Sects and schools
Family: Unity, division and dissent · 112 entries
Entries on this theme
Person
Abu Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib
c. 535 CEAn uncle of the Prophet who raised him, led Banu Hashim, and protected him from Quraysh until his own death — while whether he himself embraced Islam is contested between the traditions.Abu Bakr al-Siddiq
c. 573 CEClose companion of the Prophet and the first caliph (r. 632–634 CE); his succession is understood differently in Sunni and Shia tradition.Ali ibn Abi Talib
c. 600 CECousin and son-in-law of the Prophet and the fourth caliph (r. 656–661 CE); the first Imam in Shia tradition.Fatima bint Muhammad
c. 605 CEThe youngest daughter of the Prophet and Khadija and wife of Ali ibn Abi Talib; mother of Hasan and Husayn and a central figure of Ahl al-Bayt in both Sunni and Shia tradition.Hasan ibn Ali
c. March 625 CE · c. Ramadan 3 AHElder grandson of the Prophet through Fatima and Ali; briefly caliph in 661 CE before abdicating in favor of Muawiya, an act understood differently across the traditions.Husayn ibn Ali
c. January 626 CE · c. Rabi' I 4 AHYounger grandson of the Prophet through Fatima and Ali; killed at Karbala in 680 CE after refusing allegiance to Yazid I, an event of lasting significance especially in Shia tradition.Zaynab bint Ali
c. 626 CE · c. 5 AH†Granddaughter of the Prophet through Fatima and Ali; a survivor of Karbala whose accounts and defiance made her a central voice of her family in tradition.al-Julanda ibn Mas'ud
al-Julanda ibn Mas'ud — the Ibadi imam of Oman whose rising against al-Saffah was drowned in fire and sword by Khazim ibn Khuzayma, 134 AH.ملبد بن حرملة الشيباني
Mulabbid ibn Harmala — the Jaziran Khariji who routed governor after governor until Khazim ibn Khuzayma's archers brought him down, 138 AH.سنباذ المجوسي
Sunbadh — the Zoroastrian of Aharwana who rose for Abu Muslim's blood as 'Firuz Aspahbadh', seized Nishapur, Qumis and Rayy, and fell to Jahwar ibn Marrar after seventy days, 137 AH.al-Muqanna' al-Khurasani
al-Muqanna' — the Veiled One of Khurasan who wore a golden mask and claimed divinity through the metempsychosis of Adam's spirit via Abu Muslim; his Mubayyida followers spread across Bukhara and Soghd until Sa'id al-Harashi's victory and his self-immolation, 159-161 AH.al-Walid ibn Tarif al-Shari
al-Walid ibn Tarif — the Shabani (or Taghlibi) Khariji lion of the Jazira, 178 AH; 'I am al-Walid ibn Tarif the Shari'; mourned by his sister al-Fari'a as al-Khansa' mourned her brothers.داود الظاهري
c. 815 CE · c. 200 AHDawud ibn Ali al-Isbahani — Kufa-born (c. 200), Baghdad-bred (d. 270); a zealous Shafi'i who wrote al-Shafi'i's virtues then broke away to found the literalist Zahiri school, rejecting qiyas and holding to the evident text.Akbar the Great
1542 CE · 949 AH†Akbar the Great.Abd Allah ibn al-Husayn (the infant of Karbala)
Abd Allah ibn al-Husayn ibn Ali ibn Abi Talib, the infant of Karbala; Ibn Kathir lists him as the second of Husayn's sons killed with him in 61 AH — the Twelver tradition names him Ali al-Asghar.Abdallah ibn Ibad
Abdallah ibn Ibad — the eponym of the Ibadiyya, the one Khariji branch to survive, in North Africa, Oman, Hadramawt and Zanzibar, with a fiqh and kalam of its own shaped partly by the Mu'tazila.Abu al-Mu'in al-Nasafi
Draft card for Abu al-Mu'in Maymun ibn Muhammad al-Nasafi, the leading eleventh-century Maturidi theologian author of Tabsirat al-Adilla, d. 1115; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.Abu Sulayman al-Sijistani
Draft card for Abu Sulayman Muhammad ibn Tahir al-Sijistani, the tenth-century Baghdadi philosopher and logician of the majalis, d. 985; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.Ahmad ibn Hanbal
