The Tomb of Hafidh Ibn Taymiyyah in Damascus

Source: http://www.wilayat.net (A Shia website)

Jean Michot (also known as Yahya Michot), is a Belgian Muslim, widely acknowledged as an expert on, and an admirer of, Ibn Taymiyyah, who gained some notoriety in the late 1990s for publishing Le Statut des Moines in Lebanon in 1997. This pamphlet included a translation of a short work by the famed 13th-14th century Muslim scholar Ibn Taymiyya, called 'On the Statute o of Monks', which has been read as a call for the killing of Christian monks if they are found outside their monasteries in a Muslim country. Following is an excerpt from an article of his which was published online by http://www.interfacepublications.com . [Unfortunately, the article has been taken off the web (by whom?) despite its gaining wide readership in a short time!] In this handsomely illustrated article Yahya Michot compares the condition of the tombs in Damascus of the Sufi theosophist, Muy l-Dn ibn `Arab and that of the scholar-activist and theologian Ibn Taymiyya. The article includes translation of parts of a contemporary record of the funeral of Ibn Taymiyya, following his death as a prisoner in the citadel of Damascus. The funeral was attended by almost the entire population of the city, not least its womenfolk: the great shaykh himself never married. He was, notwithstanding his undeserved reputation as the scourge of the mystics, buried next to his brother in the so-called Cemetery of the Sufis. During the French Mandate in the inter-war years of the last century, the colonial power razed the Cemetery and replaced it with a modern hospital: only one grave was spared -- that of Ibn Taymiyya. Now, that solitary grave, virtually inaccessible in a back courtyard of the hospital's maternity ward and surrounded by heavy metal bars, lies ruined and cluttered with litter, even its very modest headstone broken. The contrast with the burial-place of Ibn `Arab could not be greater: his remains are housed (in a manner reminiscent of Catholic saintly relics) in a glass enclosure within a sumptuously ornate mausoleum, continually attended by the saint's devout followers, as also by tourists. Whereas around the tomb of Ibn `Arabi one hears the soothing hum of pious invocations; around that of Ibn Taymiyya, it is the cries of women in labour. Again, whereas at the mausoleum of the saint one can buy any number of editions of his works (authentic or apocryphal), in even the best bookshops of Damascus one can scarcely find a single work of the scholar-activist, Ibn Taymiyya, albeit he was and remains one of the most influential thinkers of the Mamluk period. The article tries to understand this neglect of the memory of Ibn Taymiyya in the very city in which he studied and taught, in which he became famous, and for whose defence he inspired his fellow-Muslims to resist invading Tatars/Mongols so that Damascus was spared the fate that had befallen Baghdad. Finally, Yahya Michot appeals, in this penultimate year before the 700th anniversary of Ibn Taymiyya's death, for some minimum of repairs and cleaning up of the site. You can read a PDF of the article (10 pp.) by following this link. Following is an excerpt from: http://kgn786.com Allama Ahmad bin Ali Basri states in the book Faslul Khitaab fi Raddi Dalaalati Ibn Abdil Wahab as follows :

From amongst the things he (Ibn Abdul Wahab Najdi) said is, if I attain the opportunity to do so, then I will break down the Rauda of Holy Prophet ( ) . A pamphlet published in 2007 by the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, endorsed by Abdulaziz Al Sheikh, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, and distributed at the Prophet's ( ) Masjid, reads as follows: The green dome shall be demolished and the three graves flattened in the Prophet's ( ) Masjid; according to Alawi, Executive Director of the London based Islamic Heritage Research Foundation. This shocking sentiment was echoed in several speeches by Ibn al-Uthaymeen, one of Saudi Arabia's most prominent Wahhabi clerics, who delivered sermons in Makkah's Grand Masjid for over 35 years: 'We hope one day we will be able to destroy the green dome of the Prophet Muhammed ( ) he said, in a recording provided by Al Alawi. The other sects, like Ahle Hadith, Deobandis, Jama'at-eIslami, Tabhlighee Jama'at, etc., also say that green dome of Prophet Mohammad ( ) should be destroyed. The same Wahhabis acted differently when the Sufi cemetery was razed by Syrian Wahhabis to make way for the University of Damascus and its campus in that city - King Abd al-Aziz Ibn Sa`ud of Saudi Arabia intervened personally to preserve intact the graves and tombs of Ibn Taymiyya and his student Ibn Kathir.

From http://www.seekingilm.com : Shaykh l-Islam al-Hafiz Taqiyyu d-Din Ali Ibn `Abdi l-Kafi as-Subki writes in the Preface of his book ad-Durratu l-Mudiyyah : By his claims Ibn Taymiyyah innovated foul things in the usul of belief, and infringed the foundations of Islam, and in the same time covered himself under the pretext of following the Book and Sunnah, outwardly showing that he was a caller to Truth and a guide to heaven, while on the contrary he deviated from following the Book and Sunnah to innovation, and deviated from the consensus of the Muslims by infringing the ijma`. He said what leads to the attribution of a body and of composition to the Divine Essence, and that it is not impossible that Allah is composed by parts. He said that the Essence of Allah Ta`ala contains contingent elements (hawadith) that the Quran is also contingent, and that Allah spoke it after it was not, that He speaks and keeps silent, and that phenomena take place in Him in the same way they take place in created beings. He crossed the limit to the point of claiming that the world is eternal, and was coherent with this assumption to the point of claiming that there is no beginning for the contingencies, Hence, he confirmed that according to his opinion the eternal attributes [of Allah ] are contingent and the contingent created entities are eternal. None has ever joined those two opinions together in any religion. He was not among the seventy-three groups into which the

Ummah is divided [i.e. he is neither a Sunni, nor a member of one of the seventy two heretic sects, but rather the founder of a new sect of his own]. In spite of all of this being horrible kufr, it is little compared to what he innovated in the furu. Generally the scholars maintained that he repented from heresy before his death. Both Hafith Ibn Hajr and affirmed its authenticity, as well as others. Suffice to say that these two men are not liars, nor deemed untrustworthy in narration, unlike the example of Hamdhani and Imam Juwayni. The quote of Ibn Hajr quoting Barzaali reads: An enquiry [of his position] was conducted with several scholars [in Cairo] and a written statement was written against him, in which he said: I am Ash`ari, and his handwriting is found with what he wrote verbatim, namely: I believe that the Quran is a meaning which exists in Allah s Essence (mi`na qaaimun bi dhaat Allaah), and it is an Attribute from the pre-eternal Attributes of His Essence (wa huwa Sifatun min Sifaati dhaatihi al-qadeema), and that it is uncreated (wa huwa ghayru makhlooq), and that it does not consist in the letter nor the voice (wa laysa bi Harfin wa la Sawt), and that His saying: The Merciful established Himself over the Throne is not taken according to its external meaning (laysa `ala zaahirihi), and I dont know in what consists its meaning, nay only Allah knows it, and one speaks of His descent in the same way as one speaks of His establishement (wa al-qawlu fi al-nuzooli kal-qawli fi alistiwaa). It was written by Ahmad ibn Taymiyya and they witnessed over him that he had repented of his own free will from all that contravened the above. This took place on the 25th of Rabee` alawwal of the year 707 and it was witnessed by a huge array of scholars and others.