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Ibn Taymiyya

(d. 728/1328)

Against

Extremisms

Texts translated, annotated and introduced by

YAHYA M. MICHOT

with a foreword by

BRUCE B. LAWRENCE

ALBOURAQ EDITIONS

Cover illustration: detail of a stained glass window, Çinili Mosque, Üsküdar (Turkey, 1640. Photo: Y. Michot, 2010).

© Dar Albouraq B. P. 13/5384, Beirut, Lebanon

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77330 Ozoir-la-Ferrière, France Tel.: 00 33 1 60 34 37 50. Fax: 00 33 1 60 34 35 63

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Librairie de l’Orient 18, rue des Fossés Saint Bernard

75005 Paris, France (Near the Institut du Monde Arabe)

Tel.: 00 33 1 40 51 85 33 Fax: 00 33 1 40 46 06 46

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The right of Yahya M. Michot to be identified as the author of this work is hereby asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (United Kingdom). All rights reserved. No Part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Tous droits de reproduction, d’adaptation ou de traduction, par quelque procédé que ce soit, réservés pour tous pays à l’Éditeur.

Ṣafar 1433 / January 2012 EAN 9782841615551

Contents

List of Illustrations XI Foreword by Bruce B. Lawrence XIII Introduction XX Translations

1. The religion of the middle way 1 The ‘saved sect’ 2 A prophetology of the middle way 2 Religious prescriptions of the middle way 3 A theodicy of the middle way 5 An ethic of the middle way 6 A median doctrine about the divine attributes 7 A median doctrine about agency 8 A median doctrine of the faith 9 A median doctrine about the Companions 9 A median position in everything 10

2. Unity and respect for diversity within the community 11 A. The duty of unity 12 B. The duty of tolerance 16

3. Tolerance, strictness, and community unity 19 The Umma and the relativity of belonging 19 Taqwā and walāya: the fear of God and His Friendship 23 Walāya and ukhuwwa: friendship and brotherhood of Muslims 24 The division of the Umma and its impotence 27 ‘Commanding the proper and forbidding the reprehensible’ 29 Obligations and prohibitions of the Sharī`a 31

4. Unbelief and forgiveness 34 A. Fatwa on the Qalandars 51 B. Two astonishing hadiths 58 C. The innocents of the steppe 67

5. God hesitating? 83 ‘I do not hesitate…’ 85 What is hesitating? 86 Two kinds of divine will 89 Ontological and religious realities 91

AGAINST EXTREMISMS

VIII

viii

The wisdom of the divine decision 93 6. Some human rights on God? 95

God’s mercy and justice 96 Worshipping God does not give any right over Him 97 Six differences between the Creator and the creatures 100 The servant has, on God, a right that God has imposed

upon Himself 103 7. Love and the health of the heart 105 A. Love (`ishq): a disease of the soul 106

`Ishq and Maḥabba 108 Covetous desire and chastity 113 The finality of the heart: loving (ḥubb) God 116

B. Disquiet and serenity of the heart 121 8. The reality of the love (maḥabba) of God and of man 123

Love of God, hope of the Garden, fear of the Fire 124 The highest felicity: seeing the Face of God 124 The living do not act without love and will 127 The foundation: loving God 127

‘He will love them and they will love Him…’ 128 Loving God, the Messenger, and the Companions 128 The love of the Lord for His servants 130

From Ja`d b. Dirham to the Mu`tazilīs: the rejection of the reality of the love of God 131

The friendship of God (khulla), the perfection of love 133 The two friends of God: Abraham and Muḥammad 134 The tawḥīd of love 136

Loving God is not reduced to loving to serve Him 137 No metaphor in the canonical texts concerning the love of God 140

The love of God is inscribed in the primordial nature (fiṭra) of man 142

To deny the love of God is to deny His lordship and His divinity 143 The greatest of the commandments 143 The Jahmī negation of a correspondence between creature

and Creator 145 Some Sufis deny that God loves 145 The foundation of the acts of the faith: loving God 147 Appendices 148 A. Between the theologians and the Sufis 148