An imam and hadith scholar who compiled the Musnad; eponym of the Hanbali school, which gives precedence to the revealed text and transmitted reports. He wrote only one treatise on jurisprudence, on prayer, while his students wrote more than thirty volumes of his words and fatwas.al-Allama al-Hilli
Draft card for Jamal al-Din Ibn al-Mutahhar al-Hilli, the thirteenth-century Imami jurist-theologian author of Khulasat al-Aqwal and Tadhkirat al-Fuqaha, d. 1325; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.al-Baghdadi Abu Mansur Abd al-Qahir ibn Tahir
Theologian of Baghdad who wrote on the principles of faith, on the createdness of the Qur'an and on the interpretation of ambiguous reports, and on the sects.al-Baqillani
Draft card for Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn al-Tayyib al-Baqillani, the Ash'ari theologian of Baghdad author of al-Insaf and I'jaz al-Qur'an who fixed the school's doctrine, d. 1013; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.al-Fari'a al-Kharijiyya
al-Fari'a — the Khariji poetess who mourned her brother al-Walid ibn Tarif as al-Khansa' mourned Sakhr and Mu'awiya.Al-Qasim ibn al-Hasan
Al-Qasim ibn al-Hasan ibn Ali ibn Abi Talib; Ibn Kathir records his killing at Karbala in 61 AH among the ahl al-bayt martyred with Husayn.al-Saymari al-Mu'tazili
Draft card for Abu Abdallah Muhammad ibn Umar al-Saymari the Mu'tazili, the tenth-century jurist, d. 927; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.Ali al-Akbar ibn al-Husayn
Ali al-Akbar ibn al-Husayn ibn Ali ibn Abi Talib; Ibn Kathir counts him among Husayn's sons killed with him at Karbala in 61 AH.بكير بن ماهان
Bukayr ibn Mahan — reckoned the chief of the Abbasid propagandists in Iraq, alongside Maysara al-Abdi and Abu Salama al-Khallal.Hisham ibn Amr al-Fuwati
Draft card for Abu Muhammad Hisham ibn Amr al-Fuwati, the ninth-century Mu'tazili theologian; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.Abd al-Qadir ibn Badran
A Damascene Hanbali scholar, author of al-Madkhal ila Madhhab al-Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal; he died in Damascus in 1346 AH.Ibn Mattawayh
Draft card for Ibn Mattawayh, the eleventh-century Mu'tazili theologian, d. 1075; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.Jahm ibn Safwan
Draft card for Jahm ibn Safwan, the eighth-century theologian after whom the Jahmiyya is named, known for deterministic and radically apophatic positions, killed in 745; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.جديع الكرماني
Juday' al-Kirmani — leader of the Yamani-Rabi'a bloc in revolutionary Khurasan, ally then victim of Abu Muslim's divide-and-rule.خداش البلخي
Khidash al-Balkhi — one of the Khurasani propagandists, destroyed by his own extremism according to Taqqush's account.ميسرة العبدي
Maysara al-Abdi — mawla of Ali ibn Abdallah ibn Abbas and one of the three organisers of the Abbasid da'wa in Iraq.Muhammad ibn Nusayr
Muhammad ibn Nusayr al-Namiri, eponym of the Nusayriyya; al-Shahrastani transmits from al-Nawbakhti that he claimed prophethood as sent by al-Hasan al-Askari, professing metempsychosis and deification of Abu'l-Hasan.Qadi Abd al-Jabbar
Draft card for Qadi Abd al-Jabbar ibn Ahmad al-Hamadhani, the Mu'tazili theologian and qadi of Rayy author of al-Mughni, d. 1025; the biographical entry is not yet checked on the page.Sabbatai Zevi
Sabbatai Zevi (1626-1676 CE) was a Jewish messianic claimant whose movement flourished across the Ottoman world and ended in his nominal conversion to Islam before the sultan; academic study records his course and Ottoman context.شيبان الحروري
Shayban al-Haruri — the Haruri Khariji chief whom Abu Muslim used against the Umayyads and then eliminated.سليمان بن كثير الخزاعي
Sulayman ibn Kathir al-Khuza'i — the naqib of naqibs who proclaimed the revolution on 25 Ramadan 129 AH, declined its leadership, and was put to death by Abu Muslim.Uthman ibn Ali
Uthman ibn Ali ibn Abi Talib; Ibn Kathir counts him among Ali's sons killed with Husayn at Karbala in 61 AH.
