Assalaamu alaykum dear Scholars. May Allaah continue to bless your efforts for benefiting others. I have one question for which I have been looking for an answer for some time now. A long time ago, I read somewhere (I cannot remember where) that Ibn Taymiyyah never climbed the pulpit to deliver the sermon. Is that true? Please shed some light on this issue. Your assistance in the matter will highly be appreciated. May Allaah reward you.

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

Imaam Ibn Taymiyyah was not known for having delivered the Friday sermons, because if he was used to deliver them, then this would have become well-known of him, due to his status and high rank.

Murshid Al-Hayyaali said in an article entitled ‘Ibn Taymiyyah, the Preacher and Orator’:

“According to the most preponderant opinion of the scholars, and contrary to what Ibn Battootah, the traveler, said in his memoirs, Imaam Ibn Taymiyyah did not ascend the pulpit to deliver the Friday sermon. However, the Shaykh offered proselytization from all its aspects and in various fields. Perhaps if he had ascended the pulpit, then that would have been recorded in his works and in his noble biography, and his sermons would have been recorded in a book, and it [the book] would have been of great benefit for the Friday preachers in their preaching and admonitions, because the Shaykh was very powerful in providing clear-cut evidence, and because he possessed a remarkable eloquence, and he had great knowledge in all arts and sciences. His enemies testified to this about him, let alone his friends. If he had been known to deliver the Friday Khutbahs, his Friday speeches and admonitions would have been added to his heritage among what he had written and compiled in clarifying the true methodology in creed and morals, in the same manner that his students conveyed his letters and writings to us. It should be noted that the Shaykh sat for preaching and teaching at the age of nineteen.”

Of course, it is difficult to assert that Ibn Taymiyyah or others never delivered a Friday speech in their life.

In any case, this is part of historical research, and is considered a secondary issue that does not lead to any religious benefit.

Allaah knows best.