CONTENTS

IX

ix

B. In the very hearts of the negators… 150 The ḥanīfiyya: knowledge, love, tawḥīd 151 C. Corrupt theologies 152

9. Faith and Love: from a theoretical to a practised tawḥīd 155 The demands of a truthful proclamation of divine unity 156 Love for God, or the conditions and limits to obedience 157 Tawḥīd, like faith, is speech and action 160 To believe is more than to hold as true 162 ‘Dedication of the religion to God’: from the heart’s full con-

fessing to visible acts 166 10. The servanthood of worship, or perfection in the liberty of the heart 169 A. Perfection in servanthood 170

At the core of revelation, the call to worship 172 Preserved from evil and elect: the servants of God 173

B. Servanthood and expectation in God 175 The paradox of master and slave 175 Human love between subjection and drunkenness 177 From satisfying one’s passion to the experience of dedication

to God 178 Master and slave 180 True and false needs 180 Perfection of faith 181 The realities of jihad and of love 183

11. Love and the Way (sharī`a) 184 The excesses of certain Sufis 184 ‘A fire that burns up, in the heart…’ 186 The pretensions of the Jews and the Nazarenes to love of God 187 Certain Sufis ‘nazarenize’ Islam 189

12. The ‘master of the Children of Adam’ 191 Adam, created from clay but superior to the angels 191 Lawlā-ka… 195 ‘Do not exalt me…’ 199

13. The ‘veneration’ of the Prophet 201 The straight path, between the dangers of ‘judaizing’ or

‘nazarenizing’ deviancy 201 ‘The servant of God and His Messenger’ 203

AGAINST EXTREMISMS

X

x

The rights of the Messenger 205 God alone is worshipped and invoked 208

14. Following Muḥammad out of love of God 211 ‘If you love God, follow me…’ 211 In anomialism, there is no love 214 Love of the common people and love of the elite 215 Human loves and love of God 218

15. Obedience to the authorities 220 A. Obeying a perverse and ignorant authority? 221 B. Obeying within obedience to God 226 C. Seeking clarification in all matters 227 D. ‘Sixty years with a tyrannical imam…’ 228

16. ‘God has set a measure for all things’ 231 The prohibition of anathematizing (takfīr) 234 The fighting between Muslims 237 Behind whom to pray? 239 Doing what one is capable of 241

17. Being a Muslim among the ‘unbelievers’… 244 A. Believing unbelievers 246 B. Clandestine faith and willing the best for others 253

18. Like Joseph in the service of the pharaoh 257 True intelligence and the exercice of power 258 Joseph and the pharaoh 262 Weighing the pros and cons… 263 The responsibilities of the ulema 265 A fundamental principle to ponder 267

Bibliography 270 Indices 287

Qur|ānic quotations 287 Prophetic sayings 289 Biblical books 294 Texts of Ibn Taymiyya translated 294 Geographical terms 295 Persons, groups, doctrines 296 Keywords and concepts 305 Transcribed words 326

THE RELIGION OF THE MIDDLE WAY 9

A MEDIAN DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH

On the topic of the names and statuses [of believer, major sinner, un-believer], of the promise and the threat [of the hereafter, the adherents of the Sunna and the communion] hold a median position between [on the one side] the ‘partisans of the threat’ (wa`īdiyya1) who consider that the Muslims who are authors of major sins are kept eternally in the Fire, expel them altogether from the faith, and treat as a lie the intercession of the Prophet, God pray over him and grant him peace, and [on the other side] the ‘partisans of hope’ (murji|a2) who say that the faith of the per-verts (fāsiq) is like that of the Prophets, and that the virtuous actions do not make up part of the religion and of the faith, and who treat the threat and the punishment as a total lie. [375] The adherents of the Sunna and the communion believe that the per-verts [among the] Muslims have with them a part of the faith and its basis but do not have with them the whole of the necessary faith, in virtue of which they would deserve the Garden. [They believe moreover] that they will not be kept eternally in the Fire; on the contrary, from [the Fire] will come out whoever has in his heart the weight of a grain of faith or the weight of a mustard seed of faith.3 [They further believe] that the Prophet, God pray over him and grant him peace, has reserved his intercession for the major sinners of his community.