Event
Ghadir Khumm
March 632 CE · Dhu al-Hijja 10 AHA halt at the pool of Khumm on the return from the Farewell Pilgrimage, at which the Prophet spoke about Ali.The pen-and-paper incident
c. 26 May 632 CE · 8 Rabi' I 11 AHOn the Thursday four days before his death the Prophet said 'bring me [something] to write for you a document after which you will never go astray'; Umar said pain had overcome him and the Qur'an sufficed, the people of the house disputed, and the Prophet sent them away — an episode the traditions read differently.The meeting at Saqifa
8 June 632 CE · 12 Rabi' I 11 AHAfter the Prophet's death, leaders of the Ansar and Muhajirun met in the hall of the Banu Sa'ida and chose Abu Bakr as leader of the community. ونص الاجتماع كاملاً عند البخاري من رواية عمر: اجتماع الأنصار في السقيفة، ومشي أبي بكر وعمر وأبي عبيدة إليهم، والخطابان، ويدا عمر وبشير بن سعد، فالبيعة.Al-Khirit ibn Rashid's revolt (38–39 AH)
658 CE · 38 AHThe Najid Khariji who walked out on Ali after Nahrawan — 'your man's imamate and your conduct alike displease me; I side with those who call for shura'. His night-battle with Ziyad ibn Khasafa bent swords and hamstrung horses; he drew the Banu Najiya and Ahwazi tax-resisters around him until Ma'qil ibn Qays's four-thousand-man expedition demanded 'ten for every one of them'.The Shi'i–Sunni war at Wasit (406–407 AH)
1015 CE · 406 AH406–407: Wasit's confessional war burned out the Shi'i and Zaydi quarters and drove their notables and Alawids into exile — they fled to Banu Mazyad begging his aid, an early sign of the Mazyadids' rise as patrons of the Alawids.Al-Qadir's recantation decree against the innovators (408 AH)
1017 CE · 408 AH408: al-Qadir bi'llah made the Hanafi Mu'tazili faqihs recant — they 'showed return and disavowed i'tizal' — and bound them in writing never to teach or debate i'tizal, rafd or 'doctrines contrary to Islam' on pain of exemplary punishment; Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna emulated the decree in Khurasan with killing, crucifixion, burning, minbar-curses and expulsion of Mu'tazilis, Rafidis, Ismailis, Qarmatis, Jahmis and Mushabbihas — 'and it became a sunna in Islam'.The Baratha Mosque Affair in 420
c. November 1029 CE · Dhu al-Qa'da 420 AHThe caliphal court arrested the preacher of Baratha mosque for excessive praise of Ali ibn Abi Talib in his sermon. On Friday 19 Dhu al-Qa'da a substitute, Abu Mansur ibn Tamam, preached in his place, reducing the mention of Ali and closing with 'O God, forgive the Muslims and whoever claims that Ali is his master (mawla).' The common people pelted him with clods, breaking his shoulder and teeth and drawing blood. The caliph's decree came out angrily, calling it 'a mosque that gathers unbelievers and heretics' and likening it to the Mosque of Dirar; about thirty men attacked the preacher's house, and Friday prayer was suspended for weeks until the Feast of Sacrifice (Eid al-Nahr), when the muezzin garbled the takbir and panic broke out. Shaykhs of Karkh and al-Sharif al-Murtada intervened, and a preacher was reinstated by a written decree dated the first of Muharram, exempted from striking the pulpit with a sword and from mentioning 'his master'.The Karkh–Sunni reconciliation and joint pilgrimage to the two shrines
c. 1050 CE · 442 AHIn 442 the quarter-factions united against the police chief Ibn al-Naswi, vowing to burn their own markets and quit the city if he crossed; the hostility dissolved into an extraordinary truce — Karkh prayed at the Sunni Qala'in gate with 'hayya ila khayr al-amal' answered by 'al-salatu khayrun min al-nawm', Karkh invoked mercy on the Companions, and in Dhu'l-Hijja the two communities marched together to the shrines of Ali and Husayn, the Sunni black banner bearing the caliph's name beside Karkh's gilded standards, Turks and Sunnis joining a pilgrimage they had never attended before, while onlookers scattered dirhams over them.The gate-building war between Karkh and al-Qala'in
c. February 1050 CE · Sha'ban 441 AHIn Sha'ban 441 the people of Karkh began a wall over the Anmat market with a gate facing Sammakin; the Sunnis of Qala'in answered with a rival wall and gate of their own — and the building turned into a civic spectacle: Turks funded the Qala'in side with money and mules, a barge of bricks came with a brocade canopy, Karkh carried bricks on men's heads preceded by drums and mimes, rosewater was sprinkled into the foundations, and a woman stripped off her brocade jukaniyya and gave it to the building. On 'Id al-Fitr the feud broke into wounds and killings, the Sunnis raised a roofed market and a mosque between the two gates called Bab al-Mas'ud.The Bab al-Tibn shrine exhumed and the Sammakin gate battle
