as a whole had departed from the teachings of Jesus, the earlier prophets, and Jesus' right-believing early followers, the Islamic vii viii IBN TAYMIYYA umma still retained the correct teaching of Muhammad and the other prophets. It was destined to remain on the right path, be cause it had been promised that there would always remain a small core of believers who would in every age profess and teach the undiluted and unadulterated religion of Islam. Ibn Taymiyya saw himself as representative of this body of pro ponents of the truth. This belief is the basis of the polemical nature of so many of his writings. He was constantly on the watch for deviations from the right path and ready to oppose error within the Islamic community with all the considerable learning in the Islamic tradition which he possessed and all the force of his con siderable argumentative powers. Christians are, of course, outside the Islamic umma. An attack by one of their number on the universal nature of Muhammad's prophetic mission and ultimately upon the necessity of Islam within God's eternal plan for human salvation was a challenge which lbn Taymiyya could not pass up. However, his interest was always in the Islamic community, and by pointing up the falsity of the Chris tian's argumentation and indicating the errors into which Chris tians as a people had fallen, he hoped to call back Muslims from their dangerous tendencies in the same directions. Thus, as a background for understanding Ibn Taymiyya's basic concerns in Al-]awab al-Sahib, I have chosen to place the work in the context of his polemical theology as a whole. By under standing lbn Taymiyya's polemical reactions to wahdat al-wujud theology, popular Sufism, the peripatetic philosophical movement in Islam, Mu'tazili and Ash'arite kalam theologies, and Shi'ism, one can better appreciate the principal interests underlying his argu mentation against Christianity. It must be further noted that although Al-]awab al-Sahib was certainly the most important work which lbn Taymiyya directed against Christianity, it did not include everything which he wrote on the subject. Earlier works of his against Christianity provide a survey of the development of his thought concerning the Christian religion, and I have consequently included a treatment of these other, earlier works. Finally, there needs to be a note concerning the text itself. Al Jawab al-Sahib has been printed twice.5 The second edition is basically a reprint of the first with typographical errors corrected. The few changes in wording are based on sense rather than on consultation of the manuscripts. The manuscript evidence gives a conflicting witness to the original state of the text. For reasons I explain in the Appendix to this study, I believe the present printed edition of 1,400 pages to have been originally two works: the first, A MUSLIM THEOLOGIAN'S RESPONSE TO CHRISTIANI1Y ix Al-]awab al-Sahib, a response to Paul of Antioch, found in the first 1,000 pages of the printed edition, the second, an unnamed work of approximately 400 pages intended to prove the prophethood of Muhammad to whomever might deny that. In this study I am concerned with the former work, to which I will refer by the title Al-]awab al-Sahib. For lack of a better title available, I will refer to the latter work by the (probably spurious) title given it in one manuscript: Takbjil Ahl al-Injil [Putting to shame the people of the gospel]. PART ONE THE THEOLOGY OF IBN TAYMIYYA AND HIS CRITIQUE OF CHRISTIANI1Y INTRODUCTION The central and overriding concern which underlies all of lbn Taymiyya's controversialist writing is the problem of the relation ship between God and the Universe; that is, the question of God's transcendence and immanence. The proper goal of rational reflec tion upon the sources of religion-the Qur'an and the sunna-is the affirmation of tawhid, the assertion of God's oneness. True tawhid means the elaboration of God's nature as He is in Himself and as He is vis-a-vis the universe as Creator (al-khaliq) and Com mander (al-amir). For Ibn Taymiyya, in declaring God to be the one creator, he affirms the essential separateness and dissimilarity of God from the universe and avoids tashbih. By declaring Him commander, lbn Taymiyya maintains the religious and ethical connection between God and the universe and rejects ta'til. Viewed another way, the assertion of true tawhid means follow ing the nart thread between, on the one hand, so associating )W God with His creation that the real distinctions between them are compromised, and, on the other, making Him so transcendent that the divine Power and Will which are the essential bases for reli gious life become irrelevant. lbn Taymiyya describes this endeavor in characteristically Qur'anic imagery-that of the Straight Path. Following pure tawhid means describing God only as He has de scribed Himself in the Qur'an and sunna, and responding to Him in obedience only as He commanded men in these sources of di vine information. Any deviation from this Straight Path inevitably leads to error, and the farther a sect strays from this path, the more severely they are in error. True Islam expresses at the ontological level the median path between ta'til and tashbih, and thus those views which are most strongly opposed by lbn Taymiyya in his controversialist writings 2 IBN TAYMIYYA are those of the Muslim philosophers, particularly of the peripa tetic school, and of the wahdat al-wujud school of Ibn 'Arabi. Of these two, the former represents to Ibn Taymiyya pure ta'til-the description of God as self-centered First Principle who neither cre ates nor speaks nor wills nor acts nor knows the particularia of His universe; the latter, Ibn 'Arabi's wahdat al-wuhud school, rep resents pure tashbih-the existential identification of God with the universe, union of God with the whole of creation, and the oneness of all that exists. In questions of metaphysics, these two positions are the logical extremes into which men's errors lead them when they depart from the Qur'an and the sunna. Other errors are dangerous as well, not only as deviations in themselves from the Straight Path, but because they lay the groundwork of principles which logically conclude in the two great errors of pure ta'til and pure tashbih. From this standpoint Ibn Taymiyya takes issue with the Ash'arite school on matters of divine power and human freedom and with the Mu'tazilis on questions of the divine nature and attributes. This viewpoint further serves as the basis for his criticism of tendencies and practices within Sufism, Shi'ism, and-outside the Islamic umma-in Christianity. He sees all these as manifestations of ghu luw-exaggeiated conceptions of God's immanent presence, which result in a specified or limited form of divine ittihad and hulul with individual creatures. Although Ibn Taymiyya's controversialist writings are mostly concerned with what he sees as errors in the area of theodicy, his point of view is the same when he is attacking errors in the ethical sphere. If at the ontological level tawhid means affirming the real ity of God's being creator and carefully defining that according to the norms of the Straight Path, at the ethical level it means the believer's affirming God's nature as commander and walking the narrow Way between antinomianism and formalistic legalism. For Ibn Taymiyya the ethical counterparts of the peripatetic school of philosophy are the Batinis-Durzi, Qarmati, and Nizari Isma'ilis whom for their antinomian beliefs he labels apostate and renegade ( murtadd, mu/hid). At the other extreme are the mutafaqqihun, the would-be ju rists, whom Ibn Taymiyya accuses of turning Islam into a soulless legalism. Ibn Taymiyya's criticism of Ash'arite kalam has strong ethical implications in that he accuses them of destroying the eth ical basis of religion by making morality dependent upon the ar bitrary will of God. This, in ethical terms, is ta'til and gives reli gious support for the peripatetic philosophers' reduction of God to the Unknowing and the Unwilling.
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