Murji'ah

Murji'ah (Arabic )is an early Islamic school, whose followers are known in English language as Murjites or Murji'ites (Arabic ). During the early centuries of Islam, Muslim thought encountered a multitude of influences from various ethnic and philosophical groups that it absorbed. Murji'ah emerged as a theological school that was opposed to the Kharijites on questions related to early controversies regarding sin and definitions of what is a true Muslim.[1] As opposed to the Kharijites, Murjites advocated the idea of deferred judgement of peoples belief. Murjite doctrine held that only God has the authority to judge who is a true Muslim and who is not, and that Muslims should consider all other Muslims as part of the community.[2] This theology promoted tolerance of Ummayads and converts to Islam who appeared half-hearted in their obedience.[3] In another contrast to the Kharijites, who believed that committing a grave sin would render a person non-Muslim, Murjites considered genuine belief in and submission to God to be more important than acts of piety and good works. They believed Muslims committing grave sins would remain Muslim and be eligible for paradise if they remained faithful.[4] The Murjite opinion on the issue of whether one committing a grave sin remains a believer was adapted with modifications by later theological schools Maturidi, Ash'ari, and Mu'tazili.[5] The Murjites exited the way of the Sunnis when they declared that no Muslim would enter the hellfire, no matter what his sins. This contradicts the traditional Sunni belief which states that some Muslims will enter the hellfire temporarily. Therefore the Murjites are classified as "Ahlul Bid'ah" or "People of Innovation" by traditional Ashari or Maturidi Sunni Muslims.[citation needed]

Notes
1. ^ Ibn Taymyah, Ab al-Abbs Taq al-Dn Amad ibn Abd al-alm, alFatw, 5: 555-556; 7: 195-205; 7: 223 2. ^ Isutzu, Concept of Belief, p. 55-56. 3. ^ Isutzu, Concept of Belief, p. 55. 4. ^ Fakhry, Islamic Philosophy, p. 40-41. 5. ^ Isutzu, Concept of Belief, p.57-59

References

Ibn Taymyah, Ab al-Abbs Taq al-Dn Amad ibn Abd al-alm. alFatw.

Fakhry, Majid (2004). A History of Islamic Philosophy, 3rd ed. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-13221-2.

Izutsu, Toshihiko (2001). Concept of Belief in Islamic Theology. The Other Press. ISBN 9839154702

Qadariyya
Qadariyya (the name is based on the Arabic word , qadar, meaning fate) was a theological movement in early Islam which held that man was endowed by God with free will. Qadariyya resisted the Umayyad Caliphs' claims to be ordained rulers of all Muslims by god himself, and for that reason its proponents, the Qadarites, supported the Abbasid revolution.[citation needed] The Qadarites (like many early theological movements, some of which had views incompatible with Qadariyya) claimed to be ideological descendants of Hasan al-Basri.[1][2][3]

References
1. ^ The Qadariyya, Mu`tazila, and Sh`a, G. F. Haddad. Differing versions at [1] or [2]. Accessed August 11, 2007. 2. ^ pp. 174175, Islamic Philosophy A-Z, Peter S. Groff and Oliver Leaman. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007. ISBN 0748620893. 3. ^ pp. 112113, An Introduction to Islam, David Waines, Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003. ISBN 0521539064.

Ash'ari

The Ashari theology (Arabic al-asha`irah) is a school of early Muslim speculative theology founded by the theologian Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari (d. 324 AH / 936 AD). The disciples of the school are known as Ash'arites, and the school is also referred to as Ash'arite school. It was instrumental in drastically changing the direction of Islamic theology, separating its development radically from that of theology in the Christian world.

