Ibadhism
Who Are The Ibadhis?
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. The Quran says: “Say: Verily, my Lord hath guided me to a way that is straight, — a religion of right, — The path (trod) by Abraham, the true faith, and he (certainly) joined not gods with God. Say: “Truly, my prayer and my service of sacrifice, my life and my death, are (all) for God, The Cherisher of the Worlds: No partner hath he. This am I commanded, and I am the first of those who bow to His Will.” (VI: 161-63)
Thus, it is the duty of the Muslim to make his Islam clean without any spot of paganism. It is his duty to make his life for God, and his death for God, and with this, to make his Islam a reality. If he uses Islam to come to power, tyranny and oppression, his Islam has nothing to do with reality; it is only superficial and it averts a sword from his neck, spoils from his property and captivity from his offspring. And nothing else.
As for Sayyid Abu Al-Hassan Ali Al-Hassan Al-Hadawy, he has said in his valuable book, “What The World Has Lost With The Decline of Muslim”, from page 288 to page 291, which was published by the Arab Publishing House in Beirut — Lebanon. He said, reproaching those who follow the footsteps of the Ommaiads and the Abbasides and clarify what the Islamic renaissance should be in the Muslim countries:“A time came in the history of the Arab World when life used to be according to the order of one person. He could be a Caliph or a king, or could be a handful of persons who were either ministers or sons of a king. The country used to be considered the personal property of that lucky person and all the people were merely a group of servants and slaves. He would control their properties, possessions and objectives besides themselves. The people were nothing but a shadow of one person, and their life was no more than an extension of his own life.Life used to be around this person in its history, science, arts, poetry and production. If one examines the history or the culture of that period, he would find that person controls the people of the society just as a big tree controls the grass and the small plants growing under its shade as it prevents them from sunshine and air. Similarly, the people dwindled under this person and vanished without any say or wish or freedom or respect. The wheel of life used to move for the sake of this person. For him the farmer used to toil, the merchant used to trade, the manufacturer to manufacture, the author, the poet, the mother begot children, the people to die and the soldier to fight.Also for him the earth exhausted its wealth and the sea its precious values. The people who were producers used to live as beggars or a band of slaves. One could be lucky to get the relics of the table of the king and be thankful or he may be deprived of that luck and be patient.Humanity could perish and no word would be uttered, yet people would compete to get near the king and utilize the advantage.
That was the period which prevailed and flourished in the East for quite a long time and left deposits in the life of the people and in themselves, their arts, poetry, culture and social aspects. It left remnants which have remained in the Arab libraries among which is the book of One Thousand and One Nights. (Alf Laila Wa Laila) which gives a clear picture of that reign when the ruler in Baghdad or the king in Damascus or Cairo was everything, a hero of the method of life and a center of administration. This period which the book “One thousand and one nights” reflects with its stories, and also the book of songs reflecting its history and arts, was not an Islamic period; neither was it natural and reasonable.
Islam does not recognise it, but even reason does not agree with it. Islam came to crush it and to eliminate it. That was a period when Muhammad was sent and he called it paganism and blamed it. He strongly denounced its kings such as Kasra and Caesar and their selfishness and opulence.
Such a reign should not stay and continue in any place at any time. It survives only where people are over-powered or are mentally afflicted or have lost their senses and feelings or are soulless. The mind does not accept this consciousness; and who can accept that one person or a handful of persons satiate with a variety of food and drinks while thousands die of hunger and by escaping? Who can allow that a king or sons of a king amuse themselves like madmen while people cannot find food to sustain life and dress to cover their bodies? Who can accept that the fate of productive people — and they are the majority — be nothing except to toil and work ceaselessly, while the fate of a class— which does not exceed a number of fingers — resort to amusement at the expense of those toiling people without thanks or consideration and without reasoning or consciousness? Who can accept that industrialists, intellectuals, talented and pious should toil while those others have no aim except spending lavishly and know nothing except immorality and drinking wine? Who can accept that people of sufficiency, of prominence, and of reliability should be treated roughly and be refrained like the untouchables and should gather around a king or a prince or a handful of low-minded, foolish and stupid who care nothing except wasting the wealth and satisfying their lusts? They know nothing except flattering, controversy and plotting against the innocent people. They are not reputed with anything except loss of consciousness and shamelessness. That was a peculiar situation and should not have remained for one day, let alone remaining for a number of years. If there was a precedence of such a type of reign in the history of reign which remained for a long time, that was because of the neglect of the people or it was against their will; also because of the weakness of Islam and strength of paganism. However, such a situation is apt to collapse and become rotten whenever the sunrise of Islam emerges and consciousness of people awakens and people take things into consideration.
