Abstract:

Ibn Taymiyyah lived in Damascus and Egypt, migrating from Harran with his family, when he was a child, due to the social problems in the Islamic world, which were destroyed by the Crusades and the Mongolian invasion. He came from a family that belonged to the Hanbalî sect and who had been engaged in science for several generations. His affiliation with the school of hadith influenced his thinking and this belongingness was influential in the periodical discussions. One of the distinctive features of Ibn Taymiyyah is the direction of criticism. In this respect, the person he considers inverse to Islam has taken its toll on the group or ideas. Sufis comes first among those who have been criticized by Ibn Taymiyyah. The basic idea of criticizing some of the mystics and their thoughts is to correct the movements and ideas of the individuals in their time that do not conform to Islam, rather than seeing Sufism as non-Islamic. In criticizing Sufism and Sufis, Ibn Taymiyyah reveals his own method and approaches to the subject with a salafi perspective. This article was written in order to reveal Ibn Taymiyyah’s approach to Salafist thinking and mystics and their ideas.