Contents

1 Overview 2 Promoting figures o 2.1 Al-Ash'ari o 2.2 Al-Ghazali o 2.3 Other figures 3 Influence and modern assessment

4 See also 5 References 6 External links

Overview
In contrast to the Mutazilite school of Islamic theology, the Asharite view was that comprehension of unique nature and characteristics of God were beyond human capability. And that, while man had free will, he had no power to create anything. It was a taqlid ("faith" or "imitation") based view which did not assume that human reason could discern morality. This doctrine is now known as occasionalism. However, a critical spirit of inquiry was far from absent in the Asharite school. Rather, what they lacked, was a trust in reason itself, separate from a moral code, to decide what experiments or what knowledge to pursue. Contrary to popular opinion, the Asharites (or "traditionalists") were not completely traditionalist and anti-rationalist, nor were the Mutazilites (or "rationalists") completely rationalist and anti-traditionalist, as the Asharites did depend on rationality and the Mutazilites did depend on tradition. Their goals were the same, to affirm the transcendence and unity of God, but their doctrines were different, with the Asharites supporting an Islamic occasionalist doctrine and the Mutazilites supporting an Islamic metaphysics influenced by Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism. For Asharites, taqlid only applied to the Islamic tradition and not to any other, whereas for Mutazilites, taqlid applied equally to both the Islamic and Aristotelian-Neoplatonic traditions. In his introduction to Al-Ghazls The Decisive Criterion of Distinction Between Unbelief and Masked Infidelity, Sherman Jackson writes:[1] Meanwhile, rationalist writings reflect a clear and sustained recognition of the authority of the Aristotelian-Neoplatonic tradition, including the propriety of following it by way of taqld. Traditionalists, on the other hand, use reason even aspects of Aristotelian reason but they do not recognize the tradition of Aristotelian reason as an ultimate authority. Factors affecting the spread of the school of thought include a drastic shift in historical initiative, foreshadowing the later loss of Muslim Spain and Columbus' landing in the Western Hemisphere - both in 1492. But the decisive influence was most likely that of the new Ottoman Empire, which found the Asharite views politically useful, and were to a degree taking the advantages of Islamic technologies, sciences, and openness for granted. Which, for some centuries after as the Ottomans pushed forth into Europe, they were able to do - losing those advantages gradually up until The Enlightenment when European innovation finally surpassed and eventually overwhelmed that of the Muslims.

Promoting figures

Al-Ash'ari
Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari was noted for his teachings on atomism, among the earliest Islamic philosophies, and for al-Ash'ari this was the basis for propagating a deterministic view that Allah created every moment in time and every particle of matter. Thus cause and effect was an illusion. He nonetheless believed in free will, elaborating the thoughts of Dirar ibn Amr' and Abu Hanifa into a "dual agent" or "acquisition" (iktisab) account of free will.[2] While al-Ash'ari was opposed to the views of the Mu'tazili school for its overemphasis on reason, he was also opposed to the views of certain orthodox schools such as the Zahiri (literalist), Mujassimite (anthropomorphist) and Muhaddithin (traditionalist) schools for their over-emphasis on taqlid (imitation) in his Istihsan al-Khaud:[3] "A section of the people (i.e., the Zahirites and other orthodox people) made capital out of their own ignorance; discussions and rational thinking about matters of faith became a heavy burden for them, and, therefore, they became inclined to blind faith and blind following (taqlid). They condemned those who tried to rationalize the principles of religion as `innovators.' They considered discussion about motion, rest, body, accident, colour, space, atom, the leaping of atoms, and attributes of God, to be an innovation and a sin. They said that had such discussions been the right thing, the Prophet and his Companions would have definitely done so; they further pointed out that the Prophet, before his death, discussed and fully explained all those matters which were necessary from the religious point of view, leaving none of them to be discussed by his followers; and since he did not discuss the problems mentioned above, it was evident that to discuss them must be regarded as an innovation."

Al-Ghazali
Despite being named after Ash'ari, the most influential work of this school's thought was The Incoherence of the Philosophers, by the Persian polymath al-Ghazali (d. 1111). He was a pioneer of the methods of doubt and skepticism,[4] and he changed the course of early Islamic philosophy, shifting it away from an Islamic metaphysics influenced by ancient Greek and Hellenistic philosophy, and towards an Islamic philosophy based on cause-and-effect that were determined by God or intermediate angels, a theory now known as occasionalism. He is famous for defending the theory of occasionalism using logic. Al-Ghazali famously claimed that when fire and cotton are placed in contact, the cotton is burned directly by God rather than by the fire, a claim which he defended using logic. He argued that because God is usually seen as rational, rather than arbitrary, his behaviour in normally causing events in the same sequence (ie, what appears to us to be efficient causation) can be understood as a natural outworking of that principle of reason, which we then describe as the laws of nature. Properly speaking, however, these are not laws of nature but laws by which God chooses to govern his own behaviour (his autonomy, in the strict sense) - in other words, his rational will. Al-Ghazali nevertheless expresses support for a scientific methodology based on demonstration and mathematics, while discussing astronomy. After describing the

