290 Anke von Kügelgen
despite their belief that the prophets have come up with the truth, are
also accused of heresy (ilḥād),^153 not least because of his conviction
that a distortion of some parts of the revelation leads to a distortion
of the whole.^154 Although Ibn Taymiyya rejects most of their theories,
his judgment about them is, generally, slightly milder than his verdict
on the theories of “the people of delusion and suggestion” (I.1).^155 He
characterizes the theories of the latter, i. e., of the falāsifa, the Ismāʿīlīs,
the theosophists (mainly the ishrāqī philosophers), and the intellec-
tualistic mystics (mainly the “pantheists”) as even less reasonable and
more inconsistent.^156 So, for instance, he vehemently denies that God
created the intellect as the first and noblest creature,^157 a conception
that was transmitted as a saying of the prophet Muhammad and was
widely acknowledged in mystical and theosophical circles.^158 No less
harsh is his rebuttal of Neoplatonic and Peripatetic notions of supra-
lunar intellects (see chapter 11c) and the philosophical concepts of
human reason. Some of Ibn Taymiyya’s main arguments against the
latter will be considered in the next chapters that deal with his own
concepts of perception and cognition.
(Darʾ taʿāruḍ al-ʿaql, vol. 8, pp. 216–219; vol. 9, pp. 82–84; for a short analysis,
see von Kügelgen, Dialogpartner, pp. 470–472).
153 Ibn Taymiyya, Darʾ taʿāruḍ al-ʿaql, vol. 5, p. 363; vol. 10, p. 270.
154 Ibid., vol. 1, pp. 134–137, 177–178.
155 Ibid., vol. 3, pp. 425, 431, 437; vol. 9, pp. 70–71, 334, 371–373; vol. 10, pp. 223,
228–229 et passim.
156 Ibid., vol. 3, pp. 417–418, 431; vol 9, pp. 111, 354–355; vol. 10, pp. 223, 228–229
et passim.
157 Ibn Taymiyya, al-Radd, pp. 275–278; Ibn Taymiyya: Kitāb Tafsīr sūrat
al-ikhlāṣ, ed. by al-Sayyid Muḥammad Badr al-Dīn al-Naʿsānī al-Ḥalabī, Cai-
ro 1323/1905, pp. 58–59; see al-Alousī corrects Goldziher’s presentation of Ibn
Taymiyya’s view (The Problem of Creation, p. 71).
158 Goldziher, Ignaz: Neuplatonische und gnostische Elemente im Ḥadīt, in:
Joseph Desomogyi (ed.): Gesammelte Schriften, Hildesheim 1970 (reprint),
vol. 5, pp. 108–114; al-Alousī mentions further possible sources for the
Hadith and more instances where it is quoted (The Problem of Creation,
pp. 69–73). For instance, it is cited and extensively commented upon by
ʿUmar al-Suhrawardī in his refutation of the philosophers Kashf al-faḍāʾiḥ
al-yūnāniyya wa-rashf al-naṣāʾiḥ al-īmāniyya (p. 162–168; Hartmann, Ange-
lika: Kosmogonie und Seelenlehre bei ʿUmar as-Suhrawardī (st. 632/1234),
in: Dieter Bellmann (ed.): Gedenkschrift Wolfgang Reuschel, Akten des III.
Arabistischen Kolloquiums, Leipzig, 21.-22. November 1991, Stuttgart 1994,
pp. 139–151; she hints to further treatments of the subject: idem, Eine ortho-
doxe Polemik, pp. 286–287).
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