456 Dominik Schlosser
Concluding Remarks
At the beginning of the present study, medieval Muslim anti-Christian
polemic writings were examined from the standpoint of system-envi-
ronment difference, resulting in the insight that two fundamental ten-
dencies are inherent in this genre: on the one hand, the interpretation
and evaluation of Christianity within the Islamic intellectual frame-
work – a framework composed of, among other things, Koranic prem-
ises and the valuations arrived at by the respective predecessors in the
field of Muslim anti-Christian polemics; and on the other hand, the
use of the other religious system as a foil against whose background
the superiority of one’s own religious faith was more or less explicitly
highlighted. Further, it was postulated at the beginning that Ibn al-
Qayyim’s Hidāyat al-ḥayārā is no exception to this and that these two
tendencies find flagrant expression in it. Now, in all brevity, this claim
will be proven. The first of the two tendencies is effective in Ibn al-
Qayyim’s interpretation of Christianity, an interpretation that is based
in turn on the idea the Hidāyat al-ḥayārā develops of the history of
the revelation of God. According to the Hidāyat al-ḥayārā, in order
to lead humanity, which has remained in the darkness of ignorance
since its creation, into the “light of knowledge, of wisdom, of belief,
and of right divine guidance” (nūr al-ʿilm wal-maʿrifa wal-īmān wal-
hudā) and thereby to help it attain blessedness (saʿāda),^173 in the past
God has repeatedly sent prophets to the earth, who proclaimed to the
individual peoples^174 one and the same religion, that is: Islam.^175 Not
surprisingly, Ibn al-Qayyim’s viewpoint also comprises the notion that
Muḥammad is one of a chain of prophets that includes Jesus and that,
on the one hand, Muḥammad confirms the annunciations of his prede-
cessors in the office of prophet^176 as “seal of the prophets and envoys”
(khātim al-anbiyāʾ wal-rusul) and, on the other hand, he has received
the concluding divine revelation and promulgated the Islamic religion
in its final form.^177 Ibn al-Qayyim further propounds the view that
Muḥammad’s status as prophet is distinguished from that of the other
messengers of God in that the divine revelation to Muḥammad is uni-
versal in character. In contrast to the preceding prophets (for example,
173 Ibid., pp. 591–592.
174 Ibid., p. 381.
175 Ibid., p. 425.
176 Ibid., p. 577.
177 Ibid., p. 330; see also p. 424.
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