RECAPITULATION
During its history,
the religion of Islam passed through various stages which left
their mark, one way or another, on the structure of this
religion, its laws and civilisation. The original features of
the religion as it first appeared in the early Muslim community
underwent certain changes (in different ways) which affected its
primitive form. This, however, does not apply in every
instance. There are still a few cases of Islamic communities
close to the oldest form of Islam which exist today, and which
struggled hard throughout history to preserve that distinctive
early character. This is evident in one of the oldest sects in
Islam, the Ibadhis.
Contrary to what is
generally held, they (the Ibadhis) were not a branch of the
Kharijite movement, moderate or otherwise, but, as appears to me
through the study of Sunni as well as sectarian Islam, the
Ibadhis seem to represent the pristine spirit of the religion of
Islam struggling in the face of the political and social changes
caused by the rapid expansion of the Islamic empire.
The building of the
new empire made it imperative that the role of power in its
material forms should occupy the first place. The pre-Islamic
measures for obtaining power started to re-appear and replace
the new values established by the new religion of Islam. It was
through the office of the third Caliph, Uthman b. Affan that the
Umayyads made their way to the important positions in the
government. Marwan b. al-Hakam, who had been exiled by the
Prophet and remained in exile during the Caliphate of Abu Bakr
and Umar, was brought back to Medina by Uthman and became one of
the closest and most influential figures in Uthman’s court. So
also Abdullah b. Sad b. Abi Sarh, who was ordered by the Prophet
to be execute don the day of the conquest of Mecca, but was
protected and given refuge by Uthman, became his governor of
Egypt. This way of controlling affairs during the last six
years of Uthman put more power in the hands of his kinsmen, and
to some extent aroused the anger and resentment of Muslims in
various places. They gathered from far and wide and came to
Medina, the capital of the Caliphate at that time to change what
they regarded as erroneous policy. This move brought about the
death of Uthman, and soon Ali b. Abi Talib was elected fourth
Caliph in Medina. At this point commenced the endless civil
wars among Muslims. Although the parties which arose
immediately follow the path of Uthman tried to justify their
struggle for power by religious arguments, it soon became clear
that the issue was a straight fight for the Office of the
Caliphate as the highest post in the new empire, or, according
to the satirical expression of Malik b. Anas, “By God, they
fought for nothing nut a dust coloured mess of tharid, (al-tharid
al-a’far)”1
After Ali had
settled his account with Talhah and al-Zubair, he had to face
Mu’awiyah b. Abi Sufyan who was demanding vengeance for the
death of Uthman. At the beginning it seemed clear to the
supporters of Ali that the claim of Mu’awiyah was nothing but an
excuse for opposing the new Caliph, and therefore Ali should
fight Mu’awiyah and his supporters until they accepted his
authority. When Ali accepted arbitration, a large number of his
supporters abandoned him and elected as their new Amir, Abdullah
b. Wahb al-Rasibi, and renounced Ali as Caliph. Nevertheless,
these people, most of whom were killed by Ali in al-Nahrawan and
were known by the name Ahl al-Nahr or al-Muhakkimah,
were the first party to try to establish a leading role in the
new Islamic community outside Quraish, who were respected by the
rest of the Arab tribes before Islam as guardians of the Holy
House in Mecca, and who kept the means of power after Islam
within their own hands. After the death of Ali, his son al-Hasan
was ready to compromise for a settlement with the Umayyads after
receiving an assurance that he would be the Caliph on the death
of Mu’awiyah. The Umayyads established their strong rule over
the Muslim world and were able to suppress their Qurashite
opposition led by the Shiites, i.e. the party of Ali, or by Ibn
al-Zubair. The struggle for the power among the Quraish was
confined to the two houses of Bin Umayyah and Bin Hashim. When
the power of the Umayyads declined in the vastly expanding
empire, the Abbasids took over, and so the struggle for power
continued with scant respect for the principles of Islam and by
using all means for obtaining power.
The Muhakkimah set
the first practical example for non-Qurashites to take their
share in the struggle for the new values of Islam and in
implementing them in political life. But when Mu’awiyah proved
his firm control over the Islam territories through powerful
leaders, it was impossible to launch a successful attack, which
could change the whole situation. Some military moves were made
as a reaction to contemporary events; these manifested
themselves in the wars fought mainly by Kharijites. Meanwhile,
the Ibadhi movement was founded in Basrah, and underwent careful
and conscious planning – to imitate the policy of the Prophet in
Mecca surrounded by powerful enemies – with the aim of restoring
the just Islamic Imamate and the true Muslim community on a
religious basis. This movement was founded by Jabir b. Zaid, an
outstanding tabi'i who studied under a large number of
celebrated Companions of the Prophet, and as a result, the
Ibadhi community was the product of an educational intellectual
movement which had to deepen its roots and gain support in the
contemporary Muslim world, through a training based on strict
adaptation of the Islamic teachings as preserved by the leaders
of the movement n theory and practice. This position of the
Ibadhis enabled them not only to form a clear view of
politico-religious situation of early Islam, but also to oppose
what they regarded as erroneous views of the Kharijites, and to
refute them at the very beginning of their movement. So the
Ibadhis continued to preserve the closest practical version of
Islam in a living community. For various reasons the Ibadhis
gained large support among the Azdis and the Arab tribes of
Hadramawt and Yemen, as well as some major Berber tribes of
North Africa, and by the early decades of the second century H.,
they (Ibadhis) were able to establish their own states in
Southern Arabia and in North Africa.
