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News Letter January 2006
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IBADI
ISLAM: AN INTRODUCTION
by Valerie J. Hoffman (Professor of Islamic Studies at the
University of Illinois)
Ibadism, a distinct sect of Islam that is neither Sunni nor
Shi‘i, exists mainly in Oman, East Africa, the Mzab valley of
Algeria, the Nafus mountains of Libya, and the island of Jerba
in Tunisia. The sect developed out of the seventh-century
Islamic sect known as the Khawarij, and shares with that group
the desire to found a righteous Muslim society and the belief
that true Muslims are only to be found in their own sect. Ibadis
refer to themselves as “the Muslims” or “the people of
straightness” (ahl al-istiqama). Nonetheless, Ibadis see
themselves as quite different from Khawarij.
Whereas the Khawarij had labeled all Muslims who committed a
grave sin without repentance mushrikun -- i.e., unbelievers
whose guilt is tantamount to idolatry and merits the capital
punishment deserved by all apostates of the faith--Ibadis see
such people as kuffar ni‘ma -- monotheists who are ungrateful
for the blessings God has bestow upon them. Ibadis distinguish
between kufr ni‘ma and kufr shirk, which is the unbelief of
idolatry. The Khawarij had not made such a distinction, and
neither do the Sunni Muslims, who likewise equate /kufr/ with
unbelief but, unlike the Khawarij, maintain that a sinning
Muslim is still a believer. The word kufr, which is typically
translated into English as “unbelief,” literally means
“ingratitude.”
The characteristic position of human beings, according to the
Qur’an, is not their ignorance of the existence of God, but
their failure to be grateful for His kindness and blessings,
which should prompt people to turn to Him in worship and give
generous charity to the poor, orphans and widows. The Qur’an
contrasts the believers, who are grateful (shakirun), with the
unbelievers, who are ungrateful (kafirun).
The Ibadi attitude toward kuffar ni‘ma, whether they be sinning
Ibadis or non-Ibadi Muslims, was that one should practice
“dissociation” (bara’a) toward them. This “dissociation,”
however, is usually an internal attitude of withholding
“friendship” (wilaya), rather than outright hostility.
Nonetheless, non-Ibadis who call themselves Muslims and pray
facing the direction of the Ka‘ba are ahl al-qibla, not
idolaters. They may be kuffar, but not in the sense of idolatry,
only in the sense of kufr ni‘ma outlined above. The practice of
dissociation (bara’a) does not imply enmity. Nur al-Din al-Salimi
(1869-1914) clarified this when asked about the difference
between dissociation from an unbeliever (bara’at al-mushrik) and
dissociation from a corrupt monotheist (bara’at al-muwahhid al-fasiq).
Salimi replied:
Although the mushrik is farther [from the truth] than the
corrupt monotheist, both are cursed. Nonetheless, the Law allows
certain things with the corrupt monotheist that it does not
allow with the polytheist, such as intermarriage, eating their
slaughtered animals, inheritance, giving the greeting of peace,
saying “God bless you” if he sneezes, praying behind him,
praying over him if he dies, accepting his testimony, and
interacting with him in all worldly matters just as one would
interact with Muslims with whom one has wilaya.
[1] It is interesting
to note that British observers of Omani rule in East Africa
commented that Ibadis are the least fanatic and sectarian of all
Muslims, and openly associate with people of all faiths and pray
together with Sunni Muslims. Hostile action is reserved for one
type of person: the unjust ruler who refuses to mend his ways or
relinquish his power.
In theology, the Ibadis adopt the positions of the Mu‘tazila on
the questions of tawhid: rejecting a literal interpretation of
all
anthropomorphic descriptions of God; denying the possibility of
seeing God in this life or the afterlife; rejecting the
existence of eternal attributes in God that are distinct from
His essence; and upholding the doctrine of the creation of the
Qur’an. They also part ways with Sunni Muslims in their
condemnation of ‘Uthman, ‘Ali and Mu‘awiya and their rejection
of the Prophet’s intercession on behalf of grave sinners and of
all possibility of rescue from hellfire: punishment in hellfire
is eternal, as the Qur’an says. They do not uphold the notion of
an intermediate position between faith and kufr, but, as we have
already indicated, they distinguish between different types of
kufr, drawing a sharp distinction between kufr ni‘ma and kufr
shirk. However, on the question of free-will vs. predestination
the Ibadi position is virtually identical to that of al-Ash‘ari:
God is the creator of all human acts, which are termed
“acquisitions.”
There are minor differences between the prayer observances of
Ibadis and Sunnis. Ibadis, like the Shi‘a and the Malikis, pray
with their arms down at their sides. They do not say Amin after
the Fatiha, and they do not say the qunut invocation in the fajr
prayer. They believe that Friday prayer should be held only in
major cities in which justice prevails--meaning that for
centuries Ibadis did not observe congregational prayer because
of the lack of a just Imam--and they reject the blessing of
tyrannical rulers in the khutba.
