A Letter from Ibn Taymeeyyah to his Mother
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In the name of Allah, Most Merciful, Dispenser of Mercy
A Letter from Ibn Taymeeyyah to his Mother
From Ahmad bin Taymeeyyah to my dear and honourable Mother, may Allah bless her amply, and grant her peace and comfort, and make her amongst the best of His servants,
Assalamu `alaykum warahmatullaahi wa barakatuh.
We praise Allah, the most worthy of praise. There is no deity worthy of worship but He, and He has Power over all things. We ask Him to bless the Seal of the Prophets and Imaam of the pious, Muhammad His servant and Messenger (Sallallaahu `alayhiwa sallam).
Indeed the bounties of Allah come abundantly, and His aid is never ending. We praise Him for it, and ask Him to increase His favour. It will not escape you, my contented mother, the fact that our stay in Egypt is for an important issue. The abandonment of such a task leads to the corruption of our Deen and of our life.
Yet it was not our choice to be far from you. Had birds been able to carry us, we would have come to you. But the absent one has his reason; and had you been able to look deeply into the affairs of the Muslims, you would not choose for me another place to the one I am in now. Nevertheless, I had never intended to reside here permanently. Instead, I pray to Allah to guide you and I to the right choice, and I pray for your well-being. I ask Allah to bless us and the rest of the Muslims, with His goodness and what that goodness encompasses of safety and benefit.
Allah had opened for me His gates of blessings, mercy and guidance in a way I have never conceived of before. Yet I am always considering travel towards you, making the prayers of Istikhaarah. It is inconceivable for me, if given the choice, to favour any of this life’s mundane issues or of the lesser obligations of the Deen, to being close to you. Yet there are great issues which l cannot abandon for fear of their general and personal dangers (1) - and the witness sees what the absent does not.
I beseech you to supplicate to Allah profusely. Ask Him to guide us to choose our best paths, for He Knows and we do not, and He is able and we are weak. The Messenger of Allah (Sallallaahu`alayhi wa sallam) said:
It is from the happiness of the son of Adam to practice lstikhaarah and be pleased with what Allah had ordained for him. And it is from the misery of the son of Adam to drop the Istikhaarah of Allah and be displeased at Allah’s decrees. (2)
Indeed, the travelling trader might fear the loss of his money, so he resides at a place until he is able to travel once again. The matter that we are in the middle of is too great to describe, but there is no power or ability but through Allah.
Finally, convey my Salaam to the entire household, young and old, and the rest of neighbours, friends and relatives one by one.
Wasalamu `alaykum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakatuh!
Praise be to Allah, and may His Blessings and Peace be upon Muhammad, his family and companions.
Footnote:
1. Shaykh Muhammad Aboo Zahrah comments on his book Ibn Taymeeyah: the general danger is the corruption of people. The personal one is that as a Scholar, he has to fulfil his obligation of guiding the people to the right way. There is also another danger which, is that Ibn Taymeeyah came to Egypt whilst accused in his belief, and that he has a right to defend and vindicate himself.
2. Shaykh Hamed al-Faqi commented of this hadeeth by saying that it was related by at-Tirmithee and he called it Hasan ghareeb; and it was also narrated by Ahmad, Aboo Ya’laa and al-Haakim who said of it: Saheeh al-lsnad. (al-’Uqood ud-Durreeyah, p257)
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this is soo amazing SubhanAllaah, its really hits home for some of us, May Allaah raise the ranks of Jannah of ibn taymiyyah rahimullah and his mother, O’ Allaah unites us with the likes of in Taymiyyah rahimullaah in jannah
and to think many of us take our mothers to be an insignificant part of our lives, stagfurillah, O’Allaah forgive us our sins for we have surely erred
Amazingly beautiful man ma Sha’ Allah. He truly was a giant amongst men. It is said that during his imprisonment, one of the things he would do is place his head on the floor in prostration from Isha til Fagr and he would repeat the supplication “o Allah help me to remember u, be grateful to u and worship u with excellance”. Of course Allah aided him in doing just that, as during his 36 month imprisonment shaykh ibn taymiyyah (r) managed to read the Qur`an EIGHTY times… alhamdulillah.
When I hear such accounts of the believers imprisonment, wAllahi I truly feel that despite being physically imprisoned, their hearts are free.
Whereas us, we roam the earth freely but we face the greater imprisonment, the imprisonment of the dunya whereby our hearts are shackled by its sins and vain desires.