The Misguided Murjiah and Khawaarij: A closer Look...

[Laba-X]

Allah has made the Muslim Ummah into a Just nation (ummatan wasatan). An Ummah in the middle between two extreme ends: between being extreme in religion and being negligent; between being overzealous and being apathetic; between being excessive and being deficient. Islam adopts a middle stance in affairs so as not to make religion neither too extreme on people to be demanding nor too insignificant to be worthless.

 

The prophet (p.b.u.h) informed us that there will divisions among this Ummah and that it will be divided into 73 sects – all of whom will enter hellfire except for one. And this one group is described by the prophet as those who are on (following) what he and his companions are on. And this is where the name Ahlu Sunnah wal Jamaacah stems from. The prophet didn’t only tell us that there will be Khilaaf within the Ummah but he also told us how to save oneself when this occurs – and this is by sticking to the Sunnah of the prophet and the Khulafaa Rashideen. But many people appear to have distorted the teachings of the Prophet and came up with innovations that contradict these teachings. Among them are the Murji’ah and the Jahmiyyah

 

When it comes to the mas’ala of Eemaan and Kufr, these groups have transgressed and innovated ideas that went against the teachings of the prophet as well as the understanding of the Salaf.

 

• The Murji’ah have transgressed thinking that it was a benefit to the religion. They prohibited making Takfir on any Muslim as long as he believed in the Messenger of Allah and pronounced the declaration of faith, despite whatever actions of kufr or shirk he performed. They held the notion that the actions of the limbs are not part of Eeman, therefore even if you were to bow to Satan or burn the Qur’an you would still be a Mu’min with complete Eeman and destined for paradise. They believe that actions were simply there to complete the Eeman, but not necessarily part of Eeman. There are many other sects with varying degrees of deviance that stemmed up from this group.

 

• The Khawaarij on the other hand, are innovators who have transgressed in the magnification of sins and turning them into major sins in order to prevent people from falling into them. They quickly declared Takfir on whoever fell into these sins. Their claim is that when one falls into a major sin, he wasn’t a Muslim anyways, for if he was he wouldn’t rush into what Allah had forbidden him and he wouldn’t have chosen his whims and desires over the commands of Allah. These are the people whom the prophet said he would destroy them the way people of Ad’ were destroyed and Ali burned them. They are quicker to leave the fold of Islam than an arrow would leave the bow.

 

The correct stance of Ahlu Sunnah is between these two extremes: they adopt a moderate stance between these two deviant groups. They do not strip Islam entirely from the corrupt person or ruler upon the religion as is the view of the Khawarij, nor do they declare them to be eternally in the fire as is the view of the Muctazilah, nor do they negate from him the generality of Eeman, and they do not describe him with absolute Eeman, like the Murji’ah, rather, they say: he is a believer who is deficient in Eeman, or a believer with his Eeman who is corrupt due to his sins, as Sheikh Al Maqdasi described them. But let’s first look at a few points about the stance of Ahlu Sunnah on Eeman and kufr, before going to the Murji’ah and Khawaarij:

 

The stance of Ahlu Sunnah on Eeman and kufr:

 

• They believe that Eeman comprises of belief in the heart (ictiqad), statement of the tongue (qowl) and action of the limbs (camal)

• They believe that Eeman increases and decreases – it increases with obedience and decreases with disobedience

• Qowl without camal is of no use and amounts to nothing and similarly Camal without qowl and ictiqad is also valueless

• They believe that the Muslim can never be a Mu’min until he combines all the three concepts

• They believe that A mu’min can say “I am a Mu’min Insha-Allah” this is called the masa’ala of Istithnaa afraid of giving tazkiya to themselves some say it is Jaa’iz and others say it is Mustaxaab

• They believe that Kufr also comes about as a result of Ictiqaad, Qowl and Camal,

• Kufr (major) and Eeman are mutually exclusive: when one disappears, the other takes its place. They cannot co-exist within the same heart.

• They believe that if someone utters a statement of Kufr (say insults the prophet) or falls into an action of Kufr (say joins the ranks of the Kaafir army) then he is a Kaafir. And he will be judged for his kufr if all the conditions of the Xukm are met and anything that negates the Xukm is not found

 

 

The Murji’ah:

 

Irja is the misguided ideology of the Murji’ah sect. There are varying degrees of misguided groups within this sect, which are essentially sub groups of the Murji’ah. However, most of their erroneous concepts are founded upon a principle, which seeks to separate actions from Eeman. And from them were those who held that Eeman neither increased nor decreased and that it was a constant entity, which was either present of absent. Many of the contemporary groups have intentionally or unintentionally incorporated some of their views about the relationship of actions with Eeman, which necessitates an effect on the rules of declaring disbelief (Takfīr), based upon actions. Therefore, you will hear statements from them, such as, “A person is not labeled as a disbeliever (Kaafir) due to such and such actions because this action does not indicate what is in his heart,” even if that action was from the most obvious forms of Major Disbelief (Kufr Akbar) such as swearing at Allah or His Messenger, or legislating man-made laws and forcing these laws upon the people in replacement of the laws of Allah, or making fun of the religion or other than that.

