Machine summary:
Ibn Taymiyya on Reason and Revelation: A Study of Darʾ taʿāruḍ al-ʿaql wa-l-naql Carl Sharif El-Tobgui Leiden: Brill, 2020.
Chapter one begins by providing a broad survey of the question of reason and revelation in Islam prior to Ibn Taymiyya; chapter two continues from there with a detailed introduction on Ibn Taymiyya’s life, times, and overall intellectual posi tioning.
For some, Ibn Taymiyya remains a caricature of intractable literalism, a dogmatist who yields no 9 Book Reviews ground to thoughtful theological efforts, and an unimaginative polemicist, whereas others paint a very different picture of an astute and brilliant theo logian who deconstructs unchallenged orthodoxies and adheres, often at great personal cost, to a methodology that finds its origins in the life and thinking of the early community, or Salaf.
Following his examination of the universal rule, part 2 of El-Tobgui’s work, spanning chapters 4 through 6, reviews Ibn Taymiyya’s “reform of language, ontology, and epistemology.
11 Book Reviews El-Tobgui concludes his work by summarizing some of the core con tentions in the Dar’ and revisiting the centrality of the concept of fiṭra in the writings of Ibn Taymiyya originally expounded in chapter 5.
Any student or scholar looking to understand Ibn Taymiyya will be served well by reading El-Tobgui’s work, and it is sure to remain a pivotal contribution to the field of Taymiyyan studies for the foreseeable future.