scientific facts of the solar eclipse resulting from the Moon coming between the Sun and Earth and the lunar eclipse from the Earth coming between the Sun and Moon, he writes:[1] Whosoever thinks that to engage in a disputation for refuting such a theory is a religious duty harms religion and weakens it. For these matters rest on demonstrations, geometrical and arithmetical, that leave no room for doubt. Ibn Rushd (Averroes), a philosopher, famously responded that "to say that philosophers are incoherent is itself to make an incoherent statement." Ibn Rushd's book, The Incoherence of the Incoherence, attempted to refute Al-Ghazali's views. Though the work was not well received in the Muslim community, Averroism went on to have a profound influence in European thought.[5] Al-Ghazali also wrote The Revival of the Religious Sciences in Islam, a cornerstone of the Ashari school's thinking.[citation needed] It combined theology, skepticism, mysticism, Islam and other conceptions, discussed in depth in the article on Islamic philosophy.

Other figures

Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) (d. 1039)[6] was an Iraqi Arab polymath who was a pioneer of the scientific method, modern optics, experimental physics, experimental psychology, psychophysics, phenomenology, scientific skepticism, and visual perception. He was also a critic of Aristotelian physics, Ptolemaic astronomy and the emission theory. His Book of Optics is considered one of the most influential books in the history of physics.[7] Al-Biruni (d. 1048)[6] was a Persian polymath who was a pioneer of anthropology, geodesy, Indology, experimental astronomy, and experimental mechanics. He was also a critic of Aristotelian physics, the Aristotelian theory of gravity and Ptolemaic astronomy. Fakhr al-Din Razi (d. 1209) was a Persian mathematician, physicist, physician, philosopher, and a master of kalam. He wrote an encyclopedia of science, which was influential, and a later referent for such modern efforts as the Islamization of knowledge, which have similar intention. He was also a critic of Aristotelian logic and a pioneer of inductive logic. Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406) was a North Africa Arab Muslim polymath, historian, pedagogue and philosopher who was the pioneer of demography, cultural history, historiography, the philosophy of history, sociology, and the social sciences in general. His Muqadimmah is still referenced today in these fields.

Other works of universal history from al-Tabari, al-Masudi, Ibn al-Athir, and Ibn Khaldun himself, were quite influential in what we now call archaeology and ethnology. They worked in a relatively modern style that historians of the present would recognize.

Influence and modern assessment

The influence of the Asharites is still hotly debated today. It was commonly believed that the Asharites put an end to philosophy as such in the Muslim world, with the death of Averroes at the end of the 12th century. While philosophy did indeed decline

in the western Islamic world (Al-Andalus and the Maghreb), recent research has shown that philosophy continued long after in the eastern Islamic world (Persia and India), where the Avicennian, Illuminationist and Sufi schools predominated, until Islamic philosophy reached its zenith with Mulla Sadra's existentialist school of transcendent theosophy in the 17th century.[8][9] The 12th to 14th centuries marked the peak of innovation in Muslim civilization, and this continued through to the 16th century. During this period many remarkable achievements in science, engineering and social organization were made, while the ulema began to generate a fiqh based on taqlid ("imitation based on authority") rather than on the old ijtihad. Eventually, however, modern historians think that lack of improvements in basic processes and confusion with theology and law degraded methods. The rigorous means by which the Asharites had reached their conclusions were largely forgotten by Muslims before the Renaissance, due in large part to the success of their effort to subordinate inquiry to a prior ethics - and assume ignorance was the norm for humankind. Modern commentators blame or laud Asharites for curtailing much of the Islamic world's innovation in sciences and technology, then leading the world. This innovation was not in general revived in the West until the Renaissance, and emergence of scientific method - which was based on traditional Islamic methods of ijtihad and isnad (backing or scientific citation).[citation needed] The Asharites did not reject these, amongst the ulema or learned, but they stifled these in the mosque and discouraged their application by the lay public. The Asharites may have succeeded in laying the groundwork for a stable empire, and for subordinating philosophy as a process to fixed notions of ethics derived directly from Islam - perhaps this even improved the quality of life of average citizens. But it seems the historical impact was to yield the initiative of Western civilization to Christians in Europe. Others, however, argue that the Asharites not only did not reject scientific methods, but indeed promoted them. Ziauddin Sardar points out that some of the greatest Muslim scientists, such as Ibn al-Haytham and Ab Rayhn al-Brn who were pioneers of scientific method, were themselves followers of the orthodox Ash'ari school of Islamic theology.[6] Like other Asharites who believed that faith or taqlid should only apply to Islam and not to any ancient Hellenistic authorities,[1] Ibn alHaytham's view that taqlid should only apply to prophets of Islam and not to any other authorities formed the basis for much of his scientific skepticism and criticism against Ptolemy and other ancient authorities in his Doubts Concerning Ptolemy and Book of Optics.[10]

