Ibn Taymiyyah Against Ibn Taymiyyah: Contradictory Measures

One of the important features of many of Ibn Taymiyyah’s works is their polemical nature, that is, he composed these works in the form of intense theological or jurisprudential polemics against his opponents. In these disputes, Ibn Taymiyyah has used arguments to defeat his opponents. This research aims to show that these arguments of Ibn Taymiyyah can sometimes turn into measures against himself and challenge some of his own most basic intellectual foundations. Our research method in this article is such that we follow a pattern of comparative study in Ibn Taymiyyah’s works and examine four examples of his polemical arguments against his opponents: arguing with Christians over their oral tradition arguing with Sunni jurists on the subject and instances of consensus, the issue of criticism and praise (jarḥ wa taʿdīl) of Abū Ḥanīfah, and finally the punishment of heretics. In the end, as research findings, we will show the contradictions in some of the issues Ibn Taymiyyah has argued over.