Min Mashahir al-Mujaddidin fi al-Islam
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- Min Mashahir al-Mujaddidin fi al-Islam
Min Mashahir al-Mujaddidin fi al-Islam (Prominent Renewers in Islam) is a biographical and doctrinal treatise by the Saudi scholar Salih al-Fawzan, devoted to the lives, scholarly contributions, and revivalist efforts of Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH / 1328 CE) and Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (d. 1206 AH / 1792 CE) .
Purpose and Scope
Al-Fawzan composed the work while serving as an instructor at the Higher Judicial Institute in Riyadh . In his preface, he cites the prophetic tradition narrated by Abu Dawud and authenticated by al-Hakim: إن الله يبعث لهذه الأمة على رأس كل مائة سنة من يجدد لها دينها ("Indeed, Allah sends for this Ummah at the head of every hundred years someone who revives its religion for it") . Citing al-Munawi in Fayd al-Qadir and Ibn Kathir, he explains that renewal (tajdid) entails clarifying the Sunnah, distinguishing it from religious innovations (bida'), spreading knowledge, and refuting deviations .
Al-Fawzan identifies Ibn Taymiyyah, at the turn of the seventh and eighth Islamic centuries, and Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, in the twelfth century, as two prominent exemplars of this renewal . He states that his objective is to introduce their efforts to those unfamiliar with them, to refute the misconceptions spread by their critics, and to encourage following their example .
Structure and Content
The book consists of two principal biographical sections preceded by an introductory framework:
- Ibn Taymiyyah: Covers his lineage as Taqi al-Din Ahmad ibn Abd al-Halim al-Harrani al-Hanbali, his birth in Harran in 661 AH, his relocation with his family to Damascus in 667 AH following the Mongol invasions, his teachers, education in hadith, jurisprudence, and theology, and his assumption of teaching at the age of nineteen following his father's death . It highlights his defense of the creed of the early generations (al-salaf al-salih) and his responses to scholastic theologians and philosophers .
- Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab: Outlines his upbringing in an established scholarly family of the Tamim tribe in Najd, his early education and mastery of Hanbali jurisprudence, his reliance on the writings of Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al-Qayyim, his reformist call to monotheism (tawhid) in the Arabian Peninsula, and the outcomes of his movement .
Reception and Publication
The work was reviewed and prefaced by Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz, then the General President of the Administrations of Scholarly Research, Ifta, Da'wah, and Guidance, who praised it as a concise yet thorough overview of the two scholars' defense of orthodox creed and their rebuttals against polemical objections .
Portions of the treatise were initially published as individual research articles in the journal Majallat al-Buhuth al-Islamiyyah under the series title Min A'lam al-Mujaddidin . The complete monograph was published by the General Presidency of Scholarly Research, Ifta, Da'wah, and Guidance in 1408 AH / 1987–1988 CE .
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