Burhan al-Din Ibn al-Qayyim

Burhan al-Din Ibn al-Qayyim (c. 716/719–767 AH / 1316/1319–1365 CE) was a Syrian Hanbali jurist, grammarian, and teacher in Damascus Dhayl Ibn al-Iraqi ala al…+1. He was the son of the scholar Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya and is noted for his grammatical commentary Irshad al-Salik ila Hall Alfiyyat Ibn Malik Irshad al-Salik ila Hall …+1.

Lineage and Early Life

His full name was Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr ibn Ayyub, with the honorific Burhan al-Din and the kunya Abu Ishaq Irshad al-Salik ila Hall …+1. He carried the geographical nisbas al-Zur'i and al-Dimashqi Dhayl Ibn al-Iraqi ala al…. Biographical accounts disagree on his birth year: Ibn Rafi' recorded it as 716 AH, another report gives 719 AH, and Ibn Hajar mentions 726 AH, while Ibn Kathir calculated his age at death to have been forty-eight Dhayl Ibn al-Iraqi ala al…+1.

He studied Hanbali jurisprudence directly under his father, who also arranged for him to hear hadith while in the Hejaz Irshad al-Salik ila Hall …. He pursued hadith transmission independently and attended readings with scholars including Ayyub ibn Ni'ma al-Nabulsi and Mansur ibn Sulayman al-Ba'labakki, with whom he heard Juz' al-Dhuhli, as well as Ibn al-Shahna Dhayl Ibn al-Iraqi ala al…+1.

Career and Scholarly Activity

Ibn al-Qayyim attained distinction in Arabic grammar, legal reasoning, issuing fatwas, and disputation Dhayl Ibn al-Iraqi ala al…+1. He held teaching posts at the Sadriyya and Tadmuriya madrasas in Damascus, maintained a study circle (tasdir) at the Umayyad Mosque, and served as preacher (khatib) at the Khulaykhan Mosque in the Qarawana district Irshad al-Salik ila Hall …+1. Al-Dhahabi noted his sharp, silencing responses in debate Tashil al-Sabila li Murid…+1. In one documented exchange, when Ibn Kathir suggested that Ibn al-Qayyim resented him for being an Ash'ari, Ibn al-Qayyim retorted that no one would believe Ibn Kathir was an Ash'ari given that his teacher was Ibn Taymiyya al-Daris fi Tarikh al-Mad…+1.

In scholarship, he authored Irshad al-Salik ila Hall Alfiyyat Ibn Malik, an accessible commentary explaining the grammar and morphology of Ibn Malik's didactic poem Irshad al-Salik ila Hall …+1. He also compiled a compendium of legal determinations defending the doctrinal consistency of Ibn Taymiyya's juristic selections al-Bahth al-Musfir an Tah….

Death

Ibn al-Qayyim died on a Friday, either at the end of Muharram or on the first of Safar 767 AH (October 1365 CE), at his orchard in al-Mazza near Damascus Dhayl Ibn al-Iraqi ala al…+1. Funeral prayers were performed first at the mosque of al-Mazza and subsequently at Jami' Jarrah in Damascus, in a well-attended procession that included judges and notables Tashil al-Sabila li Murid…+1. He was buried beside his father at the Bab al-Saghir cemetery, leaving behind substantial wealth Tashil al-Sabila li Murid…+1.