From legal theory to erkenntnistheorie: Ibn taymiyya on tawatur as the ultimate guarantor of human cognition

Abstract

This article presents and analyzes Ibn Taymiyya's views on tawatur in u?ul al-fiqh and as the basis of a generalized epistemological system. In legal theory, IbnTaymiyya expands the umbrella of what is "functionally equivalent to the mutawatir," extending epistemic certainty to a wide range of religious knowledge. More originally, he expands tawatur beyond the realm of transmitted knowledge altogether, making it the final guarantor of all human cognition. Tawatur in this theory reveals the nature of the uncorrupted human intellect, underwriting the integrity even of the basic axioms of reason and the native intuitions of the sound human fi?ra.