His appearance on the scene

Ibn Ibadh also was among the leaders of the Muhakkimah party who tried to win 'Abdullah b. al-Zubair to their side and offered him their full support if he agreed to their views and dissociated himself from 'Uthman, Talhah, and his own father al-Zubair b. al-Awwam, but 'Abdullah b. al-Zubair refused to agree to their views and they left him, some of them returning to Basrah among whom was 'Abdullah bin Ibadh.

 

It appears that the attitude of Ibn al-Zubair made them give up all hope of an outstanding leadership (caliphate). A number of leading personalities emerged and sought the leadership of the movement through military action. First of these was Nafii' b. al-Azraq who took an extreme line in his revolt and withdrew with his followers from the Muslim community on the basis that their land was a land of war and they were all polytheists. At this stage Abdullah b. Ibadh appeared as a leading figure who opposed the attitude of Nafii' and other Khariji leaders and refuted them openly. Non-Ibadh sources suggest that this was how the Ibadhi school started, and accredited its foundation to Abdullah b. Ibadh who was according to most of those sources, the head, of the Ibadhi school.

 

In 64 H, Abdullah ibn Ibadh; along with a group of Muhakkimah, was arrested and put in prison. As a result of the developments that followed Yazid’s death, Ibn Ibadh and others managed to gain their freedom.

 

The move of Ibn al-'Azraq was the first serious split in the Muhakkimah party. The doctrines introduced by Nafii b, al-Azraq created different reactions to them by the leading members of the Muhakkimah party. Both Jabir b. Zaid and 'Abdullah b. Ibadh opposed the views of Nafii' and defended and propagated the old principles of the Muhakkimah.

 

The doctrine which was introduced by Nafii' b. al-Azraq was that Khuruj or hijrah, to their camp is obligatory. He regarded the land of their Muslim opponents (al-mukhalifun) as the land of war (dar al-harb), and regarded those who took no action (al-qa'adah) as idolaters on the basis of the Qur'anic verse,"If you obey them you are idolaters." This doctrine was contrary to the doctrine held by the Muhakkimah that their Muslim opponents were simply 'infidels-ingrate," (kuffar), not polytheists, that their fellow Muslims could live among their opponents, and allowed qu'ud, so that Khuruj or hijrah is not obligatory.

 

Ibadhis kept to the doctrine of the early Muhakkimah and rejected the attitude of Nafii' and maintained that both parties, i.e. those who come out for jihad and those who took no action, al-qa'adah, are Muslims; those who take no action support those who come for jihad and hold belief in association with them, and the latter pardon the weakness of those who take no action.This doctrine was expressed later in the following statement, (La Hijra baad al-Fath), which is in fact a part of Tradition of the Prophet,and was used almost in all Ibadhi creeds to express their view of the question of hijrah, or Khuruj.