See also

Early Islamic philosophy Islamic philosophy Kalam Mu'tazili Islamization of knowledge

Maturidi Athari

References
1. ^ a b c Anwar, Sabieh (October 2008), "Is Ghazl really the Halagu of Science in Islam?", Monthly Renaissance 18 (10), http://www.monthlyrenaissance.com/issue/content.aspx?id=1016, retrieved on 2008-10-14 2. ^ Watt, Montgomery. Free-Will and Predestination in Early Islam. Luzac & Co.: London 1948. 3. ^ M. Abdul Hye, Ph.D, Asharism, Philosophia Islamica. 4. ^ Najm, Sami M. (July-October 1966), "The Place and Function of Doubt in the Philosophies of Descartes and Al-Ghazali", Philosophy East and West 16 (3-4): 13341 5. ^ Ahmad, Jamil (September 1994), "Ibn Rushd", Monthly Renaissance 4 (9), http://www.monthly-renaissance.com/issue/content.aspx?id=744, retrieved on 2008-10-14 6. ^ a b c Sardar, Ziauddin (1998), "Science in Islamic philosophy", Islamic Philosophy, Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ip/rep/H016.htm, retrieved on 2008-02-03 7. ^ H. Salih, M. Al-Amri, M. El Gomati (2005), "The Miracle of Light", A World of Science 3 (3), UNESCO 8. ^ Nasr, Seyyed Hossein; Oliver Leaman (1996). History of Islamic Philosophy. Routledge. p. 35. ISBN 0415131596. 9. ^ Nasr, Seyyed Hossein (2006). Islamic Philosophy from Its Origin to the Present: Philosophy in the Land of prophecy. SUNY Press. pp. 878. ISBN 0791467996. 10. ^ Rashed, Roshdi (2007), "The Celestial Kinematics of Ibn al-Haytham", Arabic Sciences and Philosophy (Cambridge University Press) 17: 755, doi:10.1017/S0957423907000355

In Islam, a Maturidi ( Arabic: ) is one who follows Abu Mansur Al Maturidi's theology, which is a close variant of the Ash'ari theology (Aqidah). The Maturidis, Asharis and Atharis are all part of Sunni Islam, which makes up the overwhelming majority of Muslims.

Contents

1 Views 2 See also 3 External links

o

3.1 Opposing views

Views

Points on which the Maturidis differ from the Ash'aris are the nature of belief and the place of human reason. The Maturidis state that belief (iman) does not increase nor decrease but remains static; it is piety (taqwa) which increases and decreases. The Ash'aris say that belief does in fact increase and decrease. The Maturidis say that the unaided human mind is able to find out that some of the more major sins such as alcohol or murder are evil without the help of revelation. The Ash'aris say that the unaided human mind is unable to know if something is good or evil, lawful or unlawful, without divine revelation. Another point where Ash'aris and Maturidis differ is divine amnesty for certain nonMuslims in the afterlife. The Ash'ari view of Imam al-Ghazali says that a non-Muslim who was unreached by the message of Islam or was reached by it in a distorted fashion, is not responsible for this in the afterlife. The Maturidi view states that the existence of God is so obvious, that one who has intellect and time to think (not the mentally disabled etc.) and was unreached by the message of Islam and does not believe in God will end up in the hellfire, and divine amnesty is only available to those non-Muslims who believed in God and were unreached by the message. This theology is popular where the Hanafi school of law is followed, viz. in Turkey, Afghanistan, Central Asia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India.

Kalam
Kalm (Arabic: ) is the Islamic philosophy of seeking Islamic theological principles through dialectic. In Arabic the word literally means "speech". A scholar of kalam is referred to as a mutakallim (Muslim theologian; plural mutakallimiin). There are many interpretations of why this discipline was called "kalam"; one of them is that the widest controversy in this field was about Allah's speech. This word also means the same thing in Indonesian language and used by Indonesian Moslem (i.e. AlKalam) and Christians (i.e. John 1:1) alike.

