REBIRTH 163promoted division by interpreting the Qur'an and hadith in ways that de-
parted from what the texts literally stated.
Ibn Taymiyah never conceded that he was pressing for his interpreta-
tion versus some other interpretation. He maintained that he was trying to
stamp out unwarranted interpretation per se and urging Muslims to go
back to the book, implying that the Qur'an {and hadith) existed in some
absolute form, free of human interpretation.
Some would say that singling out heretics and schismatics had not been
the spirit of early Islam. Arguments about the succession, yes; even bloody
arguments. But Mohammed himself and the early Muslims in general
tended to accept that people who wanted to be Muslims were Muslims.
{"Hypocrites"-traitors pretending to be Muslims in order to undermine
the community from within-were obviously a different case.) With all
would-be Muslims accepted into the group, the group could sort out dis-
agreements about what "Muslim" meant. Ibn Taymiyah, however, insisted
that there was one way to be a Muslim, and the main Muslim duty was to
ascertain that one way and then follow it. Interpretation did not come into
it, since everything a person needed to know about Islam was right there
in the book in black and white.
Ibn Taymiyah mythologized the perfection of life in that first commu-
nity, referring to Mohammed's companions as al-salafal-salihin, "the pious
{or pristine) originals." Versions of his doctrines eventually reemerged in
India and North Africa as the movement called Salafism, which is with us
to this day. The word comes up often in news stories about "Islamists." It
started here, in the shadow of the Mongol holocaust.
In his own day, Ibn Taymiyah built up only a moderate following. The
masses didn't care for him much, probably because he punished Muslims
for folk practices they had incorporated into their idea of Islam and also
for visiting shrines. Ibn Taymiyah claimed that showing reverence for
human beings, even great ones, went against the precepts of the Pious
Originals.
The authorities liked him even less because he denounced rulings they
accepted as established. When called before a panel of ulama to defend his
rulings, he rejected their authority, charging that they had lost their legiti-
macy by succumbing to innovations and interpretations. On one disputed
doctrine after another, Ibn Taymiyah would not go along to get along. The