Recent decades witnessed a significant increase of research interest in the thought of the controversial Muslim activist, theologian and jurist Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328). Ibn Taymiyya, who was active in Mamluk Damascus, is considered to this day one of the most prominent authorities of Sunni Islam. The book under review is a welcome addition to the study of Taymiyyan theology, concentrating on the much-debated issue of divine attributes (ṣifat Allāh) in the Quran and ḥadīth. Ibn Taymiyya delved into this challenging issue throughout his many works, and it also stood at the centre of attention during the two public trials that the Damascene scholar endured, which resulted in two separate periods of imprisonment.

Although numerous studies have been written about divine attributes in Islamic theology, including Ibn Taymiyya's unique approach, Suleiman's is the first full-length study exclusively dedicated to the subject. Since Ibn Taymiyya's teachings on the appropriate understanding of divine attributes are scattered across his oeuvre and are often articulated in a negative-polemical manner, Suleiman focuses on Ibn Taymiyya's positive-constructive views as they appear in ten of his writings, which are briefly presented in section 1.3. According to Suleiman, only by considering the works’ context and chronology is it possible to explore Ibn Taymiyya's overall methodology in terms of its development (pp. 11–2).

The book comprises three main parts. The first includes two chapters and provides necessary background based on secondary literature. Chapter 2 offers a biography of Ibn Taymiyya, emphasizing his tense relationship with the scholarly and political elite of his time, mainly due to theological disagreements. Chapter 3 contains a succinct overview of the different viewpoints on the divine attributes which evolved in Islamic theology prior to Ibn Taymiyya, addressing formative Islamic theology and Kalām, Muʿtazilī allegorical interpretation, the views of the Muslim philosophers, the traditionalistic school of ahl al-ḥadīth – with which Ibn Taymiyya affiliated himself – and the later Ashʿarī school. As Suleiman notes, it is primarily later-Ashʿarīs (especially Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, d. 606/1210) that Ibn Taymiyya considers his main opponents in this doctrinal clash (p. 94).

The second part of the book is the core of the study. It comprises five chapters: chapters 4–7 are arrayed thematically and examine the methodological foundations of Ibn Taymiyya's doctrine of attributes together with its key terminology, and chapter 8 summarizes their main conclusions. Chapter 4 inspects Ibn Taymiyya's underlying ontological premises, pointing out his conceptualist view in ontology, according to which human sensory perception of beings renders the physical world into intangible concepts; these concepts do not exist in reality or outside the human mind, but they can be expressed in the human language (pp. 113–4). Chapter 5 therefore examines Ibn Taymiyya's theory of language and his rejection of the separation between the literal and metaphorical meanings of a given expression, namely the ḥaqīqa–majāz dichotomy. As an alternative, Ibn Taymiyya relies on the teachings of ahl al-hadīth and promotes the idea of homonymous expressions which are equivocal and denote multiple meanings (pp. 164–5). As a result, such expressions’ meanings are relative and dependent on the object to which they refer or the context in which they appear (pp. 176 ff).

Chapter 6 explores Ibn Taymiyya's hermeneutical principles, opening with a discussion on his interpretation of the theologically laden verse Q 3:7 with references to the Islamic exegetical tradition. Suleiman uses Ibn Taymiyya's interpretation of this verse to present his definitions of the terms muḥkam (clearly comprehensible verse), mutasābih (ambiguous verse) and ta'wīl (interpretation). Upholding the methodology of ahl al-ḥadīth once again (p. 192), Ibn Taymiyya sees the divine attributes as absolutely intelligible in terms of their intended meaning on the semantic level and thus muḥkamāt; however, their ontic meanings are known to Allāh alone. This chapter also shows how Ibn Taymiyya strove to restrict the later-Ashʿarī “general rule” of interpretation (al-qānūn al-kullī) which al-Rāzī crystalized in his work Asās al-taqdīs. According to this rule, in cases of contradiction between Revelation (i.e. the Islamic scriptures) and Reason (ʿaql), priority is given to Reason as the source of apodictic knowledge. Since a literal interpretation of certain divine attributes implies God's corporeality, the later-Ashʿarīs claimed that they are to be interpreted metaphorically (i.e. ta'wīl majāzī). Since Ibn Taymiyya discarded this rule and perceived Reason as intrinsic to the Islamic scriptures, Suleiman positively formulates his “two principles and the seven basic rules of interpretation of the divine attributes” (p. 215). Taymiyyan fundamentals of epistemology are explored in chapter 7, where Suleiman explains Ibn Taymiyya's opinion on the applicability of categorical syllogism (qiyās) in theology. As Suleiman notes, Ibn Taymiyya drew his inspiration here from Sayf al-Dīn ‘l-Āmidī's (d. 631/1233) dialecticism (pp. 241 ff).

The third and final part of the book inspects Ibn Taymiyya's application of his methodology. Chapter 9 concentrates on the effect of time on God's states (aḥwāl) and actions (afʿāl). Chapter 10 thereafter scrutinizes the divine attributes of justice (ʿadl), speech (kalām), exaltation above His throne (istiwā'), and immanence (maʿiyya), with chapter 11 concluding a perception of a dynamic and ever-changing deity whose attributes are temporal at times.

Emphasizing the intellectual developments that Ibn Taymiyya stimulated in his doctrine, the book seems cautious – perhaps overly cautious – in depicting the scholar's stance using the term “traditionalistic” (pp. 60–61). To the best of this reviewer's knowledge, this designation indicates a spectrum of approaches declaring an adherence to the Islamic scriptures. Moreover, traditionalism is relevant to Ibn Taymiyya's ideological commitment to the salaf (pious ancestors), as well as to his practical method of corroborating arguments with accumulative evidence from the Islamic scriptures. Both aspects are intrinsic foundations of the Taymiyyan methodology and vital for its understanding, together with his inventive rationality. That said, the book will be helpful to researchers and students of Islamic theology and intellectual history, and it is also beneficial to readers interested in the history of ideas. Notable is Suleiman's decision to publish the book in German, perhaps to signal to the young field of Islamic theological studies in German and European universities. The field was established to foster a devotional scholarship of Islam and the training of Islamic educators. Against the backdrop of current academic discussions on this still-emerging discipline, the significance of studies such as the book under review is clearer than ever.