BOOK LAUNCH: : Toynbee Hall in East London was the venue as Professor Yahya Michot from the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies launched his much awaited and debated book on Ibn Taymiyyah.
For leading enlightened Western academics, Muslim modernists and 'progressives', Ibn Taymiyyah is considered the godfather of uncompromising violent Jihadism. For the modern day 'Jihadi', the life and works of Taqi-Uddin Ahmad ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728/1328) are regarded as sources of inspiration. Perhaps one of the most misunderstood and misquoted scholars, he and those claiming to follow his school of understanding today, have been accused of anthropomorphism, enmity towards people of spirituality or Tasawwuf, and creedal deviation from mainstream Sunni Islam.
Ironically, Ibn Taymiyyah lived at a time very similar to ours, where Muslims in certain regions lived under non-Muslim rule, i.e. lands occupied by the Mongols and the Crusaders, and with various Muslim factions vying with one another to gain credibility with the Establishment.
In his book 'Ibn Taymiyya: Muslims under non-Muslim Rule", Professor Michot overturns this conventional and somewhat simplistic picture of Shaykh Ibn Taymiyyah.
During the book launch he examined the life, work and jihad, and present close and
careful translations of the four 'Mardin fatwas' issued by Ibn Taymiyyah on how Muslims should respond when they come under non-Muslim rule. Should they fight or quit such rule? If they have to adjust to it, what form should this take and to what extent should this be? The inconsistent and oft unfair accusations of deviancy levelled against Ibn Taymiyyah were also addressed in a scholarly manner.
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