A Theory of Language: Ibn Taymiyya’s Philosophy of Meaning

Corrected: This study reconstructs Ibn Taymiyya’s theory of language as a comprehensive philosophy linking semantics, cognition, and theology. Rejecting both Aristotelian essentialism and kalām formalism, Ibn Taymiyya grounds meaning in communal usage (ʿurf), context (siyāq), and human convention (waḍʿ) enabled by divine creation of human capacity. Language, for him, is not an autonomous structure but a living medium of truth through which reason and revelation converge. Against the classical dichotomy between literal and metaphorical meaning, he advances a realist account of analogical expression (al-alfāẓ al-mushaqqaqa), where words apply to both divine and human realities by sharing a common conceptual core (qadr mushtarak) without implying equivalence. This framework anticipates modern cognitive semantics, particularly prototype theory and the graded nature of meaning identified by Eleanor Rosch and George Lakoff, while grounding their insights in a theocentric epistemology of divine capacity and Salaf-fixed convention. Ibn Taymiyya’s linguistic hierarchy—revelation, prophetic explanation, the early community, linguistic analysis, context, and reason—offers a hermeneutic method that reconciles scriptural fidelity with rational inquiry. His reflections on semantic change, exemplified by the evolution of ṣalāh from supplication to ritual prayer, prefigure modern theories of semantic drift and grammaticalization. Moreover, his theology of divine speech unites transcendence with intelligibility: God truly speaks with uncreated words and meanings, while their audible and written effects in creation are contingent. Through this synthesis, Ibn Taymiyya articulates a form of theological conventionalism that secures language as a trustworthy bridge between mind, world, and revelation. The result is an original theory of meaning that dissolves the modern anxiety over linguistic fragility by anchoring meaning in Salaf usage and divine preservation of text.