The Nature of the Human and the Account of Divine Succession in Ibn Taymīyyah’s View

Ibn Taymīyyah can be characterized as the intellectual father of Salafis. Thus, his views, particularly those about the nature of the human and the problem of the human divine succession (khilāfa) is of great importance. He appeals to the Quran and hadiths to show that the human consists of a spirit and a body, the main part being the spirit as a self-standing, incipient (ḥādith), and created entity. Ibn Tamīyyah, as an exteriorist in epistemology and sensationalist in ontology, attacks philosophers, logicians and mystics, as well as their principles. He has a fully materialist and earthly view of the human. In his work, the human is considered as a full-blown earthly entity who has no power to affect or manipulate this world. Moreover, since he rejects any similarity between divine and human attributes in order to protect Lordship monotheism (al-tawḥīd al-rubūbī), he cannot accept the human succession of God. His view of the human gives rise to other views and fatwas of his. In his view, it is not only impermissible, but polytheistic and at odds with worship monotheism (al-tawḥīd al-‘ibādī), to visit mausoleums and make recourse to righteous people. Deploying the library method with an analytic-descriptive approach, we have in this research drawn upon Ibn Taymīyyah’s writings to answer two questions: what is the human nature and reality in Ibn Taymīyyah’s view? And given his view of the human nature, how does he account for the human succession of God?