Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya’s Manipulation of Sufi Terms 95
his disciple Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya Henri Laoust said already earlier
that he was “profondement nourri de soufisme”.^2 Some comments by
Ibn al-Qayyim’s contemporaries seem to confirm that impression. Ibn
Rajab said that he had knowledge of the terminology of the Sufis (ʿilm
al-sulūk wa-kalām ahl al-taṣawwuf wa-ishārātihim wa-daqāʾiqihim).^3
We are informed by Ibn al-Ḥajar that “he felt longings and affection for
Sufism, not in the way of the radicalising Sufis, but in the way of the pious
forefathers” (lā ʿalā manhaj al-mutaṣawwifa al-ghulāt bal ʿalā ṭarīq al-
salaf al-ṣāliḥ).^4 Conspicuous demonstrations of spiritual emotion in his
behaviour seem to plead in favour of his Sufi inclinations. Ibn Kathīr not-
ed that he had a special way in praying which he stretched over a longer
period of time than what was usual, although his own partisans had mis-
givings about this practice and even criticised him openly. Ibn al-Ḥajar
speaks of his prolonged prayer and dhikr.^5 In the chapter on annihilation
(fanāʾ) in the Madārij al-sālikīn he justifies this way of praying confiding
that anyone who is steadfast in his worship does not like to end his prayer
(Idhā dakhala fī al-ṣalāt wadda an lā yakhruja minhā).^6
Two works by Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya were often presented as
authentic Sufi works: the Ṭarīq al-hijratayn (The Path of the Two
Migrations) and the Madārij al-sālikīn fī manāzil iyyāka naʿbudu wa
iyyāka nastaʿīn (The Ranks of the Wayfarer Between the Abodes “you
do we worship” and “you do we call for help”).^7 In his monograph on
Ecstasy. Sufi Terminology in the Work of Ibn Qayyim al-Djawzīya, in: Urban
Vermeulen and Jo van Steenbergen (eds.): Proceedings of the 6th, 7th and 8th
Colloquium on the History of Egypt and Syria in the Fatimid, Ayyubid and
Mamluk Eras, Leuven 2005, pp. 459–474.
2 Laoust, Henri: Les schismes dans l’islam. Introduction à une étude de la religion
musulmane, Paris 1965, p. 273. For the most up-to-date biographical information
on Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya see Krawietz, Birgit: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah. His
Life and Works, in: Mamlūk Studies Review 10 (2006), pp. 19–64, and Holtzman,
Livnat: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, in: Devin Stewart and Joseph Lowry (eds.):
Arabic Literary Biographies, Wiesbaden 2007, pp. 201–222.
3 Quoted in Krawietz, Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīyah, p. 22.
4 Ibid., p. 26. The translation of the two quotations is equally adopted from Birgit
Krawietz’ translation.
5 Ibn Kathīr, Aḥmad al-Dīn Ismāʾīl: al-Bidāya wal-nihāya, Cairo 1939, vol. 14,
pp. 234–235; and Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī: al-Durar al-kāmina fī aʿyān al-miʾa
al-thāmina, ed. by M. S. Jād al-Ḥaqq, Cairo 1966, vol. 4, p. 21.
6 Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad: Madārij al-sālikīn fī
manāzil iyyāka naʿbudu wa-iyyāka nastaʿīn, Beirut n. d., vol. 3, p. 396.
7 Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad: Ṭarīq al-hijratayn wa-bāb
al-saʿādatayn, Cairo n. d., and Ibn al-Qayyim, Madārij al-sālikīn. The text we
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