Those who still live in the world of “One Thousand and One Nights” live in a house weaker than that of the spider. They live in a house threatened by dangers and they do not know when it will be abandoned or collapse; and if they accept all that, they do not know when the floor will fall on them. It is a house standing on no firm foundation and no strong supports — surely the reign of “One Thousand and One Nights” has gone and they should not deceive themselves and not tie themselves to a wheel which may break and collapse.This is what this great scholar has said. He has exposed the truth of the states of the Ommaiads and the Abbasides. These two states were the ones against which the Ibadhis fought because of their exceeding the bounds in their transgression and digression and deviation from the straight path which was brought by the Prophet and followed by the Orthodox Caliphs after him.
There were a number of revolutions waged by the lbadhis against those two reigns; and the Ibadhis have set wonderful examples of impartiality and of avoiding the wrong. Among these revolutions was the revolution of Talib Al-Haq (Caller of Justice) Abdulla bin Yahya Al-Kindi; who left Hadhramout for Yemen after a contrast of allegiance was held for him. He resisted the authority of the Ommaiads until he managed to eradicate the roots of oppression in Sanaa, and kept the people on the straight path of justice. He found in the possession of the agent of the Ommaiads in Sanaa a lot of wealth which he had collected from the people without justification.
Imam Talib Al-Haq did not justify to take anything for himself from that wealth nor permit any of his companions to take anything inspite of fact that it was they who uprooted oppression and tyranny and freed the necks of the people of Sanaa. He then delegated his Commander Imam Al-Shary Aba Hamza Al-Mukhtar Ibni Awf to the two Holy cities to call (people) to God and to fight oppression. Abu Hamza avoided blood-shedding in the two Holy cities and avoided confrontation with any Muslim. The people of Madina however, were still moved to prefer the Ommaiads inspite of the suffering, oppression, subjugation and stubborness imposed by the Ommaiads, refused and insisted upon fighting Abu Hamza in Quday. Abu Hamza tried to avoid fighting them as much as he could and he even told his companions not to begin fighting. He persistently appealed to them but the people of Madina began to aim their spears at his companions and struck one of them. At that stage Abu Hamza told his companions:“Now fighting them has become justified.”
Here, Abu Hamza and his companions — who were few — fought.God, the Almighty, made them appear many (in the eyes of the enemy), and when they entered Medina, he made all efforts to change the way of the Ommaiads — the way of the people of Madina which was imposed onto them by the Ommaiads. The Ommaiads tried to destroy the status of the Muslims in the two Holy cities for what these two cities had in holiness for the Muslims. They spread songs and all sorts of immorality in the two Holy cities.
Abu Hamza introduced a system and drew a plan and adopted a principle in his eloquent speeches which he delivered in Madina.Among these speeches when addressing the people of Madina, he said: “You know, O you people of Madina, that we have not moved from our homes and our possessions for the sake of influence or pride or violation or amusement. Nor for the sake of the king seeking power or revolution from amongst us; but when we saw that the lights of justice have been burnt and the caller for justice has been spurned and the builder of justice has been murdered, the earth became narrow for us inspite of its being spacious. We heard the caller calling for Obedience to God and for the Rule of the Quran; and we answered the call of God — and whoever does not answer the call of God does not frustrate on the land? ”
“We met many tribes who pushed back from us as one division fluctuated with one enclosure — a few made miserable things on the land — God gave us shelter and supported us with victory and we became — by the Grace of God —brothers. Then we met your people at Quday and we invited them to the Obedience of God and to the Rule of the Quran, but they invited us to the Obedience of the Satan and to the rule of Marwan and the people of Marwan—what a difference between offence and guidance! They then hurried up —The Satan had hit them with his outrage and boiled up their blood and confirmed to them his opinion.