c. April 1051 CE · Safar 443 AHIn Safar 443 the Sunni–Shi'i war resumed over the 'wa-Ali khayr al-bashar' inscription on the new Sammakin gate; water was cut to Karkh until a waterskin sold for a qirat, and rosewater was mixed into public troughs. The Darzijani 'ayyar al-Tuqtuqi stormed the Taq al-Hurrani stronghold, beheaded two men and raised the heads on the new mosque's wall, then crucified two more on the gate after killing three, hurling their heads into Karkh with 'have your heads for breakfast'. The city rose: the Bab al-Tibn shrine was seized and looted, corpses — the 'Awfi, al-Nashi' and al-Judhu'i among them — were dragged out and burned or reburied elsewhere, the teak domes torched, the Hanafi jurists' khan in Qati'at al-Rabi' sacked, and at last Baratha's khutba returned with 'hayya ala khayr al-amal' dropped and al-Abbas named.The diwan manifesto impugning the Ubaydid genealogy
c. 1052 CE · 444 AHIn 444 manifestos were drawn up at the diwan recounting Egypt's ruler and his forebears in terms impugning the genealogy they claim — denying their descent from the Prophet through Ali and Fatima, attributing them instead to the Daysaniyya of the Magians and the Qaddahiyya of the Jews, and declaring them outside Islam, as had been done in al-Qadir's days — and the signatures of the ashraf, qadis, witnesses and scholars were taken upon it.Restoration of the Sunni Adhan in Karkh and Restrictions on the Shi'a
1056 CE · 448 AHAfter Tughril Beg's takeover, the Sunni adhan 'al-salatu khayrun min al-nawm' was imposed on the shrines of the Quraysh cemetery, the 'Atiqa mashhad and the mosques of Karkh, 'hayya ila khayr al-amal' was stripped, the door-inscriptions torn down, and Sunni chanters entered from Bab al-Basra praising the Companions; the Bazzazin shaykh Ibn al-Jallab was executed and crucified over his shop, and the Shi'i theologian Abu Ja'far al-Tusi fled — his house stormed in Safar 449, his books, teaching chair and the pilgrims' three white mangonels burned in Karkh.The recantation of Abu'l-Wafa' Ibn 'Aqil
August 1072 CE · 10 Muharram 465 AHOn Wednesday 10 Muharram 465, Abu'l-Wafa' Ali ibn 'Aqil — the most learned Hanbali of his age — appeared at the diwan with the Hanbali elders and made peace, writing out in his own hand a recantation: renouncing the doctrines of the innovators and the Mu'tazila, the keeping of their company and veneration of their imams, declaring unlawful all he had written of their teaching — including his treatise on the Night Journey ('a company of men said they are black bodies') and his profession of Hallaj's saintliness ('he was killed by the consensus of the jurists of his time and they were right; he erred') — witnessed by a great company, after which he went to make his peace with Sharif Abu Ja'far.The Strife over Declaring the Hanbalis Unbelievers and the Looting of the Nizamiyya Market
October 1077 CE · 2 Shawwal 470 AHIn 470 Nizam al-Mulk's letter reached Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi rebuking the anti-Hanbali agitation in his own Nizamiyya: 'Sultan's policy and the rule of justice oblige us to lean to no madhhab over another; we did not build this school but to shelter the people of learning — not to split the community — and the madhhab that dominates Baghdad and its quarters is that of the imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal.' The Hanbalis circulated it and were strengthened. Then on Tuesday 2 Shawwal a madrasa student called al-Iskandarani went to Suq al-Thulatha pronouncing the Hanbalis unbelievers; pelted with a brick he fled back to the madrasa market, whose men sallied out and looted the other market — until the mob reversed it, burst into the madrasa market, plundered their quarter and killed a sick man in his room. The Daylamite guards shot dead some fifteen, and the bodies were carried to the diwan for the qadis and witnesses to attest.The massacre of the Batinis at Wasit (601 AH)
May 1205 CE · Ramadan 601 AHRamadan 601: Wasit turned on its Batini cell — when a carpenter killed the soap-seller who answered him harshly over the creed, the crowd lynched every Batini they found, stormed the missionary Ibn Asiyya's fortified house from the rooftops, slew him and burned it; the notable Fakhr al-Din ibn Amsina came down from Baghdad to quiet the fitna.The Firuzkuh fitna (595 AH)
595 AH595 AH: Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, newly honoured at the Ghurid court with a madrasa beside the Herat jami', debated the Karrami shaykh Ibn al-Qadwa before Sultan Ghiyath al-Din at Firuzkuh; after al-Razi insulted the standing sultan, Ibn al-Qadwa preached the next day disavowing the philosophers, the crowd wept and the town filled for riot until the sultan quieted it by sending al-Razi back to Herat — a window on Karrami strength in the Ghurid realm.
