Ahkam Usat al-Muminin min Kalam Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyya - Kajak
- Author died
- 1432 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Kalimah al-Ṭayyibah
Ahkam Usat al-Muminin min Kalam Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyya (Rulings Regarding Disobedient Believers from the Words of Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyya) is a thematic treatise compiled by the contemporary Syrian scholar Marwan Kajak (d. 1432 AH / 2011 CE), gathering and organizing the theological writings and legal positions of Ibn Taymiyya concerning sinful believers and related creedal questions .
Background and Purpose
Kajak completed the compilation in Cairo on 17 Ramadan 1404 AH (17 June 1984 CE) . In the introduction, he states that the work was prompted by the contemporary spread of divisive theological controversies, particularly regarding the categorization of people as disbelievers (takfir), transgressors (tafsiq), or doomed to eternal damnation in the Fire (ta khlid fi al-nar) . The objective of assembling Ibn Taymiyya’s statements was to provide Muslim youth and activists with a grounded, moderate reference point based on the creed of the early generations (Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jama'ah), avoiding both the extremes of unwarranted excommunication and laxity in religious obligations .
Scope and Core Themes
The text draws directly from the treatises and legal verdicts (fatawa) of Ibn Taymiyya, organizing his arguments on the status and fate of disobedient Muslims across several core doctrinal areas:
- Promise and Threat (al-Wa'd wa-l-Wa'id): Emphasizing the Sunni position of affirming both divine promises of reward and threats of punishment without negating either, in contrast to the stances attributed to groups such as the Haruriyya (early Kharijites) and the Mu'tazila .
- The Nature of Faith and Sin: Presenting Ibn Taymiyya’s exposition that sins such as theft, adultery, or consuming intoxicants do not by themselves expel an individual from Islam unless they involve abandoning foundational pillars of belief, denying the obligation of clear, established duties, or declaring forbidden matters permissible .
- Restraint in Takfir: Highlighting Ibn Taymiyya’s warnings against declaring specific individuals disbelievers without the establishment of definitive proof (iqamat al-hujja), as well as differentiating between the ruling on an obstinate denier and that on an ignorant, excused, or mistaken interpreter .
- Repentance and Intercession (al-Tawba wa-l-Shafa'a): Demonstrating that monotheists who commit major sins do not abide eternally in Hellfire, and discussing the role of repentance, good deeds, trials, divine forgiveness, and the intercession of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in their eventual entry into Paradise .
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