A MEDIAN DOCTRINE ABOUT THE COMPANIONS

About the Companions of God’s Messenger also, God pray over him and grant him peace, and be pleased with them, [the adherents of the Sunna and the communion] hold a median position. Thus they situate themselves between [on the one side] the ‘exaggerators’ (ghāliya) and [on the other side] the ‘abusers’ (jāfiya). [The exaggerators] exaggerate about `Alī, God be pleased with him, give to him greater eminence than to Abū Bakr and to `Umar, God be pleased with them, believe that he is the imam preserved [from all error] 1 On the Wa`īdiyya, see A. F. AL-SHAHRASTĀNĪ, Milal, trans. GIMARET & MONNOT,

Religions, i. 112. 2 On the Murji|a, see A. F. AL-SHAHRASTĀNĪ, Milal, trans. GIMARET & MONNOT,

Religions, i. 419–33. 3 On the passing away of hellfire according to Ibn Taymiyya, see J. R. HOOVER,

Universalism.

AGAINST EXTREMISMS 16

Prophets have different views. ‘Those who struggle (jāhada) regarding Us, We shall guide them on Our paths’,1 the Exalted has said. The Most High has said also [118]: ‘From God has come to you a light, and a Scrip-ture that is evident, through which God guides whoever seeks after His contentment on the paths of peace.’2

B. THE DUTY OF TOLERANCE

When, through their doctrines (madhhab), their [spiritual] roads (ṭarīqa) and their policies, the scholars, the shaykhs and the emirs seek as [their] goal the Face of God, Exalted is He, and not some caprices [of their own], in such a way that they hold to the confession (milla) and the uni-versal religion (al-dīn al-jāmi`), namely to worship the one and only God, Who has no associate, and when they follow that which, from their Lord, was sent down to them—the Scripture and the Sunna—as far as possible and after a full exertion of initiative (ijtihād), these [doctrines, these roads and these policies] are for them, under certain aspects, the equivalent of the Ways (shir`a) and of the pathways (minhāj)3 for the Prophets. They shall be recompensed for having sought the Face of God and for having worshipped Him alone, without associating any [other] with Him—which is the original, universal religion—just as the Proph-ets are recompensed for having worshipped Him alone, without asso-ciating any [other] with Him. They shall, likewise, be recompensed for having obeyed God and His Messenger, regarding that which they hold to, because4 in that [obedience] are [found] the Way (shir`a) of His Messenger and his pathway (minhāj), just as every Prophet is recom-pensed for having obeyed God according to his way (shir`a) and his pathway (minhāj). The ways (shir`a) and the pathways (minhāj) of [the scholars, the shaykhs and the emirs] are [indeed] of diverse sorts. The Prophetic tra-ditions (ḥadīth), for example, reach one of them in other words than those which reach another. For him, certain verses of the Qur|ān are commented upon in a commentary whose expression differs from that 1 Q. al-`Ankabūt, 29: 69. 2 Q. al-Mā|ida, 5: 15–16. 3 ‘The way (shir`a) is the Sharī`a, namely the Sunna. The pathway (minhāj) is the

road (ṭarīq) and the track (sabīl)’ (IBN TAYMIYYA, MF, xix. 113). 4 li-anna-hu U: lā F

UNITY AND RESPECT FOR DIVERSITY 17

of another commentary. As for joining together the [canonical] texts and deriving from them [juridical] rulings, he proceeds according to a sort of ordering and adjustment [of elements of reasoning] that is not the sort [127] adopted by another. Much the same goes for their acts of worship (`ibādāt) and their orientations: one holds to [such-and-such] a verse or [such-and-such] a hadith, and the other to another hadith or to another verse. Likewise for what concerns knowledge. There are some scholars who tread the way by following the road of such-and-such a scholar, which is therefore also their way; [that continues] until they hear what is said by another [scholar] and borrow his particular road, that of the two [ways that they had hitherto] preferred being then left behind. The sayings relating to them and the actions going back to them are accord-ingly, from this viewpoint, of diverse sorts. Yet, they had been com-manded to establish the rule of the religion and not to be divided about it, just as that had been commanded [also] to the Messengers.1 More-over, they had been commanded not to divide the community (umma)—it being, on the contrary, one single community—just as that had been commanded to the Messengers. In the latters’ case, [the injunction] was even more firm on account of the fact that one unique Way and one unique Scripture gathered them together. As for the number2 [of matters] about which [the scholars] have dis-puted, one shall not say that God commanded each of them to hold, in-wardly and outwardly, to his positions as He commanded the Prophets [to hold to their messages]: even if that is what is said by a group of the adherents of kalām theology. One shall say only that God commanded each of them to seek the truth in the measure of his capacities and his possibilities. If he attains it [so much the better]. If not, ‘God does not burden a soul except with that which it is capable of carrying.’3 [When hearing this verse,] the believers said: ‘Our Lord, do not hold us strictly to account if we forget or err!’,4 and God said: ‘I have done so.’5 The Exalted also said: ‘You shall not suffer rigour6 for that which you did in 1 See the verse, cited above, p. 13: Q. al-Shūrā, 42: 13. 2 Literally, ‘the measure’ (al-qadr). 3 Q. al-Baqara, 2: 286. 4 Q. al-Baqara, 2: 286. 5 See MUSLIM, Ṣaḥīḥ, Īmān, i. 81. 6 laysa `alay-kum junāḥ U, Q: lā junāḥ `alay-kum F

