دانلود کتاب A Muslim Theologian’s Response to Christianity: Ibn Taymiyya’s al-Jawab al-sahih

Review by Stefano Nikolaou - Is This Really the Definitive Polemic Against Christianity?
January 13, 2017

I bought this book a number of years ago. I read it and put it on my shelf. I forgot that I even owned it. Even then I wasn't particularly impressed.

It is hard to believe the rave review the other reviewer gave this book. Ibn Taymiyyah relied on the sheer volume of his prose to overwhelm the reader. This book is only a selection of what Ibn Taymiyyah had to say but his arguments don't really stand up well under scrutiny.

These are some of my observations of what ibn Taymiyyah had to say-

Ibn Taymiyyah is fully convinced of the cultural superiority of Islamic civilisation but for a very strange reason. He says 'For this reason, when Islam conquered, its people overcame the central part of the civilised world. Its people are the most balanced and the most perfect of the children of Adam. Christians who have been reared under the protection of Muslims are more perfect in their minds and morals than other Christians. However, Christians of the north and south who live outside dhimmi status and wage war against Muslims are deficient in mind and morals. When there is an intellectual and moral deficiency among people, Christianity without Islam is victorious over them.' (page 153) Ibn Taymiyyah thinks it is the climate that makes Christians morally deficient as the cold stunts their brain development!!

I was very interested to see what Ibn Taymiyyah says about the Scriptures. He takes the view that they are 'corrupt' but admits there is a school of Islamic thought that denies this (page 225). Ibn Taymiyyah takes the rather contradictory position that Jews and Christians changed the Scriptures then turns around and claims '...the prediction of Muhammad in the previous books [the bible] is greater than the prediction of Christ' (page 188). Ibn Taymiyyah is responding to an apologetic tract by a bishop, Paul of Sidon. Paul states that the Gospels are too widely distributed and translated into too many languages to be corrupted. Ibn Taymiyyah responds by claiming the corruption happened in the earliest days of Christianity before there were many copies in circulation (page 233). How Ibn Taymiyyah would know this I don't know?

He then goes on to claim that 'real' Christians still existed at the time of Muhammad, despite the fact no modern evidence has been found to support this claim. The gnostics that denied the crucifixion did so for a very unislamic reason! Then ibn Taymiyyah claims (in the 14th century) to have eyewitnessed copies of the Psalms where '...Muhammad is confirmed by name...(page 239). Not sure what happened to these copies?

Ibn Taymiyyah is quick to use the division among Christians as a polemic sledgehammer. He says 'Christians have had seven well-known councils. In each council they have censured a large group of people, have excommunicated them, and said about them that they did not command obedience to some of what was ordered. That sect in its turn has borne witness against the others that they have rejected some of what was revealed. Of their three great divisions- the Nestorian, the Melkites (Orthodox), and the Jacobites (Monophysites) - each sect excommunicates the others, curses them, and bears witness against them that they reject part of what was revealed in the prophetic books or that they do not oblige obedience to part of what is in them. Their dispute is even about tawhid and prophecy itself (page 221). In reality ibn Taymiyyah is exaggerating for polemical effect. The differences were some finer points of christology but I have to admit this didn't stop them from saying nasty things about each other!

This book is interesting as a historical document. I found the introduction verbose and difficult to follow. For those true believers out there, be warned that the translator is a Jesuit. He wasn't exactly won over by what ibn Taymiyyah had to say! In fairness, contemporary Christian polemicists were coming up with some equally lame accusations against Islam. This book hasn't been reprinted for a long time and used copies are prohibitively expensive. I notice that many others works of ibn Taymiyyah are being translated into English so maybe an enterprising scholar will take on ibn Taymiyyah's unabridged text of 'The Correct Answer to those Who Have Changed the Religion of Christ'.


Review by Abdalla Alothman - Comments on Ibn Tayymiya's Aljawab Alsaheeh
April 26, 2000