Building
Al-Kadhimiya Mosque (Kazimayn shrine)
The Kadhimiya shrine of Baghdad, raised over the graves of Musa al-Kazim and Muhammad al-Jawad; Ibn Quluwayh's Kamil al-Ziyarat locates the grave 'in al-Kadhimiya in the noble riwaq' and dedicates a chapter to their visitation.Imam Husayn Shrine, Karbala
The shrine of Husayn ibn Ali at Karbala, over the place of his killing in 61 AH; Ibn Kathir records his death there on Ashura, and the shrine became a major pilgrimage centre for the Twelver Shi'a. The Mawsu'at al-Atabat records its building: Adud al-Dawla the Buyid built over the grave, Malik Shah restored the enclosure in 479, and the standing structure is essentially Sultan Uways the Jalayirid's 767 work completed by his sons Husayn and Ahmad in 786; Ismail the Safavid gilded the grave's surrounds and gifted twelve gold lamps in 914, Murad IV ordered the dome, and Fath Ali Shah renewed the shrine, replated it in gold and built the Husayn and Abbas domes in 1227 and 1250 — the dome rising 27 m, plated in gold.
Concept
Ahl al-Ahwa (the people of deviant opinions in Islam, and the rules on their testimony, narration and prayer behind them)
Ahl al-ahwa are those whose opinions deviate: the word hawa is the soul's inclination against what the law requires; they are Muslims who have strayed from the middle path, such as the Jabriyya, the Qadariyya, the Mu'attila and the Mushabbiha. They differ from the atheists and materialists, since they remain Muslims who believe in God and His Prophet. One must shun whoever openly professes his innovation or calls to it; if the innovation is one that makes a person an unbeliever, he receives the rules of an apostate, and otherwise the caller to it may be punished with discretionary penalties. Their testimony is accepted by the Hanafis and Shafi'is except the Khattabiyya, and rejected by Malik and Ahmad, with disputes in the reports. Some jurists forbid narrating from their callers, and the prayer behind them is valid with dislike for the Hanafis and Shafi'is.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.The division of the community (al-iftiraq al-ummah)
The division of the community into sects as Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy raises it: a caller's question on the hadith of the seventy-three groups, his distinction between community and sect, and his call to unity and charitable judgement, with the figures and some sayings not sourced in the recording.Suhba (companionship with the Prophet: who is a Companion, how companionship is proved, the uprightness of all Companions, and the ruling on insulting them)
When the word is used alone in law it means companionship with the Prophet. A Companion is, in Ibn Hajar's view, one who met the Prophet as a believer and died in Islam. Companionship is proved by reports that reach the level of widespread transmission, by general reputation, by a report from a Companion or a Successor that someone was a Companion, or by the word of a just man who lived in the same time. Sunni scholars agree that all the Companions are upright, and that whoever denies the companionship of Abu Bakr is an unbeliever; they differ on denying the companionship of others. Those who revile a Companion are not unbelievers unless they charge him with what impugns his religion or his uprightness; the majority hold that the reviling of one Companion does not make one an unbeliever, while accusing 'A'isha of what God cleared her of does.Ghayba (occultation)
Ghayba — the Twelver belief that the imam may withdraw from sight without ceasing to exist; for the twelfth imam this is the occultation of the Mahdi, who 'conceals himself in his time... then appears like a meteor in the darkness of night'.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.Hawa (desire, and the duty to resist it)
Hawa in the technical sense is the inclination of the soul towards pleasures it relishes, without the call of the law. It differs from shahwa (appetite) in that hawa concerns opinions and beliefs, while shahwa concerns obtaining pleasurable things. Hawa that agrees with the law is praised, and that which opposes it is blamed; the law forbids following the blamed kind. The jurists divide the followers of hawa into those whose unbelief is to be declared and those who are not; they differ on the acceptance of the testimony of the first, while most accept the testimony of the misguided but not the Khattabiyya. Al-Ghazali divides hearts into three kinds, and scholars count opposing one's own desire the greatest struggle. Two causes lead to following desire: the strength of its rule, and the reluctance to think clearly when things are unclear.Ilm al-kalam (speculative theology)
Ilm al-kalam — the new discipline of speculative theology that coalesced in the first Abbasid era; Ahmad Amin traces its rise to internal causes (the Qur'an's own engagement with rival creeds, the post-conquest turn to reflection) and external ones (foreign cultures and religions).The Imamate
