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Ibn al-Qayyim

Ighathat al-Lahfan fi Masayid al-Shaytan

Author died
751 AH
Editions
t al-Faqi · T Ataat al-Ilm

Ighathat al-Lahfan fi Masayid al-Shaytan (Rescue of the Yearning from the Traps of Satan) is a treatise on spiritual psychology, heart diseases, and the deceptive plots of the devil by the Hanbali scholar Ibn al-Qayyim (691–751 AH / 1292–1350 CE) .

Title and Composition

The author designated the title in his introduction as Ighathat al-Lahfan fi Masayid al-Shaytan, though the preposition fi was corrupted to min in many printed editions and some bibliographical works . The book was completed during the author's lifetime prior to 738 AH; the earliest known manuscript is preserved in the library of the University of Sindh in Jamshoro, Pakistan, copied by Ibrahim ibn Hajji Sulayman in Rajab 738 AH .

Scope and Structure

Ibn al-Qayyim organized the work into thirteen chapters, using the first twelve chapters to lay the spiritual and doctrinal foundations of the heart's states and illnesses, before dedicating the final, extensive chapter to Satan's stratagems :

  1. The division of hearts into healthy (sahih), diseased (saqim), and dead (mayyit) .
  2. The reality and nature of the heart's disease .
  3. The division of remedies for heart ailments into natural and legal (shar'i) .
  4. That the life and luminosity of the heart is the source of all good within it, and its death and darkness is the source of all evil .
  5. That the life and health of the heart cannot be achieved except by perceiving the truth, willing it, and preferring it over everything else .
  6. That the heart finds no true bliss, pleasure, or uprightness except when its Creator alone is its sole object of worship and ultimate desire .
  7. That the Qur'an encompasses the remedies and cures for all ailments of the heart .
  8. On the purification (zakah) of the heart .
  9. On cleansing the heart from its spiritual impurities and filth .
  10. The signs indicating the health or sickness of the heart .
  11. Treating the sickness of the heart caused by the soul's dominance over it .
  12. Treating the sickness of the heart caused by Satan .
  13. The snares and traps of Satan against humankind, which the author identified as the primary reason for writing the book .

The thirteenth chapter contains multiple sections examining widespread deceptions and group-specific traps . These include obsessive whisperings (waswasah) in acts of worship, grave veneration, listening to forbidden musical instruments (sama' and singing), legal stratagems (hiyal) and sham marriages (tahlil), obsessive infatuation ('ishq al-suwar), and forms of idolatry such as the worship of planets, fire, and angels . It also critiques various sects and theological traditions, including Dualists, Sabians, Dahriyya, philosophers, Christians, and Jews .

Relation to Other Works and Sources

The book builds upon themes explored earlier by Ibn al-Jawzi in Talbis Iblis (The Devil's Deception), but differs in method and structure by foregrounding the spiritual pathology and cure of the heart before discussing specific theological errors and societal deviations . Ibn al-Qayyim drew on the Qur'an, prophetic hadiths, statements of the early Muslims, as well as classical works like Ibn Abi al-Dunya's Maka'id al-Shaytan wa-Hiyaluh, and Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari's Maqalat al-Islamiyyin and al-Maqalat al-Kabir .

Abridgments, Translations, and Editions

Ighathat al-Lahfan generated various abridgments, extracts, and translations:

  • Muhammad Birgivi (d. 981 AH) abridged the section on visiting graves .
  • Ibn Ghanim al-Maqdisi (d. 1004 AH) and Ahmad ibn 'Abd al-Qadir al-Rumi (d. 1041 AH) each authored an abridgment entitled Mukhtasar Ighathat al-Lahfan .
  • Hashim ibn Yahya al-Shami (d. 1158 AH) composed an epitome titled Tab'id al-Shaytan bi-Taqrib Ighathat al-Lahfan (also titled Mawarid al-Zam'an al-Mukhtasar min Ighathat al-Lahfan) .
  • Abd Allah ibn Abd al-Rahman Aba Butayn (d. 1282 AH) compiled an abridgment of the work .
  • Modern selections include 'Ali ibn Hasan al-Athari's Mawarid al-Aman al-Muntaqa min Ighathat al-Lahfan .
  • It was translated into Urdu by Muhammad Ahsan al-Nanawtawi under the title Tahdhib al-Iman (Bareilly, 1283 AH) and by Muhammad Aslam Shahidrawi (Lahore, 2017), with an abridged English translation by 'Abd al-'Ali 'Abd al-Hamid published in Riyadh (2014) .

Notable printed editions include those edited by Muhammad Hamid al-Fiqi, Khalid 'Abd al-Latif al-Sab' al-'Alami, 'Ali ibn Hasan al-Halabi (with hadith authentication by Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani), and a two-volume critical edition edited by Muhammad 'Uzayr Shams (with hadith authentication by Mustafa ibn Sa'id Iytim) .

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