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Jahmiyya

الجهمية

A kalam sect named after Jahm, holding views on the Qur'an and the divine attributes; the book describes their positions as the scholars whom the author knew relayed them, and their own wording has not yet been added.

Depth

At a glance

Era
The Early Abbasid Caliphate
Region
Levant & Iraq
Review
Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it

Sects and schoolsDissent, heresy and freethought

Overview

The Jahmiyya split into three groups over the question of the Qur'an. 1 According to the book's description, the people of this view say that the Qur'an is created, that God did not speak to Musa, and that God is not a speaker. 2 The book reports from the scholars that they agreed that whoever holds this view is asked to repent; if he does not repent, he is put to death, and he may not marry nor is his judgement accepted. 1

Opinions on the question

First opinion · Sunni tradition (the museum's frame) · Sunni (Hanbali)Main reference

Basis: al-Madkhal ila Madhhab al-Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal — Ibn Badran (al-Turki edition)

More opinions (2)

Sunni tradition (the museum's frame) · Sunni (Hanbali)Main reference

Basis: al-Madkhal ila Madhhab al-Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal — Ibn Badran (al-Turki edition)

Sunni tradition (the museum's frame) · Sunni (Hanbali)Main reference

Listed among the sects of misguidance in Lum'at al-i'tiqad; described as the book describes them

Ibn Qudama lists this sect among the sects of misguidance; the editor's footnote gives its origin (2nd ed., pp. 113–115).

Held by: Ibn Qudama al-MaqdisiLum'at al-I'tiqad

Basis: Lum'at al-I'tiqad, Ibn Qudama al-Maqdisi (ed. Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Furayhan ibn Uraye'ir, Dar Rakaez, 1443 AH) pp. 113–115 (2nd ed.), editor's footnote on origins

People and things also explored

Hadr (blood and value wasted: no retaliation, no compensation)· Hawa (desire, and the duty to resist it)· Al-Kadhimiya Mosque (Kazimayn shrine)· Imam Husayn Shrine, Karbala· Ahl al-Ahwa (the people of deviant opinions in Islam, and the rules on their testimony, narration and prayer behind them)· The people of the qibla and not declaring takfir for sin· The division of the community (al-iftiraq al-ummah)· Blind imitation (taqlid)

Sources

  1. al-Madkhal ila Madhhab al-Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal — Ibn Badran (al-Turki edition) , p.54
  2. al-Madkhal ila Madhhab al-Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal — Ibn Badran (al-Turki edition) , p.96
  • Lum'at al-I'tiqad, Ibn Qudama al-Maqdisi (ed. Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Furayhan ibn Uraye'ir, Dar Rakaez, 1443 AH)
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Jahmiyya”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/group/jahmiyya/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-25.

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Related

Hadr (blood and value wasted: no retaliation, no compensation)

Hadr means waste or nullity; as a technical term, a hadr soul is one for which there is neither retaliation, diya nor expiation. The principle is that a human life is protected, but an apostate is an exception agreed by the jurists: the imam or his deputy executes him, and if someone other than the imam kills him without authorisation there is no retaliation or diya, though he is disciplined (ta'zir). The blood of a heretic whose innovation is takfiri is also wasted, and so is that of a belligerent non-Muslim; non-combatants such as women, children, the old, and monks may not be killed. The blood of a married adulterer is wasted in the view of most jurists; the Hanafis require that the killing follow a judgment. Where a wounded person's status changed between protected and wasted before death, the majority hold the earlier wound unliable, while Ibn al-Qasim (Maliki) holds a diya due. If a Muslim shot a hadr person who then converted before the arrow struck, the majority hold no retaliation is due, while the Shafi'is hold, in the sounder view, a lighter diya paid by the kin. For the Shafi'is the retaliation is claimed by the Muslim next of kin; for the Hanbalis it is the imam who executes. A person whose blood is wasted need not be given water he needs, and the Shafi'is and Hanbalis permit a compelled person to kill such a person to save his own life if no other food is found. One whose blood was wasted by a crime who kills himself gets no expiation from that act, since he has no right to spill his own blood.