The worship of Ibn Taymiyyah

by Abu Hafs ‘Umar bin ‘Ali al-Bazzar( May Allah have Mercy on him)

During the nights, he would separate himself from everybody, secluding himself with his Lord, strictly maintaining his recitation of the Mighty Qur'an, and repeating the various types of daily and nightly worship.

When the night was over, he would rejoin the people for the Fajr prayer, praying the optional prayer before meeting them. When he would begin the prayer, your heart would want to fly from its place just from the way in which he would make the opening takbir. When he would begin the prayer, his limbs would shake, moving him left and right. When he would recite, he would elongate his recitation just as was authentically reported regarding the recitation of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). His bowing, prostration, and his coming up from them were from the most complete of what has ever been reported in regards to the obligatory prayer. He would severely lighten his sitting for the first tashahhud, and would say the first taslim out loud to the point that everyone who was present would hear it.

When he finished his prayer, he and whoever was present would praise Allah with what was narrated: ‘Oh Allah, You are Peace, and You are the Source of Peace. You are Blessed, O Possessor of Glory and Honor,’ and he would then turn to the congregation, repeat the narrated tahlil, as well as the 33 tasbih, tahmid, and takbir, and complete the hundred with a tahlil as was narrated, and the congregation would do exactly as he did. He would then supplicate to Allah for himself and the Muslims with the various narrated supplications, and he would most often supplicate with: ‘O Allah! Aide us and do not aide anyone over us. Plan for us and not against us. Guide us and make guidance easy for us. O Allah! Make us thankful to You, depending on and
remembering You, submissive to You, loving You, fearing You, and obedient to You. Our Lord! Accept our repentance, wash away our sins, and keep our words firm. Guide our hearts, and remove all malice from our chests,’ and he would open and close this supplication by praying for the Prophet (peace be upon him), and he would then proceed to engage in dhikr.

And I came to know that it was his habit that nobody would speak to him unless absolutely necessary after the Fajr prayer. He would remain in a state of dhikr of Allah, listening to himself. Sometimes, he would let those sitting next to him listen to his dhikr, all the while constantly turning his eyesight to the sky. He would remain in such a state until the Sun rose and the time in which prayer is forbidden had passed.

During my stay in Damascus, I would spend some of the day and most of the night with him. He would draw me near to him, sitting me beside him. I would hear what he would recite and repeat, and I saw that he would repeat ‘al-Fatihah’ over and over again, and would spend all of his time between Fajr and sunrise doing this. So, I kept thinking to myself, wondering why he would recite this specific chapter of the Qur’an in exclusion to the others. Eventually, it became clear to me - and Allah Knows best - that his intention in doing so was to combine with his recitation between what was narrated in the ahadith and what was discussed by the scholars in regards to whether the narrated adhkar should take precedence over recitation of the Qur’an or vice versa. So, he saw that in repeating ‘al-Fatihah,’ he could combine between both opinions and reap the benefits of both actions, and this was from his strength in logic and depth of insight.

After this, he would pray Duha, and if he wanted to hear Hadith in another place, he would rush to that place with whoever happened to be with him at the time.

It was rare that any intelligent person would see him and not come and kiss his hands. Even the busiest of businessmen would walk from what they were doing to greet him and seek his blessings. With all of this, he would give everyone of them their share of attention, greetings, etc.

If he saw any evil in the street, he would work to remove it, and if he heard of a funeral taking place, he would rush to pray in it or apologize for missing it. Sometimes, he would go to the grave of the deceased after he finished listening to Hadith and pray over it.

Afterwards, he would return to his mosque, where he would remain either giving fatawa to the people or fulfilling their needs until it was time to pray Dhuhr in congregation. He would spend the rest of the day in such a manner.

His classes were open to the general public: for the old, the young, the wealthy, the poor, the free, the slave, males, and females. He attracted everyone that would pass by him, and every one of them would feel that Ibn Taymiyyah was treating them better than he was treating anyone else present.

He would then pray Maghrib and follow it up with as much optional prayer as Allah made possible. I or someone else would then read his writings to him, and he would benefit us with various points and notes. We would do this until we prayed ‘Isha’, after which we would continue as we were before, delving into the various fields of knowledge. We would do this until much of the night had passed. During this entire time - night and day - Ibn Taymiyyah would constantly remember Allah, mention His Oneness, and seek His Forgiveness. And he would constantly raise his eyesight to the sky and would not stop doing this, as if he saw something there that kept his eyesight hooked. He would do this for as long as I was staying with him.

So, subhan Allah! How short were these days! If only they were longer! By Allah, until this day, there has never been a time in my life that was more beloved to me than the time I spent with him, and I was never seen in a better state than I was at that time, and this was for no other reason than the barakah of the Shaykh, may Allah be Pleased with him. Every week, he would visit the sick, especially those at the hospital, and I have been informed by more than one person whose trustworthiness I do not doubt that the entire life of the Shaykh was spent in the way that I witnessed and described above. So, what worship, and what jihad, is better than this?

Source: The Lofty Virtues of Ibn Taymiiyyah by the Imam, the Hafidh Abu Hafs ‘Umar bin ‘Ali al-Bazzar( May Allah have Mercy on him)