Was Ibn Taymiyyah a Nominalist? A Critical Analytical Study of Abu Yarub Al Marzouqi’s Reading of Ibn Taymiyyah

Abu Yarub Al Marzouqi believes that the famous Hanbalite scholar Ibn Taymiyya adopts a nominal methodology, indeed, that he sees Islam– which he calls "Neo-Hanafism" – as a nominalist project used to confront the realism adopted by the neo-Platonists as regards their view of the universal: can the universal be verified in reality, or is it an exclusively mental concept? Since Ibn Taymiyya is clearly inclined towards the belief that it is a solely mental concept, as the study shows, the real point of discussion is: does Ibn Taymiyya believe this mental concept is congruent with the specifics of the exterior world as his writings suggest, or not, as Marzouqi suggests? This critical study lays out Marzouqi's reading of Ibn Taymiyya. Is it a reading that seeks precision, or is it a projection that does not correctly express his approach to the "universal" and its congruence with external particulars?

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Abu Yarub Al Marzouqi believes that the famous Hanbalite scholar Ibn Taymiyya adopts a nominal methodology, indeed, that he sees Islam– which he calls "Neo-Hanafism" – as a nominalist project used to confront the realism adopted by the neo-Platonists as regards their view of the universal: can the universal be verified in reality, or is it an exclusively mental concept? Since Ibn Taymiyya is clearly inclined towards the belief that it is a solely mental concept, as the study shows, the real point of discussion is: does Ibn Taymiyya believe this mental concept is congruent with the specifics of the exterior world as his writings suggest, or not, as Marzouqi suggests? This critical study lays out Marzouqi's reading of Ibn Taymiyya. Is it a reading that seeks precision, or is it a projection that does not correctly express his approach to the "universal" and its congruence with external particulars?

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