al-Masail wal-Ajwiba li-Ibn Taymiyya
- Author died
- 728 AH
- Editions
- Al-Farouq Al-Hadithah li al-Tiba'ah wa al-Nashr
al-Masaʾil wa-l-Ajwiba (Questions and Answers) is a collection of legal and theological responses by the Hanbali scholar Ibn Taymiyya (661–728 AH / 1263–1328 CE) .
Subject Matter and Scope
The core of the collection comprises Ibn Taymiyya's responses to questions posed by the people of al-Rahba—a town on the Euphrates—to the preacher (khaṭīb) of the village of ʿUshāra . The queries address a wide range of doctrinal and jurisprudential issues, including the status of someone who abandons prayer, oaths of triple repudiation (al-ṭalāq al-thalāth), ritual purification in cold weather, whether believers commit apostasy by sinning, the nature of the Quran in codices and in memory, the Scale (al-mīzān) on the Day of Resurrection, divine predestination regarding disobedience, price fluctuations, and the Prophet's ﷺ Night Journey (al-Isrāʾ) . Most of the answers are concise, though Ibn Taymiyya elaborated at length on two specific questions .
The tract is recorded in early bibliographical lists: Ibn Rushayyiq cited it in Asmāʾ Muʾallafāt Ibn Taymiyya under the title Risālat Jawāb Suʾāl al-Raḥba, and Ibn ʿAbd al-Hādī recorded it in al-ʿUqūd al-Durriyya as Jawāb ʿan Suʾāl Warada min al-Raḥba .
Manuscript and Publication History
The work is preserved in a unique manuscript held at the Alexandria Municipal Library (MS 4, Hanbali jurisprudence) within a composite codex . It was transcribed in Naskh script by Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā ibn Abī al-Faḍl al-Shāfiʿī and completed on 26 Dhu al-Hijjah 728 AH, thirty-six days after Ibn Taymiyya's death .
The collection was edited by Husayn ibn ʿUkāsha and published in Cairo by al-Fārūq al-Ḥadītha in 1425 AH / 2004 CE (also dated 1424 AH) as part of a single volume titled Min Turāth Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyya . This volume also included Ibn ʿAbd al-Hādī's Ikhtiyārāt Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyya and al-Dhahabī's biographical account of Ibn Taymiyya . The printed edition features twenty-one distinct legal issues not previously published in major compendia such as Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā, Jāmiʿ al-Masāʾil, or Jāmiʿ al-Rasāʾil, alongside questions that had previously appeared scattered across Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā without indication of their Rahba origin .
Answer updated