Contents

1 History 2 Criticism 3 Major kalam schools 4 See also

5 References 6 External links

History
Independent minds exploiting the methods of ijtihad sought to investigate the doctrines of the Qur'an, which until then had been accepted in faith on the authority of divine revelation. One of first debates was that between partisan of the Qadar (Arabic: qadara, to have power), who affirmed free will, and the Jabarites (jabar, force, constraint, Compel), who maintained the belief in fatalism. At the second century of the Hijra, a new movement arose in the theological school of Basra, Iraq. A pupil, Wasil ibn Ata, who was expelled from the school because his answers were contrary to then orthodox Islamic tradition and became leader of a new school, and systematized the radical opinions of preceding sects, particularly those of the Qadarites. This new school was called Mutazilite (from i'tazala, to separate oneself, to dissent). Its principal dogmas were three: 1. God is an absolute unity, and no attribute can be ascribed to Him. 2. Man is a free agent. It is on account of these two principles that the Mu'tazilities designate themselves the "Partisans of Justice and Unity". 3. All knowledge necessary for the salvation of man emanates from his reason; humans could acquire knowledge before, as well as after, Revelation, by the sole light of reason. This fact makes knowledge obligatory upon all men, at all times, and in all places. The Mutazilities, compelled to defend their principles against the orthodox Islam of their day, looked for support in philosophy, and are one of the first to pursue a rational theology called Ilm-al-Kalam (Scholastic theology); those professing it were called Mutakallamin. This appellation became the common name for all seeking philosophical demonstration in confirmation of religious principles. The first Mutakallamin had to debate both the orthodox and the non-Muslims, and they may be described as occupying the middle ground between those two parties. But subsequent generations were to large extent critical towards the Mutazilite school, especially after formation of the Asharite concepts. Early scholars of Kalam were recruited by Hunayn Ibn Ishaq (d. 873 AD) for the House of Wisdom under the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad.

Criticism
The place of kalam in Islamic thought has been controversial throughout history. Many traditional Sunni Muslim scholars have criticized or outright prohibited it, including the well known "Four Imams". Abu Hanifa prohibited his students from engaging in kalam, stating in his view that those who practice it are from the "retarded ones."[1] Malik ibn Anas referred to kalam in the Islamic religion as being "detested"[2], and that whoever "seeks the religion through kalam will deviate".[3] In addition, Muhammad Shafi'i said that no advice on knowledge of Islam can be gained

from books of kalam, as kalam "is not from knowledge"[4][5] and that "It is better for a man to spend his whole life doing whatever Allah has prohibited - besides shirk with Allah - rather than spending his whole life involved in kalam."[6] Ahmad ibn Hanbal also spoke strongly against kalam, stating his view that no one looks into kalam unless there is "corruption in his heart,"[7] and even went so far as to prohibit sitting with people practicing kalam even if they were defending the Sunnah,[8] and instructing his students to warn against any person they saw practicing kalam.[9] Today, criticism of kalam also comes from modern day scholars of the Salafi movement. Some modern day scholars of the Sufi movement hold mixed views. Nuh Ha Mim Keller, a Sheikh in the Shadili Order, holds that the criticism of kalam from early scholars was specific to the Mu'tazila, going on to claim that other historical Muslim scholars such as Al-Ghazali, As-Subki, and An-Nawawi saw both good and bad in kalam and cautioned from the speculative excess of unorthodox groups such as the Mu'tazilah and Jahmiyya.[10]

Major kalam schools

Ash'ari Imami Maturidi Murji'ah Mu'tazili

See also

Jewish Kalam Logic in Islamic philosophy Kalam cosmological argument Madhab Qadr (doctrine)

References
1. ^ al-Makkee, Manaaqib Abee Haneefah, pg. 183-184 2. ^ Dhammul-Kalaam (B/194) 3. ^ Dhammul-Kalaam (Q/173/A) 4. ^ Dhammul-Kalaam (Q/213) 5. ^ Dhahabi, as-Siyar (10/30) 6. ^ Ibn Abi Hatim, Manaaqibush-Shaafi'ee, pg. 182 7. ^ Jaami' Bayaanul-'Ilm wa Fadlihi (2/95) 8. ^ Manaaqibul-Imaam Ahmad, pg. 205 9. ^ Ibn Battah, al-Ibaanah (2/540) 10. ^ [1]