“The defenders of God faced the bands and the regiments of each sword-holder they saw and the fire warmed up and continued making the offenders doubtful. And you, O people of Madina, if you support Marwan and the people of Marwan, God will resent you by inflicting to torment from Himself or from us and will heal the hearts of the believers. O, people of Madina, your beginning was a good one and your end was a bad one. O, people of Madina, people are from us and we are from them except the polytheist who warships idols or the infidel among the people of the book or the unjust Imam. O, people of Madina, whoever claims that God has charged a person beyond his ability or has demanded what he has not given him, he is an enemy to God and we have to fight him. O, people of Medina, tell me about the eight shares which God has ordained in his book on the strong to the weak, and the ninth came and he has no right even for one share but he took all of them for himself in haughtiness and in combating against his God. What would you say about him and about those who assisted him in this affair? ” He concluded in defence for his companions and his principle, and proclaiming the call for justice which was destroyed and whose voice was lowered down because of the injustice of the Ommaiads which prevailed for quite a long period after the power returned to them, and they followed a system which was not of justice and straightness and guidance.
If this is the principle of lbadhism and the thinking of lbadhis, and if this is the movement of the Ibadhis, then why should people dishonour them? Why should they defend me Ommaiads who wiped out the Light of Islam with their immorality and wickedness? No doubt that those who spoiled the reputation of the Ibadhis were — as I have said before trying to come near the authority. One followed another in this denial and they never examined closely in order to understand the truth, and they never made a research for the facts and never attempted to compare the matters with the firm signs the Book of God and the Sunnah of the Prophet.
Lies against lbadhism increased even from people who are considered among the great scholars in Religion, and from the Muslim lmams. They brought what the mind cannot grasp and what the reality does not support in their writings about Ibadhisrn. People accepted such writings and received them without research or close examination.Among those writers are Ibni Hazm Al-Dhahiry whose writings have been accepted by people whereas the Ibadhis are far from what he has described them.
Inspite of that, we see that writers until our days do not investigate the truth but simply rely on Ibni Hazm and his colleagues among those who do not mind to tell lies in what they refer to Ibadhis. Let us take an example: The hireling called Dr. Sabir Taimah in his book:Studies in Divisions - Shia, Khayriyah, Batiniyah, Sufiyah, Khawarij— we find him saying when mentioning lbadhism, that they are the followers of Ibadh bin Omar who left Kufa in groups in the form of fighting people. They killed women and children and insulted them on their way. They charged all the people with infidelity and many things of corruption and bloody violence. Quoting lbni Hazm he says: Ibni Hazm Andalosy says in describing them “We saw the Ibadhis in Andalos forbidding food for the people of the book, and forbidding eating goat, ox and sheep; and make it obligatory for one who sleeps during the day time in the month of Ramadhan and has a dream to repay the fasting, and they make ablution in the wells from which they drink except a few of them. They see that pilgrimage is permitted during all the months of the year; and they forbid eating fish until it is slaughtered. They do not allow imposition of personal taxes on the Magians and they consider it infidel to deliver speeches on the occasions of the two Eids of Al-Fitr and Al-Adh-haa. They say that the companions of Hell are in Hell happy and prosperous and also the companions of Paradise are in Paradise happy and prosperous. And it is proper to mention that the Ibadhis with their different beliefs which the divisions we have mentioned have explained are still to be found in the outskirts of Kufa and so on....”
The reasonable person should look into this statement and should refer to the history of the Ibadhis to see what they have written on the ideology and jurisprudence. He, will find that, first of all, Ibni Hazm has told an open lie which has no screen to cover it, and nobody can excuse him.
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