Ibn Taymiyya’s Worldview and the Challenge of Modernity 503
existence of an intercessor. This hints at that with [the word] istiwāʾ
a notion is intended which comes close to “steering” as ʿIzz al-Dīn
al-Miṣrī [i. e. ʿIzz al-Dīn b. ʿAbd al-Salām]^36 writes in his book Ishārat
al-iʿjāz ilā baʿḍ al-anwāʿ al-majāz: “The 16th metaphor is istiwāʾ. It is a
metaphor for his accession to power (istīlāʾ ʿalā ḥukmihi) and its exer-
cise, to speak with the poet: istawāʾ Bishrun ʿalā al-ʿIrāqī bi-ghayri say-
fin wa-damin muhraq [Bishr gained power of the Iraq without sword
or bloodshed]. It is an equation (tamthīl) because the kings govern their
realm sitting on the throne.^37Several members of the Ghaznawī family mobilized scholars from
the Punjab in order to force Thanāʾ Allāh to recant. In addition to his
stance with regard to the issue of istīwāʾ they reproached him with
diverging from the exegetical path of the salaf in 40 cases where he
interpreted a verse without referring to a respective Hadith or a say-
ing of a companion.^38 In some of the cases Thanāʾ Allāh did not affirm
a miracle which the wording of the Koran suggests. Instead he pro-
posed a “natural” interpretation as in the case of (2:260) where Ibrāhīm
according to Thanāʾ Allāh called four living birds placed on four hills
to come to him and not the 16 pieces of four dead birds in order to
prove that the resurrection is possible.^39 In other cases he did not affirm
miracles which were not explicitly mentioned in the verse itself but in
certain exegetical traditions, as in the case of Maryam in her seclusion
(3:37) who answered to the question from where she had received food
min ʿinda Allāh which is often understood as “the fruits of summer in
winter and the fruits of winter in summer”. For Thanāʾ Allāh this sim-
ply represents a statement of Maryam’s gratefulness to God for receiv-
36 Hirschler, Konrad: Pre-Eighteenth Century Traditions of Revivalism. Damas-
cus in the Thirteenth Century, in: Bulletin of the School for Oriental and African
Studies 68 (2005), pp. 195–214.
37 Amritsarī, Thanāʾ Allāh: Tafsīr al-Qurʾān bi-kalām al-Raḥmān, Amritsar 1902
(1st ed.), p. 149, l. 10–13 and n. 1.
38 Ghaznawī, ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq: Kitāb al-Arbaʿīn fī anna Thanāʾ Allāh laysa ʿalā
madh hab al-muḥaddithīn fī al-dīn bal ʿalā madhhab al-jahmiyya wal-muʿtazila
wal-qadariyya al-muḥarrifīn, Amritsar n. d.
39 Amritsarī, Thanāʾ Allāh: Tafsīr al-Qurʾān bi-kalām al-Raḥmān, Amrit-
sar 1348/1929 (2nd ed.), p. 44, ll. 21–23; idem: Tafsīr-i Thanāʾi, Amritsar
1348/1929, vol. 1, p. 172, n. 1. He argues that the uncommon verb ṣāra/
yaṣūru (fa-ṣurhunna) has to be understood as “to team” (Ur. jhāknā) not as
“to slaughter”, and juzʾan minhum as “each one of them”. In this case he is
notably at odds even with al-Rāzī, Fakhr al-Dīn: al-Tafsīr al-kabīr, Cairo
n. d., vol. 7, p. 41, ll. -5-p. 42.
Brought to you by | Nanyang Technological University
Authenticated