Ibn al-Qayyim’s Kitāb al-Rūḥ 135
Abū Ḥudhayfa acknowledges that this section was not presented by
Ibn al-Qayyim as an independent literary creation. Nonetheless, by
publishing this section separately from the rest of the book, he in fact
acknowledges that it can stand alone – and perhaps was meant to, at
least when Ibn al-Qayyim first wrote it. Abū Ḥudhayfa offers a few
short quotations, without comment, in which Ibn al-Qayyim refers to
his writings on this subject, including the reference to the “large book”
referred to above. His intent seems to be that Ibn al-Qayyim consid-
ered writing an independent book, and, if none has reached us, this sec-
tion of Kitāb al-Rūḥ can serve the purpose just as well. As far as I am
concerned, the point here is that, as Abū Ḥudhayfa’s booklet shows,
this section can indeed stand alone as a separate treatise; perhaps, then,
that is how it was planned to be by Ibn al-Qayyim.
5. The Authenticity of Kitāb al-Rūḥ
The authenticity of Kitāb al-Rūḥ has been challenged in recent years,
apparently on dogmatic grounds rather than on the basis of any liter-
ary or historical qualms. Information about the debate is found mostly
on the internet; the relevant websites will be cited in the notes to this
section.
The Saudi scholar Bakr Abū Zayd, author of several books on Ibn
al-Qayyim, takes up the question of the book’s authenticity. He writes:
Some students have spread the word that Kitāb al-Rūḥ of Ibn al-Qayyim
is not really by him, or that he wrote it before he came into contact with
shaykh al-islām, Ibn Taymiyya. This is what some tongues have spread,
and this is what has reached [our] ears in various settings and investiga-
tions. I have not seen it written down in a book; perhaps something of
this has been written down, but it is not easy to get hold of it.^32Abū Zayd proceeds to refute both allegations by means of a variety of
cross-references to Kitāb al-Rūḥ in other writings of Ibn al-Qayyim,
numerous citations by later authors, and some stylistic and method-
ological considerations. Similarly he cites several references to Ibn
Taymiyya in Kitāb al-Rūḥ for proof that the book was written after
Ibn al-Qayyim had met his master.^33
32 Abū Zayd, Bakr: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya. Ḥayātuhu āthāruhu mawāriduhu,
Riyadh 2002, p. 254; http://saaid.net/Doat/Zugail/61.htm (accessed April 4, 2010).
33 Ibid.
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