In a unique manuscript of the H anbali Yusuf ibn cAbd
al-Hadi (d. 909 H./1503 CE), entitled Bad' al-culqa
bi
labs al-khirqa, uncovered in the Princeton University
Library, Ibn Taymiyya is listed in a Sufi spiritual
genealogy
with other well-known Hanbali scholars. The
links in this genealogy are, in descending order from
cAbdul Qadir Jilani:
Shaikh cAbdul Qadir Jilani (d. 561 H./1165 CE)
Abu cUmar b. Qudama (d. 607 H./1210 CE)
Muwaffaq ad-Din
b. Qudama (d. 620 H./1223 CE)
Ibn cAli b. Qudama (d. 682 H./1283 CE)
Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728 H./1328 CE)
Ibn
Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 751 H./1350 CE)
Ibn Rajab (d. 795 H./1393 CE)
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the only thing, the only remote quote that implies affirmation of this caim is what was found
in the Princeton Library, of the work of Ibn
Taymiyya himself, in a book named, Targhib
al-Mutahabbin fi labs Khirqat al-Mutammayyazan by
Jamal ad-Dan al-Talyani. Here are Ibn Taymiyya's own
words,
as quoted from a work of his, al-Mas'ala
at-Tabraziyya:
"I wore the blessed Sufi
cloak of
Shaikh cAbdul Qadir Jilani, there being between him
and me two Sufi shaikhs."
However, like all matters,
just like the sunnah, things are weighed by way of it being mashoor. Basically if this issue suffered the critique of hadeeth
acceptance, the grade it would be stamped on would be after it being khabru-waheed (such narrations are still accepted, it
still goes through more stages. The claim also attains the rank of being ghareeb, not only ghareeb but it is also mursal,
meaning the ending narrators are majhool.
in any case, whatever was brought forth above now must be looked at form
the viewpoint of ibn taymiyyah
Ibn Taymiyyah viewed "tassawuf" in his famous fatawa regarding it that is on this site and you can
read it here Salafees on Sufis where in it Ibn taymiyyah clarifies the nature of tassawuf and its types.
basically whatever sufiship that could ever be attributed to Imaam Ibn Taymiyyah must be
by the route of what he himself viewed tassawuf to be, and such a state was classified by him in the first category, which
would be salafiyyah on zuhd or the salafi path of the purification of the soul. This is because
his view of his shaykh (al-jilanee), as well as my shaykh, is in the first category of sufis, by which in essence were from
ahlu-sunnah, the salafiyeen of the 4th and 5th centuries and into the 6th.
One last matter to clarify is the fact that the ijaaza granted from Shaykh Abdul-Qadr to Ibn taymiyyah
has nothing to do with "making waseela to graves" and "making tawaf" at the graves and accompanying them and from the other
ill practiced innovations done by most sufis nowadays which further adds more khilaaf between the original "sufis" were upon
versus modern day sufis.
The ijaazah granted to him stretching from Bani Qudamah to Ibn Taymiyyah was from the field of hanbaliyyah
from which Ibn taymiyyah has his formal ijaazah of the hanbali school. That completely demolishes the idea of him being being
what a modern day qadiri is since his ijaazah was not even in the field of tassawuf and Allah knows best
