390 Jon Hoover
beyond serious doubt.^46 Writing in 1990, al-Ḥarbī did not have access
to this, but it is the same work from which al-Albānī quotes.
Ibn Taymiyya’s Fanāʾ al-nār does three things. First, it refutes the
view of Jahm b. Ṣafwān that both the Garden and the Fire will pass
away and the view of Abū al-Hudhayl b. ʿAllāf that motion in the Gar-
den and the Fire will come to a halt even though both remain forever.
As indicated above, Jahm and Abū al-Hudhayl adopt these positions
because they deny the possibility of an infinite series of events.^47 It is
important to note that Ibn Taymiyya here denies that both the Garden
and the Fire will pass away. However, this does not preclude the Fire
alone passing away, which is what Ibn Taymiyya goes on to argue.
Al-Ḥarbī fails to make this distinction, and he erroneously takes Ibn
Taymiyya’s many condemnations of Jahm to prove that Ibn Taymiyya
affirms the eternity of the Fire. Second, Fanāʾ al-nār outlines and then
dismisses mainstream Sunni arguments for the eternity of the Fire.
These include arguments from the Koran and the consensus (ijmāʿ)
of the community.^48 Third, Fanāʾ al-nār argues that the Koran and
its interpretation by the salaf, that is, the early Muslims, do not sup-
port the eternity of the Fire. On the contrary, God’s mercy and wise
purpose in creation preclude punishing anyone forever. Although Ibn
Taymiyya does not say clearly in Fanāʾ al-nār that the Fire will pass
away, he leaves little doubt that he favours this view.^49
The pages of Fanāʾ al-nār that al-Albānī quotes include Ibn
Taymiyya’s key arguments for an end to chastisement in the Fire.^50
Perhaps al-Ḥarbī can be excused for dismissing these pages because
they were incomplete. Now, however, with the full Fanāʾ al-nār avail-
able and our knowledge that it was the last treatise Ibn Taymiyya
wrote, it is apparent that al-Ḥarbī’s attempt to demonstrate his belief
in the eternity of the Fire fails. Even though Ibn Taymiyya very briefly
affirmed the eternity of the Fire in a few earlier writings, it appears that
he worked through the implications of his theology of God’s mercy
46 Al-Samharī, the editor of Ibn Taymiyya’s Fanāʾ al-nār, discusses its authenticity
on pp. 12–16.
47 Ibn Taymiyya, Fanāʾ al-nār, pp. 42–52.
48 Ibid., pp. 71–79.
49 Ibid., pp. 52–70, 80–83.
50 Al-Albānī quotes these pages in his introduction to Ṣanʿānī, Rafʿ al-astār,
pp. 9–14, and includes photographs of the source manuscript on pp. 53–55.
Al-Albānī’s printed text corresponds to al-Samharī’s edition of Fanāʾ al-nār,
pp. 52–57 and 80–83.
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