Mentioning some of the virtues of Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him).
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : This man is extraordinary, Doctor. This man, when a person...
The Shaykh : What Allah willed, a nation...
The questioner : One of the early scholars mentioned, "He did not see anyone like himself."
The Shaykh : This is actually said about many people of knowledge and virtue, but most of the time it involves exaggeration. As for Ibn Taymiyyah, glory to the One who created him, the Syrian proverb you have applies to him: "So-and-so is like a Chinese plate; from wherever you look at it, it is adjacent." That is, in any field of knowledge he enters, you see proof of it. If he sits in a gathering where scholars are discussing, he speaks on every field until those present think he is a specialist in it.
The questioner : The Shaykh of Islam.
The questioner : This, Shaykh, for example, he wrote *Dar' Ta'arud al-'Aql wa al-Naql* (Reconciling Reason and Revelation). This thing is extraordinary.
The Shaykh : Brothers, this is not exaggerated speech; this is the truth. And then, the reader of his books—I say that the truth is that the Sufis use some soft, pleasant words regarding their awliya (close friends of Allah)... they describe them as being among those who know Allah. I believe this term applies to Ibn Taymiyyah; because you hear from him opinions and ideas that you do not find from anyone else at all. So, he was truly open to knowledge. You might find a scholar who, through extensive interaction with people of knowledge and sitting with them, took a share from every field of knowledge, but he is a transmitter, not an innovator, not one who brought a new innovation.
The Shaykh : What Allah willed, a nation...
The questioner : One of the early scholars mentioned, "He did not see anyone like himself."
The Shaykh : This is actually said about many people of knowledge and virtue, but most of the time it involves exaggeration. As for Ibn Taymiyyah, glory to the One who created him, the Syrian proverb you have applies to him: "So-and-so is like a Chinese plate; from wherever you look at it, it is adjacent." That is, in any field of knowledge he enters, you see proof of it. If he sits in a gathering where scholars are discussing, he speaks on every field until those present think he is a specialist in it.
The questioner : The Shaykh of Islam.
The questioner : This, Shaykh, for example, he wrote *Dar' Ta'arud al-'Aql wa al-Naql* (Reconciling Reason and Revelation). This thing is extraordinary.
The Shaykh : Brothers, this is not exaggerated speech; this is the truth. And then, the reader of his books—I say that the truth is that the Sufis use some soft, pleasant words regarding their awliya (close friends of Allah)... they describe them as being among those who know Allah. I believe this term applies to Ibn Taymiyyah; because you hear from him opinions and ideas that you do not find from anyone else at all. So, he was truly open to knowledge. You might find a scholar who, through extensive interaction with people of knowledge and sitting with them, took a share from every field of knowledge, but he is a transmitter, not an innovator, not one who brought a new innovation.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.