Kharijites
Kharijites (Arabic Khawrij , literally "Those who Went Out"[1]; singular, Khariji) is a general term embracing various Muslims who, while initially supporting the caliphate of the fourth and final "Rightly Guided" caliph Ali ibn Abi Talib, later rejected him. They first emerged in the late 7th century AD, concentrated in today's southern Iraq, and are distinct from the Sunnis and Shiites. Whereas the Shiites believed that the imamate (leadership) was the sole right of the house of Ali, the Kharijites insisted that any pious and able Muslim could be a leader of the Muslim community. And whereas the Sunnis believed that the imam's impiousness did not, by itself, justify sedition, the Kharijites insisted on the right to revolt against any ruler who deviated from the example of the Prophet Muhammad and the first two caliphs, Abu Bakr and Umar. From this essentially political position, the Kharijites developed a variety of theological and legal doctrines that further set them apart from both Sunni and Shiite Muslims. Kharijites were also known historically as the Shurat, meaning "those who have sold their souls to God", which, unlike the term "Kharijite", was one that many Kharijites used to describe themselves. The only surviving group, the Ib of Oman, Zanzibar and North Africa, reject the "Kharijite" appellation and refer to themselves as ahl al-'adl wal istiqama ("people of justice and uprightness"). One of the early Kharijite groups was the Harriyya; it was notable for many reasons, among which was its ruling on the permissibility of women Imms and that a Harr was the assassin of Al.

Contents

1 Origin 2 Definition 3 Beliefs and practices 4 Divisions o 4.1 Azraq o 4.2 Sufr o 4.3 Najdat o 4.4 Ibd o 4.5 Harryyah 5 History 6 Modern times 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External links

Origin

The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (January 2008) The origin of Kharijism lies in the first Islamic civil war: a struggle for political supremacy over the Muslim community in the years following the death of Muhammad. The third caliph, Uthman ibn Affan, and a struggle for succession ensued between Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, and Muwiyah, governor of Damascus and cousin of Uthman in league with a variety of other opponents. In 657, Al's forces met Muwiyah's at the Battle of Siffin. Initially, the battle went against Muwiyah. On the brink of defeat, Muwiyah directed his army to hoist Qur'ns on their lances.[2] This initiated discord among some of those who were in Al's army. Muwiyah wanted to put the dispute between the two sides to arbitration in accordance with the Quran. A group of Al's army mutinied, demanding that Al agree to Muwiyah's proposal. As a result, Al reluctantly presented his own representative for arbitration. The mutineers, however, put forward Abu Musa alAsh'ari against Al's wishes. Muwiyah put forward Amr Ibn Al-As. Abu Musa alAsh'ari was convinced by Amr to pronounce Al's removal as caliph even though Ali's caliphate was not meant to be the issue of concern in the arbitration. The mutineers saw the turn of events as a fundamental betrayal of principle, especially since they had initiated it; a large group of them (traditionally believed to be 12,000, mainly from Banu Hanifah and Banu Tamim tribes)[citation needed]repudiated Al. Citing the verse, "No rule but God's," an indication that a caliph is not a representative of God, this group turned on both Al and Muwiya, opposing Muwiya's rebellion against one they considered to be the rightful caliph, and opposing Al's subjecting his legitimate authority to arbitration. They became known as Kharijites: Arabic plural khawrij, singular Khrij, derived from the verb kharaja "come out, leave the fold." Al quickly divided his troops and ordered them to catch the dissenters before they could reach major cities and disperse among the population.[citation needed] Ali's cousin, Abdullah ibn Abbas, managed to persuade a number of Kharijites to return to Al. [citation needed] Al defeated the remaining rebels in the Battle of Nahrawan in 658 but some Kharijites survived and, in 661, ultimately assassinated Al. They are said to have organized simultaneous attempts against Muwiya and Amr as well, as the three men were in their view the main sources of strife within the Muslim community, but were only successful in assassinating Ali.[citation needed]

Definition
Al-Shahrastani defines a Khariji as: Anyone who walks out against (seeking to overthrow) the true appointed Imam (leader) upon whose leadership the Jamaa'ah is in agreement is called a Khariji. This is the case, despite whether the walking out (against the Imam) occurred in the days of the Rightly-Guided caliphs or other than them from the Tabi'een[3]. Some of the Salaf used to call all those who practiced Islam based upon their desires as Kharijite.

