Against Islamic Universalism 397
period of Ibn al-Qayyim’s life along with Ṭarīq al-hijratayn, and Zād
al-maʿād, which she says is most likely his last work.^67
As I noted above, both Zād al-maʿād and Ṭarīq al-hijratayn display
much stronger support for the eternity of the Fire than al-Ḥarbī rec-
ognizes. Now, if indeed Zād al-maʿād is Ibn al-Qayyim’s last work
and if perhaps Ṭarīq al-hijratayn and al-Wābil al-ṣayyib are later than
Shifāʾ al-ʿalīl and al-Ṣawāʿiq al-mursala, it appears that Ibn al-Qayyim
thought better of his earlier deliberations on the Fire and retreated
to simple affirmation of the Fire’s eternity. Contextual factors lend
further plausibility to this scenario. In 1345 Taqī al-Dīn al-Subkī
(d. 756/1355), the Shāfiʿī chief judge in Damascus, attacked Ibn al-
Qayyim over the latter’s views on the legalities of horse races, and Ibn
al-Qayyim had to acquiesce to al-Subkī’s views. The two had another
disagreement later on, apparently over divorce procedures, and had
to be publicly reconciled in 1349.^68 Additionally, in 1348, Taqī al-Dīn
al-Subkī wrote a refutation of Fanāʾ al-nār, which forcefully sets aside
Ibn Taymiyya’s arguments for the passing away of the Fire as unbelief
(kufr).^69 It is certainly conceivable that al-Subkī composed his treatise
in response to Ibn al-Qayyim’s use of Fanāʾ al-nār and its arguments in
Ḥādī al-arwāḥ, Shifāʾ al-ʿalīl, and al-Ṣawāʿiq al-mursala. It is also plau-
sible that Ibn al-Qayyim stopped arguing – in writing at least – against
the eternity of the Fire to ward off al-Subkī’s charge of unbelief.
We are now in position to sum up what seems to have happened.
Inspired by Ibn Taymiyya’s Fanāʾ al-nār, Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya
greatly elaborated arguments for the limited duration of Hell-Fire in
Ḥādī al-arwāḥ apparently around 1345, and then a bit later in Shifāʾ
67 According to Bell, Love Theory, p. 103, Ibn al-Qayyim’s major work on moral-
ity and spirituality Madārij al-sālikīn is also very late and includes references to
al-Ṣawāʿiq al-mursala and Ṭarīq al-hijratayn. Additionally, Madārij al-sālikīn,
ed. by ʿImād ʿĀṣ, Cairo 1416/1996, vol. 2, p. 404 (in the section on dhikr), men-
tions al-Wābil al-ṣayyib. I am grateful to Gino Schallenbergh for this reference.
Holtzman, Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, p. 217, explains that Zād al-maʿād is like-
ly Ibn al-Qayyim’s last work because it is the only work to mention the very
late Madārij al-sālikīn. I also explain in my earlier work, Islamic Universalism,
why Shifāʾ al-ʿalīl and al-Ṣawāʿiq al-mursala come after Ḥādī al-arwāḥ.
68 These events are given in more detail in Laoust, Henri: Ibn Ḳ ayyim al-Djawziy-
ya, in: EI^2 , vol. 3 (1986), pp. 821–822, and Holtzman, Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah,
pp. 220–221.
69 Al-Subkī, al-Iʿtibār bi-baqāʾ al-janna wal-nār. Al-Subkī provides the date of
writing in his text as Dhū al-Ḥijja 748/1348 (p. 90). For further discussion of
this work, see Hoover, Islamic Universalism.
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