 

Sufyan Ath-Thawri said: “The Murjiíah differed from us in three matters: We say that Eemann is sayings and actions and they say that Eeman is sayings without actions. We say that it increases and decreases and they say that it does not increase and that it does not decrease. We say that we are Mu’minun (only with) approval (i.e. by saying Insha-Allah) and they say that we are (guaranteed) Mu’minun in the eyes of Allah.” (Hilyat Al-Awliyaa 7/29)

 

• The original Murji’ah: these where the people in the time of Ali and Uthman leading into the Fitnah between Ali and Mucaawiyah. They left the issue and did not support one against the other and refused to hold any opinion about the matter. And because the term Irja literally means to ‘put off’ they were labeled with this term because they ‘put off’ the issue and did not take a side and refused to hold any opinions about the issue. This type of Irja, however, had nothing to do with the concept of Eeman and Kufr and therefore did not play any role in Takfir. This form of Irja is virtually non-existent.

 

Some of the forms of Murji’ah, with a basis in the concepts of Takfir, include:

 

1. Murjiatul Fuqahaa: these were the likes of Abu Hanifah and they say that actions are not part of Eeman. They were called Fuqahaa because they were culamaa with this ideology and not common people and this is not to be misunderstood that their mistakes were only a matter of Fiqh. Indeed, these misunderstandings are directly from Aqeedah in the most important area after Tawheed: Eeman and Kufr. The Murjiatul Fuqahaa separated actions from Eeman and said that actions are not Eeman but rather they are evidence for the Eeman in the heart. And this is the only real distinction between them and the Ghulatul Murjiíah.

 

2. Murjiatul Jahmiyyah: this type of Irja was innovated by Jahm Ibn Safwan and was much more extreme than the Murjiatul Fuqaha. Because he not only said that actions are excluded from Eeman, he also added that Eeman only was Cilm (knowledge). His concept was the most extreme Mathahib of Irja because he considered knowledge to be equal to Eeman. They said that Eeman was only Cilm (knowledge) in the heart. So they separated actions, statements and Ictiqad from Eeman. So even a person who refused to declare the Shahadateyn, committed all kinds of acts of Kufr, and did not claim to have Ictiqad in his heart, could not be made Takfir to as long as the person claimed to have knowledge of Allah. According to this opinion even Iblis would be a Mu’min, since he has knowledge of Allah. Those with this belief are generally considered kuffar.

 

3. Al-Karaamiyyah: they were named after their founder Ibn Karam. They say that Eeman is upon the tongue only and they separated both the actions of the body and the sayings and actions of the heart from the definition of Eeman. This means that the person remains a Mu’min as long as he declares the Shahadateyn upon his tongue, without any Ictiqad of it and without performing anything of the obligations of Islam. Takfir then can only be made to someone who does not declare the Shahadateyn.

 

4. Ghulatul Murjiiah: These are the majority of the Murjiah and they are the ones who said that Eeman is Tasdiq/Ictiqad (assent) of the heart alone, and that whatever takes place upon the tongue and upon the body does not even indicate what is in the heart, nor does it have any tie to the heart. And along with the Fikr or the Murjiatul Fuqaha, they have the most influence upon the Aqeedah of the Muslims today. In fact, they only differ from the Murjiatul Fuqaha in that they did not even see outward sayings and actions of Eeman to be evidence for Eeman in the heart. And because of this, they did not see sayings and actions of Kufr to be evidence for Kufr in the heart. So with respect to Takfīr, they are different than the Fuqahaa because they wouldn’t even consider the acts of Kufr to mean anything unless they were accompanied with statements in which the person clearly states that there is Kufr in his heart. And this meant that the person could not leave Islam unless he said clearly that he does not have Tasdiq in his heart. So everything depends upon the intentions.

 

 

The Difference Between Murji’atul Fuqahaa and Ahlu Sunna wal Jamaaca:

 

• The Salaf say that Eeman is Ictiqaad (belief in the heart) plus Qowl (statements of the tongue) plus camal bil jawaarix (actions of the limbs). Meaning that the actions of the limbs are part of Eeman and not separate

• The Murji’ah disagree and say that Eeman is Ictiqaad of the heart plus Qowl but the actions of the limbs are only obligatory (obligatory to worship Allah, obligatory to stay away from maxaarim, etc) but they are not included in Eeman and have nothing to do with it

 

• The Salaf say that Eeman increases and decreases with deeds

• The Murji’ah said no – Eeman neither increases nor decreases.

