378 Jon Hoover
Ibn al-Qayyim provides a similar treatment in Shifāʾ al-ʿalīl (Healing
of the Sick) that is less beholden to the structure and wording of Fanāʾ
al-nār, suggesting that it is later than Ḥādī al-arwāḥ.^4 Rather unexpect-
edly, the discussions in both Ḥādī al-arwāḥ and Shifāʾ end with Ibn
al-Qayyim backing away from the force of his arguments and leaving
the duration of the Fire to God’s will. Ibn al-Qayyim also gives much
attention to this topic in al-Ṣawāʿiq al-mursala (The Thunderbolts Sent
Out).^5 The second half of this work has not been found, but we know
that the second half includes a long deliberation on the duration of the
Fire from the abridgement of the whole Mukhtaṣar al-Ṣawāʿiq.^6 Here,
Ibn al-Qayyim no longer withholds judgment on the duration of the
Fire but argues that chastisement in the Fire will indeed pass away even
for unbelievers and associators. There is little question that all three of
these works come from Ibn Qayyim al-Jaw ziyya’s mature years before
his death in 751/1350. Ḥādī al-arwāḥ, which appears to be the earliest
of the three, may date to 745/1344–1345.^7
My earlier study examines only those explicit deliberations on the
duration of the Fire located in Ibn Taymiyya’s and Ibn al-Qayyim’s
writings by previous scholars. It does not canvas the full range of their
vast oeuvres in order to attempt a definitive assessment of their posi-
tions. Nonetheless, the evidence might be thought sufficient to report
that Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn al-Qayyim believe that the Fire will pass
away. This is indeed the conclusion that many scholars have drawn,
sometimes on the basis of Ibn al-Qayyim’s Ḥādī al-arwāḥ alone.^8
4 Idem: Shifāʾ al-ʿalīl fī masāʾil al-qaḍāʾ wal-qadar wal-ḥikma wal-taʿlīl, ed. by al-
Sayyid Muḥammad al-Sayyid and Saʿīd Maḥmūd, Cairo 1414/1994, pp. 540–565
(in chapter 22, part way into aspect (wajh) 36).
5 Idem: Kitāb al-Ṣawāʿiq al-mursala ʿalā al-jahmiyya wal-muʿaṭṭila, ed. by ʿAlī b.
Muḥammad al-Dakhīl Allāh, Riyadh 1408/1987–1988.
6 Idem: Mukhtaṣar al-Ṣawāʿiq al-mursala ʿalā al-jahmiyya wal-muʿaṭṭila, abridge-
ment (ikhtiṣār) by Muḥammad b. al-Mawṣilī, ed. by al-Ḥasan b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān
al-ʿAlawī, Riyadh 1425/2004, pp. 642–685, pdf online: http://www.archive.org/
details/muktsr_swaik_mursla, accessed December 18, 2012.
7 A marking on a manuscript of Ḥādī al-arwāḥ (ms. 6/2) found in the collection of
the Mosul Library of Public Endowments indicates that Ibn al-Qayyim finished
his book in 745 A. H. See Aḥmad, Sālim ʿAbd al-Razzāq: Fihris makhṭūṭāt mak-
tabat al-awqāf al-ʿāmma fī al-Mawṣil, Baghdad 1982–1983, vol. 2, p. 31.
8 Relying solely on Ḥādī al-arwāḥ, the following attribute the passing away of
the Fire to Ibn al-Qayyim: el-Ṣāleḥ, Ṣoubḥī: La vie future selon le Coran, Paris
1971, pp. 56–60; Idleman Smith, Jane and Yazbeck Haddad, Yvonne: The Islamic
Understanding of Death and Resurrection, Albany 1981, p. 94; and Abrahamov,
Binyamin: The Creation and Duration of Paradise and Hell in Islamic Theol-
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