Law and Order According to Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya 421
further runs.^91 One main difference stands between Ibn Taymiyya and
Ibn al-Qayyim. If Ibn Taymiyya focuses more on what is to be done to
correct errors, Ibn al-Qayyim was preoccupied rather with the ways to
do it (ṭuruq, sg. ṭarīq). Thus, in al-Ṭuruq al-ḥukmiyya he mainly dis-
cussed the methods that allow judges to impose a moral order within
the community.^92 In addition, Ibn Taymiyya did not deal with ḥisba,
probably because his main addressee was a high governor who might
not have been interested in questions of market control. Conversely,
Ibn al-Qayyim, writing on the judicial field, felt the necessity to treat,
even if at a limited scale, an institution that resolves conflicts.
In the final analysis, Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn al-Qayyim do not offer
an Islamic model of governing. Assuredly, at points they deal with
some political concerns for modern Islamic political thought, but the
framework is entirely different. They did not attempt to prove the
existence of an Islamic political theory in opposition to the political
practice of the Mamluks. At best, in calling for a siyāsa sharʿiyya as a
coercive policy or a set of coercive judicial measures, they advanced
a harsh moral criticism of the public order. It is a sort of extension of
a judge’s or a governor’s power on the one hand and a legitimation
of this power on the other hand. Consequently, the widely accepted
interpretation of siyāsa sharʿiyya as “governance in accordance with
the sharīʿa” does not seem to adequately render the social and politi-
cal ideas of Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn al-Qayyim. In addition, I showed
that the ultimate objective of siyāsa sharʿiyya is to make the commu-
nity respect the rules of Sharia. My conclusion is that despite the nega-
tive ideological inflation that surrounds their writings, the works of
Ibn al-Qayyim and Ibn Taymiyya are scientifically important for our
understanding of the Sunni authority concept and deserve much of the
interest in them increasing today. At any rate, we should review their
legacy in a way that includes the conservative and moralistic character
of their approach.
91 Compare n. 1.
92 Compare n. 2.
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