THE POLITICAL THOUGHT OF IBN TAYMIYAH

This brief critical study of one of the most important political thinker in Islam has an obvious modern relevance, for if his thought is studied carefully, it can help in removing the much political confusion in the present day Muslim word. Ibne Tayyimyah has written voluminously and almost on every aspect of Islam. Much of his work is certainly lost, because of the colossal opposition faced from different classes of Ulema and Ahl al Bidah of whom he was critical. His principal political ideas about the state are found in his famous Minhaj al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyah fl naqd Kalam al-Shiah wa’l-Qadarivah (The path of the prophetic Sunnah in Refutation of the Belief of the Shiai’tes and the Qadarites). As the name suggest the work is not inherently a systematic work on politics, but a book on polemics; necessarily, therefore, the political ideas are intricately interwoven with hair-splitting discussions on scholastic theology, therefore author has indicated towards the principal original context in which these arguments are set by Ibn e Tayyimiyah, for if they are taken out of context they would become unintelligible. It may however be pointed out that the present study has been undertaken in a most critical and scientific spirit to clear up misconceptions and misrepresentations around Islamic political ideas, so he author expects the readers will go through this treatise with patience and an open mind.

• AUTHOR: PROF, QAMARUDIN KHAN
• PUBLISHERS: ADAMS