The Imamate — the axis of Imami doctrine per al-Kafi: the imam shares the prophets' link to God, the earth is never without a hujja, and 'the imamate is the station of the prophets, God's caliphate, the reins of religion'.Infallibility of the Imams (Twelver Shi'a)
Twelver Shi'i doctrine that the imams are infallible from childhood to death, and that infallibility is a condition of the imamate. Presented here as the position the author rebuts, with the Shi'i sources and the author's rebuttal both recorded.The doctrine of the awaited Mahdi (al-mahdiyya)
The Mahdiyya — the awaited twelfth imam who fills the earth with justice; opposed in the Umayyad claim to a 'Sufyani' and absorbed in the Abbasid coining of a 'Mahdi' of their own.Mut'a (temporary marriage)
Mut'a — fixed-term marriage for a fee; Ahmad Amin surveys the hadiths (licensed in travel and need, then forbidden, with Umar's emphatic prohibition and the four imams' ijma') against the Shi'i retention via al-Baqir and al-Sadiq.Raj'a (the return to the world)
Raj'a — the doctrine that after the Mahdi's appearance the imams and their opponents return to this world for retribution, then die and rise on Judgement Day; earliest attributed to Ibn Saba'.Sabi'a (the Sabians: who they were, whether they are People of the Book, and the rulings on their land, blood money, food and marriage)
The Sabians are a people whose religion the jurists classed in different ways: whether they are People of the Book. Abu Hanifa and Ahmad in one report count them among the People of the Book, while Abu Yusuf, Muhammad, most Malikis and one Shafi'i view count them among the others because they worship the stars; the Shafi'is distinguish those who differ from the Christians on the root of their religion from those who agree. Al-Biruni, Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn al-Qayyim hold that they are two groups: the Harranians, star-worshippers who came to be called Sabians under al-Ma'mun, and a group of the People of the Book in Iraq who baptise. Their land, their blood money, the lawfulness of their food and marriages and the validity of their endowments differ between the schools.Shar' man qablana (the law of earlier prophets, and whether it binds us)
The shar' in language is the clear road to water; in the technical sense it is the religion God established for His servants, and 'those before us' are the messengers before our Prophet. The revealed laws share one root in belief, and the usulis differ on whether the law of earlier prophets binds us: the Hanafis, Malikis and Hanbalis hold it binding on us when the Qur'an tells it without denial or endorsement, while the sounder Shafi'i view holds it not binding.Shu'um (ill omen) and tatayyur (taking omens)
In language shu'um is ill, and tashaum is expecting ill; the Arabs used to take omens from birds that flew by, to left or right, and the law forbade this with the words there is no tatayyur and no hamah. Some Hanbalis hold tashaum disliked but not fal, and others hold omen-taking among the grave sins. The hadith names three things where ill omen lies: the horse, the woman and the house; Aisha denied that the Prophet said it and read it as a custom of the time of ignorance, while Malik, Ibn Qutayba and some hadith scholars read it at face value.Shudhudh (an irregular view or report, and acting on it)
In language shudhudh is separation from others, and a shadh is one who stands apart or leaves the group. In the usage of the Hanafis and Malikis a shadh view is one opposed to the prominent, preferred or sound view; in the usage of the hadith scholars a shadh report has a single chain in which a reliable or unreliable narrator stands alone. Acting on a shadh view differs for the mujtahid, the follower and the layman: the mujtahid weighs the evidence, while the follower acts only on the prominent or preferred view of his school. Al-Shatibi holds that a follower may give a fatwa only on the prominent view, while al-Subki holds that a qualified judge may rule by a view he finds stronger on good evidence.Shu'ubiyya
Shu'ubiyya — the anti-Arab-chauvinist tendency of the first Abbasid era: Ahmad Amin distinguishes three positions in the Arab–mawali quarrel and shows the name settled on those who denied Arab superiority, from 'people of equality' (al-Aqd al-Farid) to those who belittled the Arabs entirely (Lisan al-Arab).Siyasa (governance under the law, in the Mawsu'a)
In language siyasa is the upkeep of a thing in the way that sets it right. The technical sense has two meanings: a general one, the government of the state and of power, meaning the guidance of people to what saves them and the management of their affairs; and a penal one, where the ruler acts for a benefit he sees without a specific text. The Hanafis, Malikis and Hanbalis hold that the ruler may pursue siyasa in managing people's affairs within the criteria of the law; siyasa is divided into unjust, which the law forbids, and just, which it allows. It rests on the sovereignty of the law, consultation and justice; it covers the imamate and its duties, the appointment and oversight of agents, the treasury, the army, the judiciary and zakat administration; and penal siyasa such as discretionary punishment, exile and killing in certain crimes.Disavowal (tabarri) of the Companions in Twelver Shi'a sources
