Ibn Taymiyyah, forefather of the Wahhabiya movement, founder of the Salafi sect

Ibn Taymiyyah was a pseudo-Hanbalite. He lived in the Turkish region between 12-13 century AD.

Ignaz Goldziher in his book (the Zahiri) has revealed a lot of insightful information about this man.

Ibn Battuta, Voyages, I, p. 215
“He was an important man and could speak about the most varied fields, but he had a bee in his bonnet”

Many of Ibn Taymiyyah teachings were strange and at odds with the official Sunni school of thoughts (madhab).

• He disapproved of appealing for help from the Prophet (source Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani)
• He prohibited visiting the Prophet’s grave (source al-Qastallani)
• He is represented as having made harsh and disrespectful remarks about the first caliphs, and in his lectures he generally assaulted important and unimportant, old and modern scholars
• He accused Umar al-Khattab of errors (source Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani)
• He said Ali ibn Abi Talib made wrong decisions in seventeen questions(source Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani)
• He abused al-Ghazali and the other Asharites and insulted Ibn 'Arabi and other mystics(source Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani)

When you compare Ibn Taymiyyah teaching about God (below) to his teaching about Muslim personalities(above), the above seems pretty mild.

Ibn Taymiyyah taught tajsim (Anthropomorphism) by interpreting the metaphorical verses of the Holy Quran literally. (More will be in the next post)

According to Ibn Hajjar al-Asqalani
Ibn Taymiyyah did not renounce his deviancy/heresies despite being put before an inquisition and forced to signed a document that rejects his heresies.