ii. It is a clear contradiction of ibn Taymiyyah’s way concerning the Attributes of Allaah. Ibn Taymiyyah clearly states the forbiddance of likening Allaah to His creation: "It is a must to affirm that which Allaah affirms for Himself, whilst negating any likeness to Him with His creation." (at-Tadmuriyyah, p.20, of ibn Taymiyyah).

iii. Ibn Taymiyyah has also said: "Whoever considers the Attributes of Allaah to be like the attributes of the creation, such that the Istawaa of Allaah is like the ascending of the creation, or His Descending (Nuzool) is like the descending of the creation or other than that, then he is a deviated innovator." (ibn Taymiyyah, Majmoo’ al-Fataawaa 5/262).

iv. Ibn Taymiyyah has a separate book concerning the hadeeth of Allaah’s Descending - Sharh Hadeeth an-Nuzool - and in it there is no trace of the anthropomorphic beliefs which Kabbani and others have falsely accused him of.

v. It is not possible that ibn Batootah witnessed ibn Taymiyyah deliver this speech since ibn Batootah states in his Rihlah (1/102) that he entered Damascus on the 9th of Ramadhan in the year 728H. However, ibn Taymiyyah was in prison at this time as ibn Katheer states in al-Bidaayah wan-Nihaayah (14/135) that he was imprisoned on 6th Sha’baan 728H and remained there until his death on 20th Dhul-Qa’dah 728H.

vi. Ibn Batootah did not write the book Rihlah with his own hand, rather it was collected by Muhammad bin Jazee al-Kalbee who writes in the introduction: "I have quoted the meaning of the words of Shaykh Abu Abdullaah (ibn Batootah) with words that give the meaning of what he intended."

The author of the infamous Al-Albani Unveiled deemed it necessary to say (pp. 112-113):

"Even if one was to denounce Ibn Battuta’s account as being a false and fabricated statement, one may wish to know that the greatest scholar of Hadith in his time, Shaykh al-Islam al-Hafiz Ahmad ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (Rahimahullah) has reported an incident in al-Durar al-kamina (1, 164) where again ibn Taymiyyah descended the steps of the minbar in order to illustrate his understanding of how Allah descends (nuzul) as early as the year 705/1305 AH (some 21 years before Ibn Battuta’s account). Hafiz Ibn Hajar’s source for this incident was one of Ibn Taymiyya’s own disciples by the name of Sulayman Najm al-Din al-Tufi al-Hanbali (d.716/1316)."

These words of al-Tufi al-Hanbali are also repeated by Kabbani (p.96).

However, it is clear from what al-Tufi says (i.e. "... they mentioned that he had cited the hadith of Allah’s descent...") that he is merely relaying what others have said, not that he is necessarily agreeing with the correctness of the accusation.

Incidentally, the author of Al-Albani Unveiled believes that the event referred to by al-Tufi took place 21 years before ibn Batootah’s account whereas Kabbani seems to think that it is a report of one and the same event!

THE SCHOLARS AGREE ON THE CORRECTNESS OF IBN TAYMIYYAH’S WORKS

After all this, it comes as no surprise that those who argued with ibn Taymiyyah about the contents of his books found that indeed his beliefs where exactly those held by the Salaf of this Ummah. Ibn Katheer writes that when the scholars of his time gathered for a sitting with ibn Taymiyyah to discuss his work al-Aqeedah al-Hamawiyyah that ibn Taymiyyah’s replies to their accusations were not able to be rebutted (al-Bidaayah wan Nihaayah, 14/5). And likewise he mentioned that when the scholars sat to argue with him regarding his Aqeedah al-Waasitiyyah the argument ended with them accepting all that was contained in the book (Vol. 14 of al-Bidaayah under the heading 'Aqd al-Majaalis ath-Thalaatha').

KABBANI’S UNFOUNDED ALLEGATIONS AGAINST IBN TAYMIYYAH CONTINUE

Nevertheless, the allegations continue. Kabbani lists (via al-Haytami / Taj al-Din al-Subki) eleven cases wherein ibn Taymiyyah has supposedly violated scholarly consensus (pp. 101-103). The author of Al-Albani Unveiled (again via as-Subki) mentions twenty-two examples (pp. 114-116). It is not intended to look at the accuracy or otherwise of any of these assertions (with the exception of one below), this will be dealt with elsewhere if Allaah wills. However, it is fitting to mention what Kabbani quotes at the end of his list of allegations:

"Some said: ‘whoever looks at his (ibn Taymiyyah’s) books does not attribute to him most of these positions..." and in Al-Albani Unveiled it reads: "Some scholars said that most of the above quoted statements did not belong to ibn Taymiyya..."