Beliefs and practices

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (December 2006) Kharijite theology was a form of radical extremism, preaching uncompromising observance of the teachings of the Qur'an in defiance of corrupt authorities.[citation needed] They preached absolute equality of the faithful, in opposition to the aristocracy of the Quraysh which had grown more pronounced under the Umayyad Caliphate.[citation needed] They spread their views by violent conflict, which they considered to be a righteous jihad (struggle).[citation needed] They believed that anybody who commits a grave sin is no longer a Muslim and is subject to excommunication, warfare and death unless the person repents. They believed that the leader of the Muslim community can be any good Muslim, even a slave, provided he has the community's support, in contrast to the dominant opinion among Muslims at the time that the ruler should be a member of Muhammad's tribe, the Quraysh. Having a strong emphasis on the need to depose unjust rulers and believing that the current leaders of the Muslim community were guilty of grave sins, they withdrew themselves from the rest of the Muslim community, started camping together and waged war against their perceived enemies. They believed that they are the people of God fighting against the people of evil.[4]

Divisions
The Kharijites were the first sect to appear in the history of Islam, splitting up into more than 20 different sub-sects. However, the major sub-sects of the Kharijites are seven:

al-Mahkamah al-Oolaa; al-Azaariqah (Azraq); an-Najdaat; ath-Thu'aalabah; al-'Ajaaridah; al-Abaadhiyyah (Ibd); as-Safriyyah

Some of the other sub-sects include:

al-Ibaadiyyah; ash-Shamraakhiyyah; as-Salaydiyyah; as-Sirriyyah; al-'Azriyyah; al-'Ajradiyyah; ash-Shakkiyyah; al-Fadhaliyyah;

al-Hamas al-Bayhasiyyah; al-'Atwiyyah; al-Fadeekiyyah; al-Ja'diyyah; ash-Shaybiyyah; al-Hurooriyyah; al-Khamariyyah; ash-Sharaah.

Azraq
Main article: Azraqi (religion) The most extreme were the Azraqs or Azariqah, founded in Persia in 685 by Nfi ibn ul-Azraq. These pronounced Takfir on all other Muslims, considering them to be Kuffar ('unbelievers') who could be killed with impunity.[5][6] Their distinctive practices included:

A test of sincerity ( imtin "examination") required of each new recruit, in which the neophyte was required to cut the throat of a captive enemy.[citation
needed]

Religious murder ( istir "demonstration"), not only of men, but also of their wives and children (the killing of Muslim non-combatants is disallowed in Islam: Islamic military jurisprudence)

They regarded the territory occupied by other Muslims as part of Dar al-Kufr,[citation needed] the territory of unbelief where it was permitted to attack both people and goods but also a territory from which one must exile oneself, as Muhammad had exiled himself from Mecca to escape the unbelievers there.[citation needed]

Sufr
Main article: Sufri Less brutal was the Sufri sect, founded by Ziyd ibnu l-Asfar in an environment hostile to Kharijism.[citation needed] These condemned political murder, adhered the practice of taqiyya,[citation needed] and rejected the massacre of the unbelievers' children. [citation needed] They considered Sura 12 to be not truly part of the Qur'an.[citation needed]

Najdat
Main article: Najdat The Najdat were the followers of Najdah ibn 'Amir, of Bani Hanifa, who established a Kharijite state in al-Yamamah (east-central Arabia). Like the Sufris, Najdah had split from the Azraqi movement over the issues of the killing of the enemy's women and children and over the status of those who refuse to join in battle, as the Azraqis believed that whoever stayed behind had become an unbeliever.