Twelver Shi'i sources, as the author quotes them, hold that most Companions apostatised after the Prophet, except a few, and require disavowal of Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Mu'awiya and the Prophet's wives. Presented here with the Sunni rebuttal (the Companions' adala and the prohibition of insulting them) and the author's account of what Ali and the imams of the Prophet's family are reported to have said.Taqiyya (dissimulation)
Taqiyya — the Shi'i doctrine of protective dissimulation: 'nine-tenths of religion is taqiyya' in al-Kulayni's report; the secret system by which imams' followers concealed their designs, and which generated the esoteric reading of speech.Tariqa (Sufi order)
The tariqa in later usage is the organized Sufi path attached to a shaykh and his way; Trimingham surveys the ramification of its main lines, and bibliographical works like Kashf al-Zunun attribute orders to their eponyms — Naqshbandiyya, Qadiriyya, Mawlawiyya.The Twelve Imams (Twelver Shi'a)
Twelver Shi'i doctrine that the imamate passes by explicit designation (nass) of God through the Prophet, through twelve named imams from Ali ibn Abi Talib to Muhammad ibn al-Hasan. The author lists the imams and rebuts the scriptural and hadith arguments used for the doctrine.Zandaqa (heresy)
Zandaqa — the accusation of freethinking/heresy that ran through the first Abbasid era, levelled truly and falsely; Ahmad Amin frames the struggle between doubt and faith as an all-out war fought by ruse, sword and disputation alike.
Group
Ahl al-Bayt
'The People of the House' — the Prophet's household: the family around whom the deepest loyalties and the deepest split in Islamic history would form.Alevism
Alevism is an Anatolian religious-cultural current centred on devotion to Ali and the ahl al-bayt; scholars distinguish its modern formation as a category from its roots in the ghulat and Nusayri currents treated by the classical heresiographies.The Bektashi order
The Bektashi order is a Sufi order traced to Haji Bektash, famous for its link with the Ottoman Janissaries and its distinctive Alid doctrines; academic monographs treat it as an order with a distinctive composition.The Chishti order (Chishtiyya)
The Chishti order is among the greatest Sufi orders of South Asia, traced to Chisht in Khurasan and spread through India until it became among its widest orders.The Hanafi school (madhhab)
Widest of the schools in the use of ra'y — the largest circle in Ahmad Amin's diagram; champions of istihsan, which the Shafi'is rejected.The Hanbali school (madhhab)
One of the four Sunni schools of law, named after Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal; it gives precedence to the revealed text, transmitted reports and the fatwas of the Companions, and was preserved and written down by his students after him, foremost among them al-Khallal and al-Kharaqi.Ibadiyya
The Ibadiyya — followers of Abdallah ibn Ibad, the one Khariji branch to survive, in North Africa, Oman, Hadramawt and Zanzibar, with a kalam touched by the Mu'tazila and a fiqh of its own.Ikhwan al-Safa (Brethren of Purity)
Ikhwan al-Safa was a literary-philosophical circle in fourth-century Basra, authors of the fifty-one Epistles of the Brethren of Purity; al-Dhahabi's Siyar records Abu Hamid al-Ghazali's engagement with the epistles and the debate around them.Imamiyya
The Imamiyya — with the Zaydiyya one of the two surviving branches of Shi'ism; its chief division the Twelvers, and the Ismailis the branch tracing imamate through Isma'il to the hidden imams and the Fatimid da'wa.The Ismaili Da'wa
The Fihrist's Ismaili chapter — the da'is Nasafi, Abu Hatim al-Razi, Banu Hammad of Mosul, Ibn Nafis.The Ja'fari school
The Ja'fari school is the Twelver school of fiqh traced to Ja'far al-Sadiq; the heresiographies treat it within the Imamiyya and academic study presents it as Twelver jurisprudence.Jahmiyya
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.The Karramiyya
A sect numerous in Herat and the Ghurid lands at the end of the 6th/12th century — Ibn al-Athir says the Ghurids were all Karramiyya; their Firuzkuh shaykh Ibn al-Qadwa (of the Haythamiyya branch) debated Fakhr al-Din al-Razi before Sultan Ghiyath al-Din in 595, and the riot that followed was barely contained.Kaysaniyya
Draft card for the Kaysaniyya, the early Shi'i sect that held to the imamate of Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah after al-Husayn; treated in the cited heresiography, the page not yet checked.Khawarij
