The Essentials of Ibadi Islam

Introduction

3 introduction This was the first of the schools of Islam (al-madhahib) to be founded, and its scholars have written more than those of any other school. They were the first to write a commentary on the Qur’an, the first to write a collection of Hadith, and the first to write a book on Law (fiqh). (Al-Harithi 1974, 3) So writes a modern Ibadi scholar of Oman, in words that express a point of view common among adherents of this sect. Ibadi Islam is a distinct sect of Islam that is neither Sunni nor Shi‘ite. Although, as the quote above indicates, Ibadis see their sect as the oldest and most authentic form of Islam, they remain largely a mystery to other Muslims and even to many scholars of Islam, among whom the study of Ibadism has been “the game of the happy few.”1 Both Muslim and non-Muslim scholars of Islam tend to call Ibadis “moderate Khawarij,” the only Kharijite sect that survived after the first two tumultuous centuries of Islam. For their part, contemporary Ibadis regard it as an insult to be considered Khawarij, though this was not always the case (Hoffman 2009), although they recognize that their sect originated in the Kharijite secession of 37 AH/657 CE.2 From their point of view, the Khawarij erred so thoroughly in castigating other Muslims as unbelievers worthy of death that they removed themselves from the pale of Islam. In recent decades, the points of rapprochement between Sunnism and Ibadism have been emphasized. Ibadis read Sunni writings and often quote them with approval, especially the Hadith collections of al-Bukhari, Muslim, 1. Josef van Ess, at the “Ibadhism, Ibadhi Studies, and the Sultanate of Oman” conference at Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, November 9–10, 2009. 2. The “AH” dates refer to the Islamic calendar, which began “after the hijra.” Islamic dates are given before CE (“common era,” i.e., Gregorian) dates, separated by a slash. 4 • Essentials of Iba ˉd· ı ˉ Islam and others.3 Nonetheless, Ibadis maintain a special interest in Kharijism, and even if they are interested in distinguishing themselves from the Khawarij, they feel compelled to defend the Khawarij on a number of points (Al-Harithi 1974, 36–80; Al-Sabi‘i 1999). Ibadi Muslims complain, with some justification, that although they read the works of all other Muslim sects, none of the scholars of the other Muslim sects read Ibadi works, and often choose to reiterate false information rather than study the works written by Ibadis themselves. An Ibadi scholar of modern Libya, ‘Ali Yahya Mu‘ammar (1919–1980), wrote a two-volume work on the place of Ibadism among the Islamic sects (Mu‘ammar 1972). The entire first volume is a study of the faulty information on Ibadism found in both old and new works written by non-Ibadi Muslims, and some by non-Muslim scholars as well. This book is an attempt to introduce Ibadi Islamic theology to students and scholars of Islam,4 mainly through annotated translations of two basic Ibadi theological texts, in order to address the general unavailability of Ibadi texts to all but the most specialized scholars of Islam. The focus of this study is Ibadi theology, not law, in which the differences with Sunni Islam are minor, although some subjects that are covered in this book have implications for both theology and jurisprudence, such as the status of sinning Muslims and the rules for spiritual association (walaya) and dissociation (bara’a). Such academic studies on Ibadism as do exist, with two exceptions (Cuperly 1991; Ennami n.d.), largely ignore theology and focus mainly on political history 3. Hadith is the body of literature that contains narratives about what the Prophet said and did— that is, his Sunna. The Hadith collections of Muhammad b. Isma‘il al-Bukhari (194–256/810–870) and Muslim b. al-Hajjaj (206–261/821–875), both entitled Al-Jami‘ al-sahih [The Authentic Collection], are considered the most sound and authoritative collections. These collections are often referred to simply as “al-Bukhari” and “Muslim” or Sahih al-Bukhari (the Sahih of al-Bukhari) or Sahih Muslim. Less reliable but frequently used are Sunan collections of Abu ‘Isa Muhammad b. ‘Isa al-Tirmidhi (210–279/825–892), Abu ‘Abdallah Muhammad b. Yazid b. Maja (known as Ibn Maja, 209–273/824 or 825–887), Abu ‘Abd al-Rahman Ahmad b. ‘Ali al-Nasa’i (215–303/830–915), and...