After the death of
Jabir b. Zaid in 93 H., Ibadhis withdrew from the surrounding
population into a secret organisation which had developed and
kept to its own doctrine. Since then the Ibadhi school has
retained its independent features which present the old Islamic
teachings in the Traditions and the Athar reported through
certain tabi’un from the Companions of the Prophet,
Professor Sergeant, speaking about the Zaydis, said, “The Zaydis
appear to represent in the early stages of their development a
form of Islam closest to the original primitive theocratic shape
of the faith.”2
The Ibadhis would fit this description perhaps more than the
Zaydis since their system of law and their doctrines were
formulated earlier. Ibadhi authorities also confirm this view
and admit that the Zaydis, of all Islamic schools, are the
closest to them. Abu Ammar Abd al-Kafi points out only three
issues of difference between the two schools: the question of
the Imamate; their approval of Ali’s acceptance of arbitration;
and the regarding as Polytheists of those who held that God is
to be seen on the Last Day.3
The foundation of
the Ibadhi school by Jabir b. Zaid, an eminent Traditionalist,
and its growth through the efforts of Abu Ubaidah Muslim b.
Karimah and his colleagues as an educational institution
prevented its leadership from falling into the hands of anyone
other than the most upright and learned members, whether during
the time of ‘secrecy’ or ‘manifestation.’ Ibadhi jurisprudence
although based on material reported by Ibadhi authorities alone
used the same methods as the rest of the Muslim schools in
forming opinions. However, the Ibadhi school can be easily
distinguished by the fact that its legal system was very much
concerned with the moral conduct of its followers. In other
words, observing the spirit of the law as well as the letter of
the law. An example of this appears in the acts which causes
the breaking of fasting and ablution, among which only the
Ibadhis include all immoral acts such as telling lies, slander
an suchlike, listening to slander or music etc. and looking into
others’ houses or eyeing foreign women etc. In this respect,
the system of ‘walayah’ and ‘baraah’ developed by
Ibadhis was mainly based on full observation of the religious
obligations in order that the person might be taken as a
‘waliy’ and accordingly receive all rights due to him from
fellow Ibadhis. This attitude regarding moral conduct of the
person covered other aspects of faith such as excluding grave
sinners from the right to intercession by the Prophet on the
Last Day, and the belief that grave sinners are to abide in Hell
unless they repent before death. There are some other
distinctive features of the Ibadhi school, such as the
suspension of the (hadd) punishments during the stage of
‘secrecy.’ And the laws laid down for this politico – religious
stage. In the legal and religious system there is a number of
points on which the Ibadhi school differs from the rest of the
Islamic schools or from some of them. This was due in fact to
the texts on which those points were based. In some cases Sunni
or Shi'i authorities and vice-versa do not know the material
used by Ibadhis.
The other main
feature is that Ibadhis always have understood religion to be
one unit in its political, spiritual and legal aspects which
should be carried out in life simultaneously. When one of these
aspects is suspended in certain stages of the Ibadhi community,
it is not out of negligence, but as a deliberate action required
by the current stage through which the community is passing,
based on the example of the Prophet’s practical life, and which
should lead to the next step of carrying out all teachings of
the religion in suitable conditions. This seems to be the
reason why Ibadhis, for example, never accepted Sufism, because
it directs the activities of the Muslim mainly to the spiritual
side and does not care much for other aspects of religion. One
of the early comments on this point was made by Muhammad b.
Mahbub (ob.260 H.) in his Sirah to the Ibadhis of
Hadramawt, “We learnt that certain people existed in your
country who made it their worship to wear wool during summer,
and have doubts about fighting the enemies of God by the sword.”4
(
يتعبدون
بلباس الصوف في الصيف ويتشككون في قتال أهل البغي بالسيف
)
As Ibadhis have
always lived in simple remote communities their laws were not
affected by changes of environment or time, and remained in
their original form. Ibadhis always tried to live according to
the divine law, and to adapt it wherever they were and at all
time. Special rules for the different stages of politico –
religious situations were formed at an early stage according to
which the Ibadhi community had to maintain its existence.
There remains a
great deal to be done to form a clearer picture of the Ibadhi
communities and their development in different fields of
activity. Very little is known about the present situation in
the various Ibadhi countries and these Ibadhi communities need
close study. There is still also a large body of original Ibadhi
works on Hadith, law, theology, history and to their files of
knowledge which deserves attention, and an extensive amount of
new material awaits patient examination and thorough inspection
in order to have a more complete view of the Ibadhi school.
1 Mubarrad, al-Kamil,
III
2 Arberry
(general editor), Religion in the Middle East., Art. “Zaydis”,
II, 285
3 Abu Ammar Abd
al-Kafi, Mu'az (Ms.) II, 124
4 Muhammad b.
Mahbub, Sirah, (Ms.) 279
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