 

• The Salaf say that we will never testify to the completeness of Eeman of a particular person – since all humans are prone to error, no will we deny that he has Eeman despite his shortcomings and sins (except if he falls into a sin that renders him a kaafir)

• The Murji’ah say that the Mu’min is always in a complete state of Eeman despite his major sins but only deserves punishment in the hereafter

 

• The Salaf argued for the istithnaa in Eeman ‘ saying I am a mu’min insha-Allah.

• The Murji’ah denied it

 

• If someone comes with all the necessary belief of the heart and tongue, but does not willfully complement them with the action of the limbs, while being able to, the Salaf say that that person is a kaafir, for he denied the worship obligated upon him by Allah and his Eeman is null and void.

• The Murji’ah say that he is a Muslim but a faasiq Muslim, meaning he can leave the actions since they are not part of Eeman, and in the hereafter it depends on Allah to forgive him or punish him

 

• The Ghulatul Murji’ah or the Modern day Murji’ah are not the same as the early Murjiatul Fuqahaa

 

• The difference between the Salaf and the Murji’atul Fuqahaa was mostly a difference of terminology and not Axkaam but some aspects are the same as Ibn taymiyyah says.

• The Murjiatul Fuqahaa agree with the Salaf that good deeds increase your Eeman in the sense that if someone reads more Qur’an than you then his Eeman is more than yours and so on, but they say that the Macrifatul Qalbiyyah – the belief of Eeman in the heart, such as the yaqiin, ikhlas, etc, itself does not increase or decrease – just the outward actions increase and decrease.

• The Murjiatul Fuqahaa also believe that kufr comes from Qowl, ictiqad and camal just like the Salaf.

• They believe that if someone comes with Qowl and ictiqad and complements them with Camal then he is saved from hellfire altogether and he I s a Mu’min with complete Eeman

• If, however he does not complement them with camal then he is deserving punishment in the hereafter but is not eternally doomed to hellfire.

 

 

The Murji’ah, because of their separation of actions of the limbs from the Eeman, have watered down the religion of Allah and consider actions such as ruling besides what Allah has revealed, prostrating to Satan, throwing the Qur’an in the toilet or helping the Mushrikeen against the Muslims, etc to be actions of only sins rather than their manifest Kufr. This is because they believe all these actions cannot be called Kufr on their own until the situation of the heart is known – i.e until and unless the person believes within his heart the permissibility of these actions in Islam. Then and only then can they declare him a Kaafir. They believe that whatever nullifies one’s Islam is only Kufrul ictiqaadi since it is the heart, and heart alone, that determines whether Kufr has occurred or not!

 

 

Next:

Khawaarij

[Nur]

Great topics indeed, Laba-X,

 

Keep um coming, the board is humming with valuable knowledge indeed.

 

 

Nur

[xiinfaniin]

Before you two (Nur and LX) labor needlessly on irrelevant topics, for the record I am not one of those who use khawaarij label on alshabaab. An armed takfeeri is the most fitting label I could find.

 

Armed because they are armed. They are takfeeri because they justify their murderous ways on the basis of apostasy. Those who oppose them, they claim, are murtaddiin. If you are in doubt, refer to alshabaab pronouncements. They called the transitional government dawlah riddah. The Islamic sahwah has been thriving in Somalia almost 50 years and never did its leaders ever use such labels against Somali regimes at the time for they understood the theological consequence of using it.

 

I used to call for reconciliation between the parties in Somali conflict. But reconciling is nowise possible I realized now if one party has the ultimate truth, deeming the other party apostate, or a murtad. Hence my insistence on discussing these alshabaab related topics.

[Nur]

When discussing a problem, and if one has the good cause in heart, its wiser that one does not alienate those he hopes to convince and win over by using misnomer names that are uncalled for.

 

Objectivity (discussing issues) is to discuss the problems that arise from applying aqeeda on real situations and people, subjectivity (discussing people) is always a sure-fire to cause a break down in discussions, and its always a resort for those who fail to be objective by sticking to the issues.

 

Its subjective to call a fellow Muslim (" He is Takfeeri", "Jihadi" etc). While its objective to question the validity of such an accusation, its impact and contribution to a common goal we all have to attain ( Like Peace).

 

When a debater personalizes a problem under discussion , it follows that he will be part of the problem itself instead of being a part of the solution.

 

Objectivity means discussing the drivers of each groups actions, and hence evaluating it against a neutral principle all parties agree on (Like Islam, Quraan, Sunnah, Tawheed and Fiqh). based on the Quraanic teaching to revert to Allah (Quraan) and the Messenger ( Sunnah) when there is a disagreement.

 

For the sake of peace, I hope that we all control our emotions, and instead use our heads more, so that we might all begin to see each others concerns and if valid, closing the gaps that divide us.

 

I understand that this is easier said than done, but a reminder is always beneficial as Allah SWT said, "Remind (them of the right course), reminders indeed add value to believers"

 

 

Nur