AGAINST EXTREMISMS 18

error.’1 Whoever then addresses reproaches [to the scholars] and blames them for a matter for which God does not take them to task acts in an excessive manner, as an enemy. Whoever wishes [conversely] to make their words and their actions equivalent to the word and the action of [the Prophet] preserved [from all error] (ma`ṣūm),2 and makes himself their helper in view of their triumph, without guidance coming from God, he too acts in an excessive manner, as an enemy, and follows his caprice, without guidance [128] coming from God. [By contrast,] the one who does what has been commanded to him, according to his situation—be it exerting the initiative (ijtihād) of which he is capable or being faithful to a model (taqlīd) when he is not capable of the exertion of initiative and when, in his fidelity, he borrows the way of justice (`adl)—he is a moderate (muqtaṣid).3 The matter is indeed conditional upon the capacity (qudra) [of the person]: ‘God does not burden a soul except with that which it is capable of carrying.’4 It is in-cumbent upon a Muslim, in every place, to submit his face to God by being beneficent (muḥsin) and to endure in such a submission (islām). ‘Submitting his face’ is in fact devoting himself (ikhlāṣ) to God and making his good action beneficent. Ponder (tadabbara) this. It is a fun-damental that is universal, beneficial and important.

1 Q. al-Aḥzāb, 33: 5. 2 On the Prophet’s preservation from error (`iṣma), see Y. MICHOT, Textes XII, 30,

n. 36; B. ABRAHAMOV, `Ismah; Sh. AHMED, Verses. 3 ‘Assuredly, to go with moderation (iqtiṣād) on a track, [on] a route (sunna) is better

than to exercise an initiative (ijtihād) [that goes] counter-track and counter-route. Therefore be attentive that your actions are [characterized by] moderation and struggling on the pathway (minhāj) of the Prophets and their route (sunna)’ (IBN TAYMIYYA, MF, x. 77, trans. MICHOT, Textes V, 9).

4 Q. al-Baqara, 2: 286.

THE REALITY OF THE LOVE OF GOD AND OF MAN 143

‘Is it not in the remembrance of God that the hearts find serenity?’1

TO DENY THE LOVE OF GOD IS TO DENY HIS LORDSHIP AND HIS DIVINITY

Furthermore, all the qualities of perfection that the hearts are predisposed to love, it is God Who deserves them perfectly.2 And all that is lovable in other than Him comes from Him,3 Glorified and Exalted is He. It is He Who deserves to be loved really and perfectly. To deny the love of the servant for his Lord is, in reality, to deny that He is God, worshippable, just as to deny His love for His servant necessarily implies denying His will—that is, necessarily implies denying that He is Lord, Creator. Thus, to deny His love4 comes necessarily to imply denying that He is the Lord of the worlds and that He is the God of the worlds. And that is what the partisans of denudation (ta`ṭīl) and of rejection (juḥūd) say.5

The greatest of the commandments That is why there is agreement of the two communities which preceded us6 on this, which they see as a tradition and an apophthegm coming from Moses and from Jesus, upon them be the prayers of God and His peace: ‘The greatest of the commandments is that you love God with all 1 Q. al-Ra`d, 13: 28. Jalī dīwānī calligraphy by the Baghdadī master Hāshim

Muḥammad, 1372/1952. 2 Compare with AVICENNA, `Ishq, 391: ‘It is clear, the First Cause possesses fully

the Good (khayriyya) as a whole, which is Good relatively to It, and for It there is no possibility of existence.’

