A Critical Hermeneutic Study of Ibn Taymiyyah’s Views

Abstract

The tension between Sufism and Sharia is a fact of conflict of religious thought and practice in Islam. This paper seeks to examine the phenomenon from an interpretive perspective. This issue has attracted the attention of traditional scholars and reformers. One of them is Ibn Taymiyyah, who has a unique view in his criticism of Sufism at that time which tended towards heterodox Sufism. Ibn Taymiyyah wanted to project Sufism to its roots as a pure practice and not mixed with external Sufi practices that are not clearly derived from the internal Islam itself that culminate in the practice of prophetic spirituality. In his view, Sufism at that time no longer displayed a strict barometer of Sharia. There are even indications of violating Sharia itself. Therefore, he formulated a Sufism practice based on the balance of Sharia and factually and rationally referred to the spirit of the practice of the Salaf.