Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya’s Attitude Toward Christianity 447
3.3. MariologyIbn al-Qayyim not only treats Christian doctrine and Christology
primarily in terms of the violation of the profession of God’s abso-
lute unity through the practice of shirk, he also discusses Christian
Mariological views primarily from this viewpoint. But the Hidāyat
al-ḥayārā’s treatment of Christian Mariology is much less extensive
and much shallower than its critical examination of the doctrine of
Jesus’ divinity.
Ibn al-Qayyim’s depiction creates the impression that the Christians
were fairly united in their doctrinal views of Mary. He maintains that
they profess that Mary, chosen by God from among all other women,
became pregnant with a son, Jesus, and gave birth to him.^128 Along
with these teachings, Ibn al-Qayyim accuses the Christians of rais-
ing Mary above the angels and envoys and, above all, of worshipping
her. He implicitly condemns the latter practice as an attack on God’s
omnipotence by pointing out that the Christians’ prayers to Mary for
livelihood (rizq), well-being (ʿāfiya), and the forgiveness of sin should
be addressed exclusively to God.^129 As a proponent of the idea of
God’s absolute transcendence, Ibn al-Qayyim decidedly negates what
he presents as the Christian consensus of Mariological convictions,
including the accompanying veneration of Mary. It and the Christian
view of God are reason enough for him to accuse them not only of
reviling God and having another deity beside him, but also, in the same
breath, of unbelief (kufr).^130
3.4. Christian Religious PracticesIbn al-Qayyim’s standpoint toward Christian religious practices is that
a judicious person (al-ʿāqil) who compares the doctrines, ritual duties
(furūʿ) and legal ordinances (sharāʾiʿ) of the Christians with those of
Islam could ultimately come only to the conclusion that the Chris-
tian clergy, and even more so the great mass of common believers, had
preferred deviation from the proper path to right divine guidance and
had adopted the falsest and most disgraceful of doctrines (ʿaqāʾid) and
128 Ibid., p. 481.
129 Ibid.
130 Ibid., p. 482.
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