Ibn Taymiyyah

Islamic scholar, jurist and philosopher (1263–1328)

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Lived 1263–1328, aged 65Turkey

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Wikipedia
66 languages
Cross-language footprint
Rank in Turkey
#180
Writers
Era
1263–1328
Aged 65

Summary

Updated 2026-09-01

A medieval jurist whose legal rulings sat dormant for centuries, then became the most cited scholar in modern jihadist literature — not because he was violent, but because he wrote one thing almost no one else had: that a ruler who claims Islam but governs unjustly can be fought.

Biography

About

Born in Harran in 1263 and displaced by the Mongol invasion, Ibn Taymiyyah learned Islamic jurisprudence in Damascus and quickly became the most combative scholar of his age. He fought personally in campaigns against the Shias of Kisrawan, whom he accused of aiding Crusaders and Mongols, and issued rulings condemning tomb visitation and practices he saw as corrupting Sunni orthodoxy. His insistence that reason and revelation aligned, and his rejection of dominant theological schools, earned him repeated imprisonment and the censoring of his works. He died in a Damascus prison in 1328, dismisse…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Ibn Taymiyyah

Ibn Taymiyyah

saidundated

Better a century of tyranny than one day of chaos.

— Kitab al-Siyasa al-Shar'iya, as quoted in Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs, Oxford University Press, p. 19.

Ibn Taymiyyah

saidundated

God does not create pure evil. Rather, in everything that He creates is a wise purpose by virtue of what is good.

— Ibn Taymiyyah, A. (2004) Majmu’ al-Fatawa. Vol 14, p. 266.

Ibn Taymiyyah

saidundated

If God—exalted is He—is Creator of everything, He creates good and evil on account of the wise purpose that He has in that by virtue of which His action is good and perfect.

— Ibn Taymiyyah, A. (1986) Minhaj al-Sunnah. Edited by Muhammad Rashad Salim. Riyadh: Jami’ah al-Imam Muhammad bin Saud al-Islamiyah. Vol 3,

Ibn Taymiyyah

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