388 Jon Hoover
possibility of an infinite series. The limited duration of the Fire may be
argued by other means, as will become clearer below.
The remaining two texts do affirm the eternity of the Fire plainly
but very briefly. In the first, Ibn Taymiyya is asked to comment on
the tradition, “Seven things will neither die, nor pass away, nor taste
passing away: the Fire, its residents, the Tablet, the Pen, the Footstool,
and the Throne.” He responds in a short fatwa that this tradition does
not come from the Prophet but from some scholars. Nonetheless, he
affirms its content: “The Salaf of the nation, its Imams, and the rest of
the People of the Sunna and the Community hold that some created
things will not go out of existence and will not pass away entirely, like
the Garden, the Fire, the Throne and so forth.” Ibn Taymiyya then
condemns Jahm and like-minded Muʿtazilīs who say that all created
things will pass away.^39
The second passage comes from Ibn Taymiyya’s Bayān talbīs al-
jahmiyya, a work that dates to his stay in Egypt from 705/1306 to
712/1313. While discussing God’s creation of the world, Ibn Taymiyya
states, “[God] has informed that the Garden and the Fire will remain
absolutely (baqāʾan muṭlaqan).” This affirmation of the Fire’s perpetu-
ity could not be stronger, but Ibn Taymiyya does not elaborate further.^40
From these sundry texts, al-Ḥarbī concludes that Ibn Taymiyya
definitely adheres to the eternity of the Fire and thereby agrees with
the consensus of the salaf and the entire Muslim community. It is thus
entirely inappropriate, according to al-Ḥarbī, to speak of this great
rejuvenator of the Islamic faith believing that the Fire will pass away.^41
Al-Ḥarbī’s evidence for Ibn Taymiyya’s belief in the eternity of
the Fire is meagre, but it might carry the day were it not for impor-
39 Al-Ḥarbī, Kashf al-astār, p. 66; Ibn Taymiyya: Majmūʿ Fatāwā shaykh al-islām
Aḥmad b. Taymiyya, ed. by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad b. Qāsim and
Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad, Cairo n. d., vol. 18, p. 307. Nei-
ther al-Ḥarbī nor Ibn Taymiyya comment on the fact that only six items are
listed in the tradition prompting the fatwa.
40 Al-Ḥarbī, Kashf al-astār, p. 66; Ibn Taymiyya: Bayān talbīs al-jahmiyya fī taʾsīs
bidaʿihim al-kalāmiyya aw Naqḍ Taʾsīs al-jahmiyya, ed. by Muḥammad b. ʿAbd
al-Raḥmān b. Qāsim, n. p. n. d., vol. 1, p. 157. The editor adds a footnote to the
effect that this counters those who charge Ibn Taymiyya with saying that the
Fire will pass away. Ibn Rajab, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Aḥmad: Kitāb al-Dhayl ʿalā
ṭabaqāt al-ḥanābila, ed. by Muḥammad Ḥāmid al-Fiqī, Cairo 1372/1953, part
2, p. 403, lists this among the works that Ibn Taymiyya wrote during his seven
years in Egypt.
41 Al-Ḥarbī, Kashf al-astār, pp. 59, 69–71.
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