The Ibadhiyyah Sect

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

The Ibadhiyyah are the sole remnant of the Khwarijyah movement existing now.  They are the dominant sect in Oman and Zanzibar.  They are also found in Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and East Africa.  The sect is said to have been founded 20 years after the passing of Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.), predating both the Sunni and the Shi’ah.  They are a reformed sect of the Khwarijyah.  The Ibadhiyyah deny anything more than a passing relation to the Khwarijyah, and claim they merely developed out of the same precursor group.  The sect is named after Imam ‘Abdullah ibn Ibadh at-Tamimi (r.a.), a noted jurist and muhaddits, the student of Sayyidina ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Abbas (r.a.).  Imam ibn Ibadh (r.a.) was responsible for breaking off from the wider Khwarijyah movement roughly around the time of ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan became the fifth Umayyad caliph.  Whilst it is named after Imam ibn Ibadh (r.a.), the true founder was Imam Jabir ibn Zayd (r.a.), the cousin of Sayyidina ibn ‘Abbas (r.a.) and the student of Sayyidatina ‘Aishah bint Abu Bakr (r.a.).  He narrated ahadits almost exclusively from them. 

Initially, Ibadhi theology developed in Baswra, Iraq.  The Ibadhiyyah opposed the rule of the Sayyidina Abu ‘Amr ‘Utsman ibn ‘Affan (r.a.), but unlike the more extreme Khwarijyah, they rejected the murder of Sayyidina ‘Utsman (r.a.), as well as the Khwarijyah belief that all Muslims holding differing viewpoints were kafirun or mushrikin.  They were among the more moderate groups opposed to Sayyidina ‘Ali ibn Abu Thalib (k.w.), and wanted to return Islam to its form prior to the conflict between Sayyidina ‘Ali (k.w.) and Mu’awiyah ibn Abu Sufyan. 

Although they predate every sect of Islam by several decades, the Ibadhi theology remains largely a mystery.  The Ibadhiyyah have claimed, correctly, that while they read the works of both Sunnis and Shi’ah scholars, even the scholars of those two sects have never read Ibadhi works.  Other Muslims often repeat myths and false information when addressing the topic of Ibadhiyyah.  The Ibadhis were even cut off from the other Khwarij sects due to Imam ibn Ibadh’s (r.a.) criticism of their excesses and his rejection of their more extreme beliefs.  Their strict adherence to the shari’ah in public and private matters has been described as puritanical, but the character of their denomination is paradoxically tolerant towards non-.  They maintain that every religious duty which Allah (s.w.t.) has Made Incumbent upon His creatures must be treated as an article of faith, and that every major sin is an instance of kufr ni’ma, ingratitude of Divine Blessings, not of kufr shirk, polytheistic misbelief.  They have assimilated the moderate position of the Khwarij in their relationship with others: walayah, friendship and unity with the Ibadhiyyah, and those deemed true believers; bara’ah, dissociation but, not hostility, towards disbelievers, and sinners; and wuquf, reservation, towards those whose status is unclear. 

In terms of doctrine, Ibadhiyyah do not believe Allah (s.w.t.) will Show Himself to Muslims on the Day of Judgement, shared with the Shi’ah.  Sunnis believe that Muslims will see Him on the Day of Judgement.  They believe that whoever enters Hell, will remain there forever.  This is contrary to the Sunni position that detention in Hellfire is for a fixed amount of time to purify them of their sins, after which they will enter Heaven.  Some Sunnis believe that only Muslims will ever come out.  They believe that the Qur’an is Created.  This belief is shared with the Mu’taziliyyah and Shi’ah.  Their views on qadha and qadr are the same as the Ash’ariyyah, however.  They believe it is acceptable to conceal one’s beliefs under certain circumstances, naming this “kitman”.  This doctrine is analogous to taqiyyah. 

Historically, the Ibadhiyyah agree with the Sunnis regarding Sayyidina Abu Bakr ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Utsman asw-Swiddiq (r.a.) and Sayyidina Abu Hafsw ‘Umar ibn al-Khaththab al-Faruq (r.a.) regarding their caliphate.  They regard the first half of Sayyidina ‘Utsman’s (r.a.) rule as righteous and the second half as corrupt and affected by both nepotism and heresy.  They approved of the first part of Sayyidina ‘Ali’s (k.w.) caliphate until the Battle of Siffin, and disapprove of Sayyidatina ‘Aishah’s (r.a.) rebellion and Mu’awiyah’s revolt.  They condemned Sayyidina ‘Ali (k.w.) for killing the Hafswiyyah at Nahrawan.  Imam Shams ad-Din Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn ‘Abdullah ibn Baththutha (r.a.) observed that the Ibadhiyyah praying jumu’ah in Oman, prayed in the same manner as the dzuhr, and noticed that they invoked God’s Mercy on Sayyidina Abu Bakr (r.a.) and Sayyidina ‘Umar (r.a.), but not Sayyidina ‘Utsman (r.a.) and Sayyidina ‘Ali (k.w.). 

The Ibadhiyyah corpus of ahadits is far smaller than the Sunni’, and they do not accept all from each other’s corpus.  However, several Ibadhi founding figures were noted muhadditsin, and Imam Jabir ibn Zayd (r.a.) and Imam ‘Abdullah ibn Ibadh (r.a.) are accepted as reliable narrators by Sunni scholars.  The principal Ibadhi ahadits collections are Musnad ar-Rabi’ ibn Ḥabib and Jami’ Swahih.  Their methodology of authentication is similar to Sunnis.  Ibadhi fiqh is straightforward.  Aside from the Qur’an and ahadits, ijma’ is restricted to their scholars and qiyas is considered bid’ah.  As such, their fatawa appear very rigid and inflexible compared to Sunni or Shi’ah fiqh.