The righteous Imamate is a topic of great importance in Ibadi
legal literature. The Imam should be chosen for his knowledge
and piety, without any regard to race or lineage. He should be
chosen by the elders of the community, who are also obligated to
depose him if he acts unjustly. The last “true Imam” to unite
the entire country of Oman under his power was Ahmad ibn Sa‘id
(ruled 1754-1783 CE), founder of the Bu Sa‘idi dynasty that
remains in power to this day. His descendants took
the title not of Imam, with its connotations of religious
leadership, but Sayyid, an honorific title held by any member of
the royal family.
Later, they used the title Sultan, implying purely coercive
power. Thus they relinquished all pretense of spiritual
authority, although they patronized Muslim scholars and promoted
Islamic scholarship. Ibadi scholars were often actively engaged
in trying to actualize the true Islamic state; they poured forth
their longings in poetry, even as they elaborated the
foundations of piety in lengthy works of jurisprudence. The
Ibadi scholars of Oman--and the Mzab valley of Algeria, although
the linkage of Ibadism with Omani identity has necessarily made
Oman the focus of Ibadi political aspirations--have not merely
taught and
studied: they have agitated, led revolts, elected Imams, and
been the true leaders of Omani society, as both moral exemplars
and arbiters of power. Shaykh Sa‘id ibn Khalfan al-Khalili
(1811-1870), a mystic, poet and scholar of Arabic grammar and
rhetoric who is credited with inaugurating Oman’s literary
revival, is even more famous for his role in leading a rebellion
against Sultan Turki and establishing the Imamate of ‘Azzan ibn
Qays (1868-1871), which was overthrown only through British
intervention. Nur al-Din al-Salimi led a new Imamate movement in
1913, and forced his student, Salim ibn Rashid al-Kharusi, to
accept the role of Imam on pain of death. When Salim was
assassinated in 1920, another of Salimi’s students, Muhammad ibn
‘Abdallah al-Khalili, grandson of the great Sa‘id ibn Khalfan
al-Khalili, who was appointed to succeed him. For seven years
the British defended the Sultan in Muscat and eventually in 1920
arranged the so-called Treaty of Seeb, the formal
agreement which ambiguously divided the authority of the “Sultan
of Muscat and Oman” from that of the “Imam of the Muslims,” who
ruled in the interior. This division remained in force until
Sultan Sa‘id ibn Taymur secured the allegiance of the tribes of
the interior in the 1950's.
Omanis had settled in East Africa for centuries, and
periodically parts of East Africa came under direct rule from
Oman, although more often individual Omani families ruled East
African city-states, most famously the Mazru‘is of Mombasa. But
Sayyid Sa‘id ibn Sultan (ruled 1806-1856) was able to
consolidate central Omani rule over the Swahili coast, and in
1832 he moved his capital to Zanzibar. On the Swahili coast
Ibadis found themselves a minority, ruling over a largely
Shafi‘i Muslim
population. In the nineteenth century Zanzibar became an
important center of Islamic scholarship, attracting scholars
from Oman as well as from other parts of East Africa, such as
Somalia, Lamu, Mombasa and the Comoro Islands. In Zanzibar
Ibadis were exposed to contemporary Islamic currents in a way
that had not been possible in Oman. Sayyid Barghash
ibn Sa‘id, who ruled Zanzibar from 1870 to 1888, was well-read
and deeply interested in world affairs, and established a
printing press to promote Ibadi scholarship. Ibadis in Zanzibar
continued to take great interest in the political affairs of
Oman, and many ardently supported the movement that established
the Imamate of ‘Azzan ibn Qays (1868-1871). In the period
following this Imamate, many Omanis fled unstable economic and
political conditions at home and settled in Zanzibar. Among them
was Nasir al-Rawwahi, a great poet, scholar, mystic and judge
known in Oman as Abu Muslim al-Bahlani (1860-1920), who
emigrated to Zanzibar as a young man, along with his father, who
had served under Imam ‘Azzan ibn Qays as judge in Nizwa. Rawwahi
was an ardent supporter of the Ibadi ideal; his scholarly
writings reflect fully the tradition of Ibadi learning, and his
extensive commentary on Nur al-Din al-Salimi’s poem on
jurisprudence is a tribute to the range of his learning and his
consistency with Ibadi tradition. His poems are of a deeply
mystical character, and Rawwahi has a reputation for being a
“divine” (rabbani) poet in the full sense of the word--a man so
enraptured with the divine beauty, so privileged with the vision
of the unseen, that his poetry belongs to a realm beyond our
own. Some of his poems, dhikr meditations on the Divine Names,
were intended to be used for devotional purposes. Like the other
great Ibadi scholars, he disdained either to write love poetry
or panegyric. Yet this otherworldly mystic was also a man of
this-worldly politics. As one researcher commented, “His entire
diwan indicates that the poet was fighting the opponents of
Ibadism in Zanzibar.”
[2] He greatly admired the lives of the leaders of Ibadism, to the point where he said, “God will accept no religion other than theirs.”
