Against extremisms

Ibn TaymiyyaAgainst ExtremismsTexts translated annotated and introduced by Yahya MichotFor those who want to delve into the mysteries and motivations the declarations and limits of the foremost anbalî theologian and jurist of his time Ibn Taymiyya ponder this tome It is useful its delights evident its benefits many Bruce Lawrence Professor Emeritus Duke University USAThis is a wonderful text with careful translations of immense value to Englishspeaking Muslim readers and it provides not only many clarifications as to Ibn Taymiyyas positions but also makes available to a wider audience the powerful arguments he makes for the moderate or middle way in all spiritual matters Yahya Birt Visiting Fellow Markfield Institute of Higher Education UK Nearly seven hundred years after his death in prison in Damascus 728 1328 Ibn Taymiyya remains one of the most influential of the classical Islamic thinkers In this collection of rigorously translated and annotated texts it is the voice of the Shaykh alIslam himself that one hears It vibrates with the feeling that animates the whole of his religious thoughtwhether he is explaining the worship of God or veneration of the Prophet exploring the labyrinth of vain desires or that of true love understanding the failings of the believers collective and individual or positioning himself in relation to the authorities and to others Muslims and nonMuslims His abiding concern is to explain how to enliven our everyday life by making God for us more important than water for fish Having himself tasted this sweetness of faith he testifies from experience such an objective is not unattainable He invites to the journey signposts the way and proffers a hand to whoever commits himself to it Whatever has sometimes been said about him it is obvious that Ibn Taymiyya always was a great spiritual master of the via media the middle way that is at the heart of traditional Islam One year after the Arab Spring his balanced understanding of how to live a responsibly Muslim life has an urgent relevance Yahya Michot lectured at Louvain and from 1998 to 2008 taught Islamic theology at the University of Oxford He is now professor of Islamic Studies and ChristianMuslim Relations at Hartford Seminary Connecticut He is one of the Western worlds leading authorities on Ibn Taymiyya to whom he has devoted several books in French and English notably Ibn Taymiyya Muslims under nonMuslim Rule Oxford Interface 2006