Ibn Balban al-Hanbali

Ibn Balbān (c. 1597–1672) was a Sunni Muslim scholar and jurist of the Hanbali school. He was the teacher of the Hanbali jurist and historian, Ibn al-Imad, and the Damascene historian, Al-Muhibbi.

Biography His real name was Muhammad ibn Badr al-Din. He was born between the years 1597 and 1598 in Damascus to a scholarly family of Lebanese origin. Ibn Balban studied the science of hadith under two teachers, Shihab al-Ithhawi al-Kabir and Shams al-Maydani, both of which later gave him the ijazah and qualifications for a muhaddith. Ibn Balban died of old age in 1672.

In the work, Ibn Balban, like some other Hanbali scholars, explicitly rejects the notion that God occupies a physical location above the Throne. In the first section of the book, Ibn Balban addresses the concept of "marifatullah", stating that it is a religious obligation upon every mukallaf (legally responsible) individual. However, Ibn Balban establishes strict limits regarding what can and cannot be known by humans about God. For Ibn Balban, "marifatullah" does not involve comprehending the essence (dhat) of God, as that is impossible; neither God nor his attributes resemble creation. In 2016, Islamic scholar Musa Furber wrote an abridged and annotated version of it in the English language, which was titled Hanbali Acts of Worship. Mukhtaṣar al-'Ifādāt ("The Summary of Benefits") is a foundational text covering the topics of faith, jurisprudence and theology. Qalaʾid al-ʿIqyān ("The Golden Pendant") is a treatise on the solidified creed of the Hanbali school, as well as an abridgement of an earlier treatise by Ibn Hamdan.