Murji'a

المرجئة

A sect holding that faith is speech without deed, that it neither increases nor decreases, and that people do not differ in it; the book describes their view as it relays it from the People of the Sunna, and rules it void. Ahmad Amin presents the question from the inside: the basis of irja' is how faith is defined. Religion has three elements, assent of the heart, profession of the tongue and action of the limbs. Some Murji'a confined faith to assent of the heart, arguing that iman means tasdiq in the lexicon; others made it two pillars, assent and profession, and they nearly all agree that deed is no pillar of it. Irja' began simple and naive in the Umayyad period, and as doctrines grew philosophical in the Abbasid age, irja' became philosophical too ¹.

Depth

At a glance

Era: The Early Abbasid Caliphate
Region: Levant & Iraq
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Sects and schools Creed

Overview

The Murji'a, according to the book's description, claim that faith is speech without deed, that faith neither increases nor decreases, and that people are not distinguished in it. ² The book reports from their view that whoever believes with his tongue and does no deed is truly a believer, and is judged to be in error. ²

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

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-Maqdisi Lum'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

Academic viewSecondary opinion

Irja' as a kalam dispute over the elements of iman, not mere deferral

Amin sets out their lexical argument (iman is tasdiq) and the opponents' counter that the revealed law refines lexical senses.

Basis: Duha al-Islam — Ahmad Amin (Hindawi 2012)

People and things also explored

The people of the qibla and not declaring takfir for sin· Ghayba (occultation)· Ilm al-kalam (speculative theology)· The Imamate· Infallibility of the Imams (Twelver Shi'a)· The doctrine of the awaited Mahdi (al-mahdiyya)· Raj'a (the return to the world)· Disavowal (tabarri) of the Companions in Twelver Shi'a sources

Sources

Duha al-Islam — Ahmad Amin (Hindawi 2012) , p. 932-933
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. “Murji'a”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/group/murjia/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-25.

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The people of the qibla and not declaring takfir for sin

al-Tahawi's principle of calling the people of the qibla Muslims and believers so long as they accept what the Prophet brought, and of not declaring any of them an unbeliever for a sin unless he declares it lawful.