Ibn Taymiyyah Quotes on God
Ibn Taymiyya (1263–1328) was a Hanbali jurist, theologian, and philosophical critic whose vast corpus mounted the most rigorous medieval Sunni response to the Avicennan philosophical theology and the speculative kalam of the Ash'ari school that had become broadly hegemonic in his day. The principal philosophical-theological program is a return to the textual sources of the Quran, the Sunna of the Prophet, and the practice of the early Muslim community (the salaf), defended against the extra-scriptural metaphysical apparatus that Ibn Taymiyya argued had distorted classical Sunni theology. The Refutation of the Logicians (Naqd al-Mantiq) and the Avoidance of the Conflict between Reason and Tradition (Dar Ta'arud al-'Aql wa al-Naql) supply the central philosophical works, and the framework shaped the later Wahhabi and broader Salafi movements that have been among Ibn Taymiyya's most consequential modern interpreters.
Quotes
-
Attributed to Ibn Taymiyyah:
“What sound reason and authentic revelation establish cannot truly contradict each other.”
-
Attributed to Ibn Taymiyyah:
“He who knows God most loves Him most and fears Him most.”
-
Attributed to Ibn Taymiyyah:
“Right belief is the foundation of right action.”
-
Attributed to Ibn Taymiyyah:
“What pleases God is the welfare of His creatures.”
-
Attributed to Ibn Taymiyyah:
“He who is content with God needs nothing else; he who lacks God lacks everything.”
-
“God does not create pure evil. Rather, in everything that He creates is a wise purpose by virtue of what is good. However, there may be some evil in it for some people, and this is partial, relative evil. As for total evil or absolute evil, the Lord is exonerated of that.”
Ibn Taymiyyah, A. (2004) Majmu’ al-Fatawa . Vol 14, p. 266. -
“If God —exalted is He—is Creator of everything, He creates good and evil on account of the wise purpose that He has in that by virtue of which His action is good and perfect.”
Ibn Taymiyyah, A. (1986) Minhaj al-Sunnah . Edited by Muhammad Rashad Salim. Riyadh: Jami’ah al-Imam Muhammad bin Saud al-Islamiyah. Vol 3, p: 142. -
“This whole religion (of Islam) revolves around knowing the truth and acting by it, and action must be accompanied by patience.”
Ibn Taymiyyah, Diseases of the heart and their cures -
“The jihad against the soul is the foundation for the Jihad against the disbelievers and hypocrites.”
Ibn Taymiyyah, Diseases of the heart and their cures -
“What can my enemies do to me? I have in my breast both my heaven and my garden. If I travel they are with me, never leaving me. Imprisonment for me is a chance to be alone with my Lord. To be killed is martyrdom and to be exiled from my land is a spiritual journey.”
Ibn Taymiyyah, Diseases of the heart and their cures