3 Compare with AVICENNA, `Ishq, 390: ‘That which is caused by Him, there is no Good for it, in it, or from it, except as deriving from Him.’

4 That is, the love of God for His servants and theirs for Him. 5 The partisans of the denudation of the divine essence of its attributes and of the

rejection of the latter; that is, the Jahmīs; see above, p. 33. 6 The Jews and the Christians.

AGAINST EXTREMISMS 144

your heart, your mind and your intent (qaṣd).’1 Now that is the reality of the original belief (ḥanīfiyya), the confession of Abraham which is the foundation of the Way of the Torah, of the Gospel and of the Qur|ān.

‘And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart…’2

The negation of this is taken up from the associators, and the Ṣabaeans, the enemies of Abraham, the friend (khalīl), and those—philosophers, kalām theologians, doctors of jurisprudence (fiqh), innovators—who are in agreement with them on this subject pick it up from them. This has become clear in the case of the Ismā`īlī Qarmaṭī3 esotericists (bāṭi-niyya).4 That is why [Abraham], the friend, the imam of the original be-lievers (ḥanīf), upon him be the prayers of God and His peace, said: ‘Have you seen what you have been worshipping, you and your fore-fathers? They are an enemy unto me, save the Lord of the worlds.’5 He also said: ‘I do not love [74] things that set.’6 The Exalted has also said: ‘The Day when neither goods nor sons shall avail, save him who comes

1 Deuteronomy, 6: 5: ‘And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and

with all your soul, and with all your might.’ New Testament, Matthew, 22: 37–38: ‘And [Jesus] said unto him: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment.” ’ See also Mark, 12: 30; Luke, 10: 27.

2 Deuteronomy, 6: 5; Matthew, 22: 37–38. 3 One of the Ismā`īlī sects; see W. MADELUNG, EI2, art. ‘Ḳarmaṭī’. 4 To Ibn Taymiyya, all those who, Shī`īs, Sufis or philosophers, reject the manifest

meaning of the Scripture in favour of an esoteric meaning (bāṭin); see M. G. S. HODGSON, EI2, art. ‘Bāṭiniyya’.

5 Q. al-Shu`arā|, 26: 75–77. 6 Q. al-An`ām, 6: 76.

BEING A MUSLIM AMONG THE ‘UNBELIEVERS’ 249

equality between the nobility and the vulgar, soul for soul, eye for eye, etc..

Pharaoh The Negus1

For the Negus it was not possible to judge according to the judge-ment[s] of the Qur|ān. His people would in fact not have allowed him to do so. How often a man is invested with authority among the Muslims and the Tatars, as cadi, or even as imam, and has in his soul some affairs of justice that he wishes to implement; however, it is not possible for him to do so or, rather, there are people there who prevent him from that! ‘God does not burden a soul except with that which it is capable of carrying...’2 `Umar b. `Abd al-`Azīz3 was the object of hostility and ill will because of some measures of justice that he put into effect (iqāma). It is also said that he was poisoned for that. [114] The Negus and his like are happy in the Garden even though, in res-pect of the prescriptions of Islam, they did not observe things that they were not able to observe but, rather, judged according to the judgments according to which it was possible for them to judge. That is why God has placed these [people] among the People of the Book. The Most High said: ‘Among the People of the Book, there are those who believe in God, in what has been sent down to you and in what has been sent down to them. They are humble before God and do not sell the verses of

1 Two details from A. KAMĀL, Sabḥa, 11, 15. 2 Q. al-Baqara, 2: 286. 3 The Umayyad caliph `Umar II (reigned from 99/717 until his death in 101/720)

remains famous for his piety; see P. M. COBB, EI2, art. ‘`Umar II’.

262 AGAINST EXTREMISMS

Moreover, [to assume] a position of authority (wilāya) may [in general] be permissible, preferable (mustaḥabb), or obligatory. However, for a particular individual, [to assume] another [position] might be [still] more obligatory or more desirable. He shall thus, then, give priority to the best of the two goods, regarding what is sometimes obligatory, sometimes desirable.