Ibd
Main article: Ibadi A third sect, the Ibds, developed further than the others. Founded by Abdullh ibnIbd, they maintained attitudes of political intransigence and moral rigor.[citation needed] They were, however, more flexible in their dealings with other Muslims - for example, they would not attack without first extending an invitation to join.[citation needed]

Harryyah
Main article: Haruriyyah The branch founded by Habib ibn-Yazd al-Harr held that it was permissible to entrust the imamate to a woman if she was able to carry out the required duties.[citation needed] The founder's wife, Ghazla al-Harriyya, commanded troops; in this she followed the example of Juwayriyya, daughter of Abu Sufyan, at the battle of Yarmuk. In one battle, she put the famous Umayyad general Hajjj ibn-Ysuf to flight.[citation needed]

History
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Ridda wars First Fitna Ibn al-Zubair's revolt Kharijite Revolt Second Fitna Berber Revolt Zaidi Revolt Abassid Revolt Reenactors showing military Kharijites The high point of the Kharijites' influence was in the years 690-730 around Basra in south Iraq, which was always a center of Sunni theology. Kharijite ideology was a popular creed for rebels against the officially Sunni Caliphate, inspiring breakaway states and rebellions (like Maysara's) throughout the Maghrib and sometimes elsewhere. The Azraq revolted against the Caliphate in 685 after separating from the Ibd near Basra and departing for Fars. They were suppressed by Abd al-Malik's armies, under the command of Amir al-Hajjaj; their leader was killed, and by 699 they had vanished. Another revolt occurred in 695; Sunni traditions underline the massacre of Muslims at a mosque in Kufa as an example of Kharijite fury and brutality. Agitations such as these fatally weakened the Ummayad caliphate and paved the way for its overthrow by the Abbasids. During this period, the Najdat, led by Najdah ibn 'Amir, established a state in alYamamah, in central Arabia, and annexed the eastern Arabian region of Bahrayn, including al-Qatif. Najdah also moved westwards and captured the city of Taif, south of Mecca, and was only dissuaded from taking Mecca and Medina by Abdullah ibn

Umar, the son of the second Muslim caliph, Umar ibn al-Khattab, who was particularly revered by the Kharijites. Najdah was assassinated by some of his followers in 692, and the Najdat movement quickly disintegrated thereafter. From the beginning of the Arab conquest of the Maghreb, the Kharijites sent representatives to join the local Berber population. The Berbers, used to a communal system of government and opposed to Arab domination, found in Kharijism an ideological framework for rebellion. In the last years of the Umayyad dynasty, the western part of the Islamic empire escaped from the central authority; Spain came under the rule of the Umayyad emirs of Cordoba, while several independent states were founded in the Maghrib. A Sufr community from southern Tunisia captured Kairouan in 755, at the price of fearful massacres. The Ibd of Jebel Nafusa, outraged by the excesses of their rival sect, took the city and wiped out its Sufr population. They proclaimed an imamate c. 757, founding a state which would cover parts of Tripolitania and Ifriqiya before it was conquered by Abbasid armies in 761. Among the leaders of this state was Abd arRahman ibn Rustam, a Persian convert who would later found the Rustamid dynasty at Tahert. Around the same time, a Sufri kingdom was founded in Tlemcen (western Algeria). Berber Sufr from the tribe of Meknasa established the Midrarid state at Sijilmassa on the eastern slope of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. Ab Qurra, a Sufr of the Ifren tribe of Tlemcen, reconquered Ifriqiya from the Arabs in 771. The region stabilized in 778, when ibn Rustam made a peace treaty with the Abbasid governor of Kairouan, and remained so until the arrival of the Fatimids in 909.

Modern times
The Ibadis have survived into the present day, though they now reject the designation "Kharijite". They form a significant part of the population of Oman (where they first settled in 686), and there are smaller concentrations of them in the Mzab of Algeria, Jerba in Tunisia, Jebel Nafusa in Libya, and Zanzibar. In modern times, Muslim scholars and governments have called terrorist groups which emphasize the practice of Takfir and justify the killing of innocent people as the new Kharijites; notable examples of groups described as such include the Groupe Islamique Arm of Algeria and the Takfir wal-Hijra group of Egypt.

References
1. ^ "Schisms and Heterodoxy among the Muslims", hosted on irfi.org 2. ^ Ali, Ameer. A Short History of the Saracens (13th Edition ed.). London 1961: Macmillan and Company. pp. 51. ""He (Muawiyah) made his mercenaries tie copies of the Koran to their lances and flags, and shout for quarter."" 3. ^ Khawaarij 4. ^ Esposito, Islam the straight path, p. 43

5. ^ al-Muhallab ibn Abi Sufra - Britannica Online Encyclopedia 6. ^ islamfact.com - Studies in ibadhism