Ibn Taymiyyah on the Root Cause of Saint Veneration

Here is an interesting observation made by Josef Linnhoff in his dissertation (not sure I fully agree with it, but just citing it out of benefit nevertheless):

"A deeper reading of Ibn Taymiyya’s writing on shirk strengthens this image. Ibn Taymiyya considers the cult of saints to be the major manifestation of shirk in his time, but his works also reveal a sense of lenience and empathy towards the Muslim masses that take to venerating saints and graves. Fellow Ḥanbalī critics like Ibn ‘Aqīl took an unsympathetic view, arguing that the masses devise a sharī‘a of their own making as soon as the tenets of Islamic law become too taxing. For Ibn ‘Aqīl, the masses preferred free-mixing and social gatherings around graves and shrines, rather than disciplined prayer in the mosques.451 Ibn Qayyim similarly explains the prevalence of shirk by way of the deep ignorance of the masses of the true teachings of Islam. This makes them easy prey for Satan, he writes, who lures them into shirk around saints and graves under the guise of worship.

Against his fellow Ḥanbalī’s, a different ethic emerges in Ibn Taymiyya. The roots of shirk, he explains, lie not in the ignorance or laziness of the masses but in their inability to realize that God would, indeed does, listen to those as ordinary and insignificant as themselves. He writes:

And many of those in error say; ‘this (intermediary) is closer to God than me, and I am far from God, so it is not possible that I call to God without this mediation (wāsaṭa)’, and other types of sayings of the mushrikīn. And (in response to this) God Most High says: “when my slaves ask you (Muhammad) about Me, then indeed I am near. I respond to the calls of the supplicant, when he calls…” (Q 2:186). And (in explaining this verse) it is reported that the Companions said: ‘O Messenger, is God near to us, that we face Him, or far from us that we call out to Him?’ So God revealed this verse.

The difference with Ibn ‘Aqīl and Ibn Qayyim is clear. Ibn Taymiyya’s explanation carries less of a condemnatory tone vis-à-vis the masses and reveals his insight into the hearts of the common people. It was the masses’ failure to grasp the closeness of God that led them to commit shirk. There is a bitter irony here for Ibn Taymiyya; ordinary believers turn to intermediaries in a sincere attempt to draw closer to God, and yet in so doing they fall into shirk, only removing themselves from God further. Again, we may suggest here a strong if implicit link with Ibn Taymiyya’s stress on love (maḥabba) in the relationship between God and man; that is, in the widespread devotion to saints and graves, Ibn Taymiyya was able to see the demonstrable, practical consequences of a failure to comprehend the real love that God has for his servants. The causal link between an Ash‘arī reinterpretations of God’s love and popular devotion to saints, shrines and intermediaries is never made explicit by Ibn Taymiyya, yet this would no doubt fit neatly with his overall theology of love, saints and shirk."