| Safi al-Din al-Hindi Arabic: صفي الدين الهِنْدي | |
| Imam al-Mutakallimin | |
| Birth Date: | 1246-47 [1] |
| Birth Place: | Delhi delhi sultanate |
| Death Date: | 1315-16 [2] |
| Death Place: | Damascus[3] |
| Religion: | Islam |
| Denomination: | Sunni |
| Jurisprudence: | Shafi'i |
| Creed: | Ash'ari |
| Main Interests: | Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), Usul al-Fiqh (principles of jurisprudence), Usul al-Din, Aqidah, Kalam (Islamic theology), Logic |
| Influences: | Al-Shafi'i Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari |
| Influenced: | Taj al-Din al-Subki Al-Safadi Shihab al-Din al-'Umari Ibn al-Zamalkani |
Safi al-Din al-Hindi al-Urmawi (ar|صفي الدين الهندي الأرموي) was a prominent Indian Shafi'i-Ash'ari scholar and rationalist theologian.
Al-Hindi was brought in to debate at Ibn Taymiyya during the second hearing in Damascus in 1306. Taj al-Din al-Subki, in his Tabaqat al-Shafi'iyya al-Kubra, reports him to have said: "Oh Ibn Taymiyya, I see that you are only like a sparrow. Whenever I want to grab it, it escapes from one place to another."[4]
He was praised by Taj al-Din al-Subki, Al-Safadi, Shihab al-Din al-'Umari, Shams al-Din ibn al-Ghazzi, and 'Abd al-Hayy al-Hasani.
Safi al-Din al-Hindi was born in Delhi and completed his Islamic education there before settling in Damascus.[5] He visited Egypt and moved to Turkey, where he stayed[6] for eleven years; five in Konya, five in Sivas, and one in Kayseri. He arrived in Damascus in the second half of the 13th century and stayed there until he died.[7]
Safi al-Din al-Hindi studied under Siraj al-Din Urmavi and was said to have indirectly begun his studies with Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, whom he met through his maternal grandfather.[8] He was the teacher of mutakallim (theologian) Sadr al-Din ibn al-Wakil (d. 1317) and Kamal al-Din ibn al-Zamalkani (d. 1327).
His students, Ibn al-Wakil and Ibn al-Zamalkani and he, had been directly involved in Ibn Taymiyyah's famous 1306 Damascene trials, which were addressed to restrain Ibn Taymiyyah's relentless anti-Ash'ari polemics.[9]
Among his best-known writings:
Al-Hindi's Tis'iniyya is a straightforward manual of Ash'ari kalam treating the traditional theological topics of God, prophecy, eschatology, and related matters.
At the beginning of the book, al-Hindi explains that the occasion for writing was a disturbance provoked by Hanbalis: This is not a direct refutation of Ibn Taymiyya, but it was most likely written in response to the challenge that he posed.[10]