The Khawarij — a sect whose doctrine turns on kufr and iman like the Murji'a but in the opposite direction; per al-Ash'ari's Kitab al-Farq, what unites them is takfir of Ali, Uthman, the people of the Camel and the two arbitrators, and the duty of rising against unjust rulers.The Maliki school (madhhab)
Malik ibn Anas's school — third of the madhhabs in resort to ra'y, working the tool of istislah, the safeguarding of religion, life, reason, progeny and wealth.The Mawlawi order (Mevlevi)
The Mawlawi order traced to Jalal al-Din al-Rumi (d. 672 AH/1273 CE) — the 'whirling dervishes' — among the best-known orders of Anatolia and the Ottoman world.Murji'a
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.Mu'tazila
A kalam sect that holds the views of the Qadariyya, denies the punishment of the grave, intercession and the Pool, and holds that people's deeds are not in the Preserved Tablet; the book describes their doctrines as it relays them, and their own words have not yet been added. According to al-Mas'udi, the Mu'tazila of Basra and Baghdad agreed on five principles: tawhid, that God is not like things, neither body, accident, element, part nor substance, and is not perceived by the senses in this world or the next; justice, that God does not will corruption and does not create people's acts, which they perform by the power He gave them; the promise and the threat, that He does not forgive the grave sinner without repentance; the intermediate position, that the grave sinner is neither believer nor unbeliever but is called a sinner, and it is by this principle that the Mu'tazila were named; and enjoining good and forbidding evil, by the sword or less, with no distinction in their view between fighting the unbeliever and fighting the sinner. Whoever holds these five principles is a Mu'tazili. The Mu'tazila held that the imamate is a choice of the community, not a designation by God of a named man, and that it is permissible among Quraysh and among others of probity; they cited Umar's remark that, had Salim, freedman of Abu Hudhayfa, been alive, no doubt would have troubled him and he would not have entrusted the matter to the council. Al-Mas'udi also records that the Mu'tazila agreed on five principles, and that whoever holds them is a Mu'tazili, while one who holds most or fewer does not merit the name: tawhid, justice, the promise and the threat, the intermediate position, and enjoining good and forbidding evil; it is from this last principle that the name al-i'tizal came.The Naqshbandi order
The most widespread of the Sufi orders across Central Asia, the Ottoman lands and India, named after Baha al-Din Naqshband of Bukhara (d. 791 AH/1389 CE); marked by silent remembrance (dhikr khafi) and outward sobriety, its best-known branch the Mujaddidi.Qadariyya
A sect to which is ascribed the view that people have capacity (istita'a) and will over their acts, and that their knowledge of those acts does not precede God's knowledge; the book describes their view as it relays it, and compares it with the doctrines of the People of the Book and the Magians.The Qadiri order (Qadiriyya)
The Qadiri order traced to Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani (d. 561 AH/1166 CE) — among the oldest and most widespread Sufi orders of the Islamic world.The Harranian Sabians
The Harranian Sabians — 'the Greek vulgate, the padding of the ancient philosophers' in al-Mas'udi's phrase: their surviving temple in 332 was Mighlitiya at Harran, Azar's shrine with four vaults of planetary idols made to speak by hidden priests; al-Razi wrote a book on their doctrines apart from the rival Kimariyyun; the Christians patterned their priesthood on theirs.The Shadhili order (Shadhiliyya)
The Shadhili order is among the greatest Sufi orders of the Maghreb and Egypt, traced to Abu'l-Hasan al-Shadhili; al-Maqqari records the shaykh's Sufi path passing to his disciple Abu'l-Abbas al-Mursi.The Shafi'i school (madhhab)
al-Shafi'i's school — second widest in ra'y after the Hanafis, famous for rejecting istihsan: 'whoever exercises istihsan has legislated'.The Zahiri school (madhhab)
Dawud ibn Ali al-Isbahani's school — literalist, rejecting qiyas outright: God legislated, not reason; smallest of the circles of ra'y, strongest in Persia and al-Andalus.Zaydiyya
The Zaydiyya — imamate in any qualified Fatimid; most muhaddithun leaned to it, says the Fihrist
Screening Room
Work
al-Madkhal ila Madhhab al-Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal
Ibn Badran's book in an introduction and eight chapters introducing the Hanbali school: the Imam's creed, the reason the school was chosen, its principles, the path of his companions, its legal theory, its terminology, its famous books, and the divisions of jurisprudence among the Hanbalis.Maqalat al-Islamiyyin wa-Ikhtilaf al-Musallin
A book by Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari setting out the positions of the Muslim sects and the theologians, whose first volume closes with a report of the position of the hadith scholars and Ahl al-Sunna that he then says he holds.
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