Gifts of Knowledge

Al-Bazzār said, “I never saw anyone honour and venerate the Shaikh more than his brother who was the one supporting him [in his worldly affairs]. He used to sit in the Shaikh’s presence as though there was a bird perched on his head [i.e., deadly still]. And would respect him the way you would a Sultan [i.e., a ruler].

We would marvel at that and said to him, ‘Normal custom and habit dictates that a person’s family aren’t as reserved with him as outsiders, and that in fact they relax with him more than a stranger, but we see you with the Shaikh like a student of his in your clear awe and reverence of him.’

So he said, ‘I see things from him that other people don’t, things which oblige me to be with him as you see.’

He would be asked to expound on that but would not mention a single thing due to him knowing that the Shaikh didn’t want it.”
Al-Aʿlām al-ʿAliyyah fī Manāqibi Shaikhil-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah, p. 52.

Ibn Rajab said, “And it has reached me through an authentic line of transmission from Ibn az-Zamlakānī that he was asked about the Shaikh, i.e., Ibn Taymiyyah, so he said, “No one greater in memorisation than him has been seen in five hundred years …”

Ash-Shahādah az-Zakiyyah fī Thanāʾil-Aʾimmah ʿalā Ibn Taymiyyah, p. 36.

Imaam al-Bazzaar said, “As for his lessons, I wouldn’t miss them while I was resident in Damascus. He wouldn’t prepare anything beforehand that he was about to teach or present, instead he would sit after praying two rakʿahs and then praise Allāh and extol Him and send ṣalāh on His Messenger ﷺ, in a pleasant, beautiful manner which I had never heard before.

And then he would begin.

Allāh would aid him in conveying knowledge and subtle, fine, delicate points, and different specialties, and in citing narrations, and in drawing answers from verses and ḥadīths, and sayings of the scholars, examining some of them and expounding on their validity or whether spurious, clarifying his argument, citing the poetry of the Arabs as proof, at times mentioning the name of the poet too—all the while in doing so he would be running forth like a river, overflowing like the sea, and he would, from the time he started speaking until he finished, be as though absent from those around him.

Eyes closed.

All done unintentionally, speaking without haughtiness, or stopping or mistakes, but rather a divine gift bestowed on him, such that whoever was listening or saw him would be dazzled, and he would remain like that until he went silent.

I would see him during all this as though in the presence of one preoccupying him from others, and at that time he would be held in awe which would cause the people’s hearts to shudder and astonish the eyes and minds … and upon finishing his lesson he would open his eyes and turn to the people with a cheerful face, smiling, gentle-mannered, as though he was only then meeting them, and even apologizing for any shortcomings in what he may have said whilst in that state, and a number of notebooks could be written out of the lesson, and what I mention here about it is well-known, everyone present will agree with me on it, and they are numerous, walḥamdulillāh, such that how many they are can’t be counted, reciters, ḥadīth scholars, fiqh scholars, writers, and the general Muslims.”
Al-Aʿlām al-ʿAliyyah fī Manāqibi Shaikhil-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah, pp. 28-30.

He is:

“The Shaikh, the Imām, the ʿAllāmah, the Abstemious, the Worshiper, the Mujāhid, the Courageous, the Sagacious Scholar, the Helper of the Pure Sharīʿah, the Tongue [Spokesperson] of the Sharīʿah, the Defender of the Muhammadan Sunnah, the Aider of the Religion, the Inheritor of the Prophets, the Blessing of Islām, the Reviver of the Sunnah, the Sea of Knowledge, the Scholar of the Qurʾān, the Interpreter of the Qurʾān, the Mufti of the Different Sects, the Attainer of the Limits of Understanding, the Master Memoriser, the Essential, the Elucidator of the Truth, the Caller to Allaah and His Messenger, the Light Allaah Unleashed on the Darkness of Doubts, the Reviver of what was Obliterated of the Sunnah, the One having Humility, the Leader of the Preservers of Ḥadīth, the Exemplar, the Refuter of the Deviants and the Stubborn, the Outstanding, the Scrupulous, the Knower [of Allaah], the Aider of the Sunnah, The Subduer of Innovations, Allaah’s Proof against His Creation, the Wonder of his Time, the Chief of the Worshippers, the Paragon of Intelligence, the Enjoiner of Good and Forbidder of Evil, the Unraveller of the Problems of the Muslims, the Chief of Knowledge, the Discerner of Authentic Ḥadīth from the Weak, the Knight of Meanings and Elucidation, the Author of Unprecedented Inimitable Works on Tawhid, Tafsir, Sincerity, Fiqh, Hadith, Language, Grammar, and all Branches of Knowledge, the Great Leader, the Unique Scholar, the Chief of the Scholars, the Sign of the Scholars, the Role Model of the Venerable Scholars, the Head of the Scholars of the World, the Unrivalled Imām, the Imām of the Imāms, the Remnant of the Distinguished Imāms, the Mujtahid, the Unique Mujtahid, the Last of the Mujtahids, the Mujtahid Muṭlaq [Unrestricted Mujtahid], the Flagbearer of Abundant Branches of Knowledge, the Flagbearer of Tafsīr, the Flagbearer of Ḥadīth, the Flagbearer of the Sharīʿah, the Shaikh of Islām, the Shaikh of Islām and the Muslims, the Shaikh of the Shaikhs of Islām: Ahmad son of the Shaikh, the Imām, the Mufti Shihābud-Dīn, Abul-Mahāsin, ʿAbdul-Ḥalīm son of the Shaikh, the Imām, the Shaikh of Islām, Majdud-Dīn, Abul-Barakāt ʿAbdus-Salām Ibn Tayimyyah.”
Taken from Ash-Shahādah az-Zakiyyah fī Thanāʾil-Aʾimmah ʿalā Ibn Taymiyyah and Al-Aʿlām al-ʿAliyyah fī Manāqibi Shaikhil-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah.

Allāh have mercy on him and admit him to Firdaws.

Shamsud-Dīn al-Maqdisī aṣ-Ṣāliḥī said about Ibn Taymiyyah:

“The Shaikh of the Shaikhs of Islaam.”

Ash-Shahādah az-Zakiyyah fī Thanāʾil-Aʾimmah ʿalā Ibn Taymiyyah, p. 60.

Al-Bazzaar said, “And Allaah made his renunciation of the world [zuhd] and its pleasures a symbol of his from a young age.

Someone I trust told me that the Shaikh who used to teach him the Quran said, “When Ibn Taymiyyah was a child, his father said to me, ‘I want you to urge and promise him that if he doesn’t stop reading and memorising I will give him forty dirhams every month,’ and then he gave me forty dirhams, saying, ‘Give them to him, because he is young and will maybe delight at that and become even more eager to busy himself in memorising and studying it, and say to him, ‘You will get the same every month.’”

But he refused and said, ‘O teacher, I promised Allaah, the Most High, that I would not take any payment for [studying] the Quran.’

So I realised that a child does not do this—except someone whom Allaah is guarding.”

Al-Aʿlām al-ʿAliyyah fī Manāqibi Shaikhil-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah, p. 44