[3] In his youth he
was a close friend of Ahmad ibn Sa‘id al-Khalili, son of the
great Shaykh Sa‘id ibn Khalfan al-Khalili, and the latter’s
influence on Nasir al-Rawwahi is palpable. In the movement to
establish the Imamate of Salim ibn Rashid al-Kharusi, Rawwahi
compared his role to that of Hassan ibn Thabit, the personal
poet of the Prophet Muhammad.
But moving to Zanzibar enabled him to expand his cultural
horizons a great deal. He was chief judge and advisor of Sultans
Hamad ibn Thuwayni (1893-1896) and Hamud ibn Muhammad (ruled
1896-1902), even traveling with the latter in coastal East
Africa in late 1898, penning his observations in a booklet that
has been published by the Ministry of National Heritage and
Culture in Oman. His attitude toward modern innovations may be
compared with that of Nur al-Din al-Salimi, who had
written that it is impermissible to learn the languages of the
Europeans or adopt any of their manners or send one’s children
to their schools.
[4] In contrast,
Rawwahi openly admired the improvements brought to the region by
British administration. He observed that the town of Lamu, a
traditional center of Muslim culture and scholarship on an
island off the coast of Kenya, had narrow streets and old,
crooked buildings, and its inhabitants manifested diseases of
body and soul. The British, he says, had left the city as it
was, restricting themselves to road repair and building
hospitals. He expressed his hope that the English would not
leave Lamu in this condition, but would plant the “civilization”
(tamaddun) in it that they had in their own capitals. He praised
the justice of British administration in Zanzibar.
It is a sign of Rawwahi’s cosmopolitanism and his difference
from earlier Ibadi scholars that he was influenced by the ideas
of the Egyptian reformer Muhammad ‘Abduh, and established the
first newspaper in Oman or Zanzibar, called /Al-Najah/, to
propagate ‘Abduh’s ideas. He corresponded with non-Ibadi Muslim
leaders, and sent a poem to Riyadh Pasha thanking him for his
efforts to reconcile Muslims and Copts in Egypt. Like Sa‘id ibn
Khalfan al-Khalili, Rawwahi is a fascinating blend
of contradictions: an ardent supporter of a pure Ibadi Imamate,
a friend and counselor of sultans, an admirer of British rule;
affirming the traditional Ibadi doctrine that non-Ibadi Muslims
are kuffar ni‘ma, but expressing his admiration for non-Ibadi
Muslims and advocating a unity that encompasses not only
Muslims, but non-Muslims as well; a judge and journalist
advocating modern “civilization,” and a mystic who longs for the
righteous Ibadi Imamate.
Sultan Sa‘id ibn Taymur, who ruled Oman from 1932-1970, was a
staunch conservative whose resistance to Westernization was so
strong that Omanis were not allowed to own automobiles, and the
country had no paved roads until 1968. But he sent his son, the
present sultan, Qaboos, to London to study at the Sand hurst
Military Academy. This Qaboos deposed his father in 1970 and set
about modernizing Oman at a rapid rate. So far Oman has managed
to avoid unthinking Westernization and its
corollary, Islamic reactionism. Islam remains an important part
of life, but in a thoroughly natural and non-politicized way.
The government supports the publication and dissemination of
Ibadi scholarship, but the rhetoric of Ibadism is noticeably
absent from its public pronouncements. Scholars like Nur al-Din
Salimi and Sa‘id al-Khalili are sources of national pride, but
their struggles against the BuSa‘idi sultanate are downplayed.
It is noteworthy that Nur al-Din al-Salimi’s son, Muhammad,
wrote a poem in praise of Sultan Qaboos. Abu Nabhan Ja‘id ibn
Khamis (1734/5-1822), an important Ibadi scholar of the early
BuSa‘idi period, confidently wrote that regardless of how kind,
pious and good non-Ibadi Muslims may be, they will inevitably go
to hell in the afterlife.
[5] But the present Grand Mufti of Oman, Shaykh Ahmad ibn Hamad al-Khalili, believes that the differences between Sunni and Ibadi Muslims are subsidiary issues that are of little eternal consequence and in no way impede Muslim unity.
[6] One can say that
today Ibadism is hardly sectarian, and the dream of establishing
a modern
Imamate has given way to aspirations more typical of modern
life.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Jawabat al-Imam al-Salimied. ‘Abd al-Sitar Abu Ghadda, vol.
6, 2nd printing, 1419/1999, p. 210.
[2] Muhammad b. Nasir b. Rashid al-Mahruqi. Abu Muslim al-Bahlani
Sha`iran, M.A. thesis, Sultan Qaboos University, 1995, p.72.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Nur al-Din ‘Abdallah ibn Humayd al-Salimi, Badhl al-majhud
fimukhalafat al-Nasara wa ’l-Yahud. Matabi‘
al-Batiniyya Maktabat al-Imam Nur al-Din al-Salimi, 1995.
[5] Fatwa in a collection of manuscripts in the Zanzibar
National Archives, ZA 8/40.
[6] Interview with author in Ministry of Religious Affairs,
Muscat, May 2001.
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