434 Dominik Schlosser
refers to current or recent events or a concrete situation. Ibn al-Qay-
yim’s treatment of Christianity is not without historical references – he
offers an outline of the historical development of Christianity extend-
ing as far as the year 691–982 A. D. and refers to the early period of
Islam – but beyond that, the Hidāyat al-ḥayārā presents no recogniz-
able references to historical events, so that the criticism it expresses
of Christianity is in a certain way timeless. If one views the Hidāyat
al-ḥayārā’s depiction of Christianity in this light, one must suspect that
Ibn al-Qayyim’s writing on the “Guidance of the Confused in Answer-
ing the Jews and Christians” does not reflect a current discussion, but
belongs in the category of literary debates with Christianity. Not least
for this reason, the question arises whether the condemnation of the
Christian religion is only the primary goal of the Hidāyat al-ḥayārā
and whether it also and equally functions as a self-referential opera-
tion of a system in Luhmann’s sense. In other words: Ibn al-Qayyim’s
criticism of Christians not only had the function of disqualifying them,
but also aimed to use the negative example of the ahl al-kitāb to point
out to Muslims teachings and religious practices that had found favor
within the Muslim community, but that he regarded as incompatible
with correct Islamic belief; to warn fellow Muslims against assimilat-
ing to Christian practice, and implicitly to demonstrate to them the
supremacy of their own religious confession, provided it was the “true”
form of Islam as Ibn al-Qayyim saw it. The multiple references to the
religious disparity among Christians,^53 which Ibn al-Qayyim stylizes
as the epitome of Christianity,^54 the tradition he cites with the accusa-
tion that both Jews and Christians had used the graves of their proph-
ets as prayer sites,^55 his criticism of the Jahmiyya’s, i. e., especially the
Ashʿarīs’ conception of God, which he rejects as being in the same line
as Christian ideas of God,^56 his catalog of the essential divine attributes
(ṣifāt Allāh),^57 his remark that God knew how to prevent any falsifica-
and its adherents; he provides the example of an incident that allegedly happened
during the rule of Sultan al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ Ayyūb (ruling 638–647/1240–1249).
This may be the passage that Jean-Maurice Fiey had in mind when, without
citing evidence, he attributes to Ibn al-Qayyim “the accusation(s) [...] of active
collusion of the Christians with the Crusader enemy”; see Fiey, Jean-Maurice:
Naṣārā, in: EI^2 , vol. 7 (1993), pp. 970–973, here p. 972.
53 Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Hidāyat al-ḥayārā, pp. 533, 574–575.
54 Ibid., p. 533.
55 Ibid., p. 574. See Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, Kitāb al-Masājid wa-mawāḍiʿ al-ṣalāt, no. 530.
56 Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Hidāyat al-ḥayārā, pp. 220, 343.
57 Ibid., pp. 522–525.
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