JOSEPH AND THE PHARAOH

To this subject is also related [the authority] which Joseph the truthful was invested with over the storehouses of the land for the king of Egypt, or rather, his request that the latter should set him over the storehouses of [his] land,1 even though [this king] and his people were unbelievers, just as the Exalted has said: ‘Certainly Joseph came to you before with manifest proofs, but you did not cease to be in doubt about what he had brought to you. When he died, you said then: “God will not send a Mes-senger after him.” ’2 The Exalted also said, for him: ‘O my two prison mates, would sundry lords be better, or God, the One, the Omnipotent? 1 See Q. Yūsuf, 12: 55: ‘He said: “Set me over the storehouses of the land. I am in-

deed a good, competent guardian.” ’ The word ‘pharaoh’ (fir`awn) does not appear in Q. Yūsuf, 12, in which the ruler of Egypt is called ‘king’ (malik) and ‘al-`Azīz’. This ruler is of course different from Fir`awn, ‘Pharaoh’, the Egyptian autocrat often mentioned in the Qur|ān in relation to Moses. For Ibn Taymiyya, it is never-theless a pharaoh; see above, p. 246, n. 3.

Shī`ī traditional sources report that the eighth imam, `Alī al-Riḍā (d. 203/818), was criticized by some of his followers for collaborating with the `Abbāsid caliph al-Ma|mūn. ‘A man said to him: “May God make you righteous! How have you come, vis-à-vis al-Ma|mūn, to the [point] where you have come to?” It was as if he was rebuking him for that. Abū l-Ḥasan al-Riḍā, peace be upon him, said to him:

– O So-and-so, who is more eminent, the Prophet or the trustee (waṣī)? – The Prophet, of course. – And who is more eminent, a Muslim or an associator? – A Muslim, of course. – Al-`Azīz, `Azīz of Egypt, was an associator, and Joseph, peace be upon him,

was a Prophet, whereas al-Ma|mūn is a Muslim and I am [only] a trustee. Now, Joseph asked al-`Azīz to give him a position of authority when he said: “Set me over the storehouses of the land. I am indeed a good, competent guardian,” whereas me, I have been forced’ (Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan AL-ḤURR AL-`ĀMILĪ, Wasā|il, xvii. 202, no. 22347).

2 Q. Ghāfir, 40: 34. Ibn Taymiyya does not cite the end of the verse, but only writes: ‘[and the rest of] the verse’.

LIKE JOSEPH IN THE SERVICE OF THE PHARAOH 263

You do not worship beneath Him but only names which you have rigged up, you and your fathers, and for which God did not send down any enabling authority (sulṭān). Judging (ḥukm) belongs only to God. He has commanded that you worship none but Him. Such is the straight religion, but most men do not know.’1 We know that, despite their unbelief, the [Egyptians] must unfail-ingly have had usages and a procedure (`āda wa sunna) for the col-lection of taxes and expenditure thereof for the advantage of the king’s entourage and the people of his house, of his soldiers and of his sub-jects. However, these functions were not being done according to the Tradition (sunna) of the Prophets and their justice (`adl), and it was not possible for Joseph to implement everything he might have willed, namely what he considered as part of the religion of God. Indeed, the people would not have approved [such a course of action]. However, he implemented what it was possible [to implement] of the [religion’s] justice and beneficence (iḥsān) and, thanks to his power (sulṭān), even-tually treated the believers among the people of his house with a generosity which, otherwise, it would not have been possible for him to achieve. All this is included in His words [57]: ‘Fear God as much as you are able to do!’2

WEIGHING THE PROS AND CONS…

When two obligations which it is not possible to fulfil together present themselves at the same time, and priority is given to the most urgent, in this situation the other is no longer obligatory, and one who leaves it, in order to deal with the most urgent one, in reality leaves nothing obliga-tory. Similarly, when two prohibited things present themselves together and it is not possible to abandon the more grave of the two without committing the lesser one, to commit the lesser in this situation is in reality not prohibited. If, in the absolute, the former is called ‘leaving something obligatory’ and the latter is called ‘committing a prohibited thing’, this does no harm. For a like [situation], we shall speak of ‘leav-ing something obligatory with an excuse’ and ‘committing a prohibited thing because of a preponderant interest (maṣlaḥa rājiḥa)’, or ‘out of 1 Q. Yūsuf, 12: 39–40. Ibn Taymiyya does not cite the end of verse 40, but only

writes: ‘[and the rest of] the verse’. 2 Q. al-Taghābun, 64: 16.