This book is a translation of one of the most massive refutations to Christian Missionaries written by one of the most formidable scholars of Islam. In his original book--Aljawaab AlSaheeh--Ibn Tayymiya wrote an encyclopedia of Islam and questions and answers to Christianity. The original book of Ibn Tayymiya comes in 7 volumes, 6 books plus 1 book as an index. Each of the 6 volumes comes in 400-500 pages of text, fully loaded with rich information on Islam, Christianity, extinct Islamic sects which were attracted to Christianity, ONE WHOLE volume which includes Bible Prophecies that mention Prophet Mohammad, exposing the miracles performed Christian priests (e.g., the statue of Mary [peace be upon her] appearing on Churches, the Spear of God, how a Christian priest can order a palm tree to sink inside the earth allowing the priest to sit on top of it, and then it rises, and much much more), logical thoughts on the Trinity, the Sonship of Jesus (peace be upon him), the miracles he performed, and lots of other issues. As said, it's a huge encyclopedia.
Unfortunately, the translator didn't do justice when he did his translation. It's enough to note that he expunged the 7 volumes into one single book half the size of one of the original volumes (That's after we ignore the unnecessary bibliographies, notes, and so on). I was waiting for a skilled Muslim to translate this book, but sadly, no Muslim or a team of Muslims have taken the effort to translate this wonderful book. However, that doesn't mean that the Christian translator didn't do a good job. He did a fair job, but he ignored lots of proofs that Ibn Tayymmiya provided about the Prophet Mohammad and the authority of the Islamic sources. Of course, anyone who is familiar with the Christian propaganda against Islam, can expect such attempts. And that's why I expected to see Aljawaab Al-Saheeh translated by concerned Muslims.
The translator mentioned the humorous story behind the making of this book. To encourage the reader of this review, I'll mention the story. Basically, at the time of Ibn Tayymiya, a Melikite (A past Christian sect, which is closer to Catholicism of today) bishop wrote a 26-page pamphlet with high hopes to convert the Muslims. He imagined that he met a group of Christians who were coming from the Muslim's land, and he asked them some questions, and they answered back. This imaginary dialogue made his 26-page pamphlet.
The Muslim scholars who received this pamphlet were disturbed. At that time, the Crusades were beginning, and the Muslims in Syria were well aware of the breeze which preceded the terrors in Andalusia. Basically, these missionary efforts used to take place to divide the Muslims and the Christians living among the Muslims, this way, some kind of disorder will take place, they would take advantage of this division, the crusaders will storm the Muslims in a bloody war.
Before Ibn Tayymiya took the confrontation, he was aware of the refutations that the notable scholar, Imaam Abu Al-Waleeb Al-Baaji and Ibn Hazm went through to reply to the Christian attacks in Andalusia. And when the 26-page pamphlet was distributed, besides Ibn Tayymiya, Al-Ghazali wrote his reply: Al-Radd Al-Jameel. And Al-Quraafi wrote his reply: Al-Ajwiba Al-Fakhira (The Unique Replies). But Ibn Tayymiya (as usual), locked himself up, and wrote his reply in a 7 volume book!
The book teaches the Muslim, and the neutral reader how to think when studying Christianity. The proofs which are presented might be outdated for the Protestant Christian, simply because Protestantism was not born when Ibn Tayymiya wrote his book. However, the book is certainly a mind booster in its logical arguments compared to its scriptural arguments. For example, when Ibn Tayymiya compares the Quran as a miracle and the miracles of Jesus (Note, the translator does not include any proofs that Ibn Tayymiya discussed about the authenticity of the Islamic sources), he writes, "They say that Prophet Jesus (p) healed the blind. Okay, other honorable prophets healed the blind as well, not only that, but didn't the staff of Moses (p) turn into a snake--with, most probably, two eyes on the top of its head?"
And he talks about Jesus being God, and the Son of God, and he says, "How can he be the Creator and the son of Himself? How can he be a messenger from himself? Is it logical to say that 'My father is sitting over there, and He is me?' or 'I was sent my God, who is myself?'" He talks about the fallacy of dividing the attributes from the essence, and he comments on the claim that Jesus is the Word and God Himself: "Their book says [and he quotes] that in the beginning there was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And then, they claim that this word is Jesus. We say that this is illogical. If Prophet Jesus (p) was the Word, then how did this word come to be? Is it logical to think that a word can exist all by itself without someone previously writing it or uttering it?"
Unlike the Greek and the Roman logicians, the Muslim thinkers offer the problems they see in Christianity without denying the existence of God. In all their replies to Christianity, their content always portrays Jesus as an honorable prophet, they write about him with love, they respect him, his disciples, his mother, and their followers, without degrading them, but they also present sever and problematic questions to the Christian doctrines which were placed by the Churches of the past and which are embraced by most fanatic Christians of today.
The book is certainly a must read. However, those who can read Arabic, should not disregard the original book which was written in Arabic. It comes in a better quality, much much much more information (7 volumes), and half the price.