Introduction to Al-Fatawa al-Hamawiyyah By Shaykhul Islam Ibn Taymiyyah

In the year 698 AH, a question arrived from the city of Hama in Syria addressed to Shaykhul-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah. The questioner asked about the statements of the Islamic jurists and imams regarding the verses and hadith that describe Allah's attributes — what is the correct position on them, and how should a Muslim understand them?

Ibn Taymiyyah's answer was approximately eighty-three pages long. It became one of the most important and most controversial documents he ever wrote — a clear, comprehensive, and uncompromising statement of the position of the Salaf on Allah's names and attributes, delivered at a time when this position was being systematically abandoned or distorted in the Muslim world. The cost was trials and imprisonment. The benefit to the ummah has lasted centuries.

Introduction to Al-Fatawa al-Hamawiyyah presents Ibn Taymiyyah's introduction to this landmark fatwa — providing the reader with the foundational framework of his argument and the essential principles of the Salafi position on the attributes of Allah.

What This Introduction Covers

The Question at the Heart of the Debate

The central question the Hamawiyyah addresses is: when Allah describes Himself in the Qur'an as having a hand, a face, an eye, or as rising above the Throne — what does this mean, and how should a Muslim understand it? Ibn Taymiyyah argues, from the Qur'an, the Sunnah, and the unanimous position of the Salaf, that the correct approach is to affirm these attributes as they appear without distorting their meanings, without denying them, without asking how, and without likening them to the attributes of creation. This is the way of the first three generations — and this text is one of the most powerful arguments ever made for why it is also the correct way.

Why This Text Was Controversial — and Why It Matters

The Hamawiyyah was controversial because it directly challenged the positions of the Ash'ari and Maturidi schools, which had by Ibn Taymiyyah's time become the dominant theological schools in the Muslim world. His willingness to take this stand — clearly, in writing, with full evidence — at personal cost, made this text one of the defining documents of the movement to return Islamic theology to the way of the Salaf.

About the Author

Shaykhul-Islam Ahmad ibn Abd al-Halim Ibn Taymiyyah (661–728 AH) was among the imams of Ahl as-Sunnah who followed the way of the Salaf as-Salih — a master of aqeedah, fiqh, hadith and usool whose defence of the creed of the early generations cost him repeated imprisonment. Al-Fatawa al-Hamawiyyah is among the most consequential of his written responses. Published by Sunnah Publishing.

Who This Book Is For

Students of aqeedah who want to understand Ibn Taymiyyah's theological methodology directly from his own pen. Anyone studying the dispute over Allah's attributes and the differences between the Salafi position and the later theological schools. And readers who want the framework of the Hamawiyyah's argument before committing to the full fatwa.

Continue Reading

The Hamawiyyah assumes some grounding in creed first — our guide to the best aqeedah books for beginners covers what to read before it, and the full aqeedah and Islamic creed collection carries the related texts on Allah's names and attributes. To place this work among the author's others, see Books by Ibn Taymiyyah: where to start.