Christianity is an Innovated Religion: Ibn Taymiyya (2021-11-20) ​

0:00:00 ibn tamir was one of the most prominent
0:00:03 and controversial scholars of medieval
0:00:06 islam
0:00:08 and judging by some of the comments in
0:00:10 the couple of previous videos i've made
0:00:12 about iben tamir he remains an extremely
0:00:15 controversial figure today
0:00:18 this is the last video i intend to make
0:00:20 about ibn tamir and in this video i want
0:00:24 to focus on his views about christianity
0:00:27 as an innovated religion
0:00:30 and as usual i'll be drawing on some
0:00:32 remarks from this book iben tamiya by
0:00:34 professor john hoover who is one of the
0:00:37 world's leading experts on the life and
0:00:39 thought of iben tamiya
0:00:42 and on page 135 he writes in a section
0:00:46 entitled christianity and object lesson
0:00:49 in innovated religion
0:00:52 it begins however it was first
0:00:55 established ibn tamir maintains that the
0:00:58 prophetic tradition confirmed and sealed
0:01:01 by the prophet muhammad
0:01:03 is revealed rational and definitive
0:01:07 in the year 1316 he received a direct
0:01:11 challenge to this conviction in the form
0:01:14 of the anonymous letter from the people
0:01:17 of cyprus
0:01:18 the letter is a revision of an earlier
0:01:21 christian apologetic treaties
0:01:25 as ibn tamir himself notes
0:01:27 that earlier treaties had gained wide
0:01:30 circulation
0:01:32 he replies to the letter with his many
0:01:34 times longer
0:01:36 correct answer to the one who altered
0:01:39 the religion of the messiah
0:01:43 ibn tamir's stated aim in correct answer
0:01:47 is to set forth christianity as an
0:01:50 object lesson to muslims about what
0:01:52 innovation and heresy to avoid
0:01:56 he frequently draws parallels with
0:01:58 errors he perceives among the sufis shia
0:02:02 and kalam theologians
0:02:05 at the beginning of the term ibn tamir
0:02:08 outlines the theological framework
0:02:11 needed to position christianity as a
0:02:14 corruption of prophetic religion
0:02:18 the religion of all god's prophets and
0:02:20 messengers is islam
0:02:22 even if the various revelations such as
0:02:25 the torah the gospel and the quran
0:02:28 differ in matters of religious practice
0:02:31 all other religion is polytheism and
0:02:34 innovation
0:02:36 furthermore god singled out muhammad as
0:02:39 the best of the messengers and the
0:02:41 muslim community as the best of
0:02:43 communities
0:02:45 the muslim community provides the golden
0:02:48 mean in matters of doctrine and practice
0:02:52 that jews and christians take to
0:02:54 extremes
0:02:56 the jews and christians have innovated
0:02:59 the religions that they follow
0:03:01 they deviated from the revelations given
0:03:04 to moses and christ respectively
0:03:08 they failed to point to the definitive
0:03:10 revelation given to muhammad
0:03:14 ibn tamir explains further now here john
0:03:16 hoover quotes from ebenzemia
0:03:20 the false religion of christians is
0:03:23 nothing but an innovative religion which
0:03:26 they invented after the time of christ
0:03:29 and by which they changed the religion
0:03:32 of christ
0:03:34 not only that they strayed from the law
0:03:37 sharia of christ to what they innovated
0:03:41 then when god sent muhammad they
0:03:44 rejected him
0:03:46 thus their unbelief and error came to be
0:03:49 of two aspects
0:03:51 that of changing the religion of the
0:03:53 first messenger and of rejecting the
0:03:56 second messenger
0:03:58 it is like the unbelief of the jews who
0:04:01 changed the legal prescriptions of the
0:04:03 torah before god sending christ and then
0:04:07 they rejected christ
0:04:09 end quote
0:04:11 john hoover continues
0:04:13 the christian letter argues that
0:04:15 muhammad was only a prophet for the
0:04:18 pagan arabs by emphasizing that the
0:04:20 revelation was only in arabic
0:04:24 ibn tamir counters with quranic texts
0:04:27 like we have only sent muhammad to the
0:04:31 entirety of humanity as a bringer of
0:04:34 good news and as a warner quran 34 28
0:04:40 to affirm that muhammad's message is
0:04:43 universal
0:04:45 some quranic verses may appear to limit
0:04:47 the scope of his mission to the arabs
0:04:50 but this does not undermine its
0:04:52 universality
0:04:57 muhammad was not mistaken or deluded
0:05:00 into thinking that his message was
0:05:02 universal
0:05:03 god would not permit that to happen to
0:05:06 prophets
0:05:08 the christian letter continues that the
0:05:10 quran also praises mary and jesus and
0:05:14 confirms the christian scriptures in
0:05:17 passages such as
0:05:19 we i god have sent down to you the book
0:05:22 which declares true what came before it
0:05:26 and of the torah and the gospel that's
0:05:28 quran 3 3
0:05:31 and
0:05:31 if you are in doubt concerning what we
0:05:34 have sent down to you
0:05:35 ask those who have been reading the book
0:05:38 before you quran 10 94
0:05:42 the christian letter concludes that the
0:05:44 quran is telling christians to remain in
0:05:47 their religion
0:05:50 iben temia agrees that the quran
0:05:51 confirms previous revelations
0:05:55 one must believe in all god's books just
0:05:57 as one must believe in all of god's
0:05:59 prophets however he explains the quran
0:06:03 does not confirm the innovated doctrines
0:06:06 of the christians
0:06:09 as for the bible itself evin tamir is
0:06:12 careful more so than some of his
0:06:14 predecessors
0:06:16 ibn hasan who died in 1064
0:06:19 is well known for insisting that jews
0:06:22 and christians had corrupted the very
0:06:24 texts of their scriptures and he
0:06:27 compiled lists of contradictions and
0:06:29 historical and theological errors to
0:06:32 prove it
0:06:34 unlike ibn hasan ibn taymiyah says that
0:06:38 textual corruption cannot be
0:06:40 demonstrated or denied
0:06:44 while it is certain that jews and
0:06:45 christians have corrupted the meaning of
0:06:47 their texts it cannot be known for sure
0:06:51 whether the very texts have been altered
0:06:54 as a result ibn tamir very rarely points
0:06:57 out textual errors in the bible
0:07:01 he instead interprets the text to accord
0:07:04 with his islamic theological convictions
0:07:08 much as he seeks to fill the technical
0:07:10 terminology of sufism calam theology and
0:07:14 philosophy with meanings corresponding
0:07:17 to his understanding of the quran and
0:07:20 the sunnah
0:07:22 this is readily apparent in his correct
0:07:25 answer
0:07:26 in his discussion of the christian
0:07:28 doctrine of the trinity
0:07:31 the letter the christian letter argues
0:07:33 that the trinity the one god in three
0:07:36 persons father son and holy spirit
0:07:40 is proved by reason and supported by
0:07:43 both the bible and the quran
0:07:46 ibn tamir discounts the letter's
0:07:48 rational arguments and he claims that
0:07:51 the trinity is a corruption of the
0:07:53 religion of christ inconsistent with the
0:07:56 monotheism of the prophets
0:08:00 neither the bible nor the quran supports
0:08:02 the christian doctrine
0:08:05 ibn tamir then reinterprets the
0:08:07 trinitarian names in the gospel command
0:08:10 to baptize in the name of the father the
0:08:13 son and the holy spirit that's matthew
0:08:16 28 19
0:08:18 to fit his quranic vision
0:08:20 father means god
0:08:23 son refers to the purely human prophet
0:08:26 christ
0:08:27 and holy spirit indicates either gabriel
0:08:30 the angel of revelation or the
0:08:33 revelation itself
0:08:35 the text according to ibn tamir is
0:08:38 telling readers to believe in god
0:08:41 god's prophet and the angel who brought
0:08:44 god's revelation
0:08:48 the christian letter makes two further
0:08:50 key arguments
0:08:52 first
0:08:52 it explains that the quran supports both
0:08:55 the humanity and the divinity of jesus
0:08:59 even tamir rejects the divinity of jesus
0:09:02 as incongruous with both reason and
0:09:05 revelation
0:09:07 he reinterprets scriptural texts that
0:09:10 might be misconstrued
0:09:12 to imply that god dwelt in christ
0:09:16 second the letter claims that islam is
0:09:20 unnecessary because christianity is the
0:09:23 perfect religion
0:09:25 judaism was the religion of law and
0:09:28 justice while christianity was the
0:09:30 religion of grace
0:09:33 ibn tamir replies by placing islam at
0:09:37 the pinnacle of perfection instead of
0:09:39 christianity
0:09:41 judaism focused on law and justice at
0:09:45 the expense of grace
0:09:47 christianity emphasized grace at the
0:09:50 expense of justice and law
0:09:54 islam perfected balanced grace with law
0:09:58 and justice
0:10:01 ibn tamir's vision of prophetic religion
0:10:04 culminates in the quran and the prophet
0:10:07 muhammad
0:10:08 his correct answer
0:10:11 sidelines christianity as an irrational
0:10:14 and unscriptural innovation
0:10:17 and his project of biblical
0:10:19 interpretation seeks to rally the jewish
0:10:22 and christian texts to support islam
0:10:27 and
0:10:27 quote now there's an awful lot there
0:10:29 that one could
0:10:30 discuss further particularly ibn
0:10:32 temier's views of the bible and the
0:10:34 gospel and the gospels matthew mark luke
0:10:38 and john what's really going on there
0:10:41 and also his understanding of
0:10:44 christian doctrine and pastors like
0:10:45 matthew 28 19. but i'm not going to go
0:10:48 there um this this video is about john
0:10:51 hoover's presentation of a thought of
0:10:53 evan ibn tay taymir
0:10:55 so as i say uh this
0:10:58 text the correct answer or the correct
0:11:01 reply to the one who altered the
0:11:03 religion of the messiah uh is available
0:11:06 to read online i'll link to it in the
0:11:08 description uh below is actually quite a
0:11:10 sophisticated bit of theology actually a
0:11:13 bit of polemic against uh christianity
0:11:17 uh whether or not you like ibentemia um
0:11:21 is really up to you of course but he's a
0:11:23 serious thinker he's a very very
0:11:25 brilliant uh
0:11:27 in the medieval islamic tradition and
0:11:30 still has it seems a great influence on
0:11:32 many muslims in the world today so enjoy
0:11:37 until next time