Conflict and reconciliation of the deviated sects in Islamic history

by Hana Arisesa

It is undeniable that advancing technology changing the ways of thinking. In Islamic history, the deviate sects emerge in the early Islamic era until today. But the technology shifts the ways of the war opinion compared to the previous era. In this article, I describe the history of the deviated sect and the refutation of the Islamic scholar and a few examples of that. Then I compared that in the situation in the modern days and how the seeking knowledge person responds to that.

Islam came in order to benefit human life, give wisdom and easiness, and bring them from the darkness to the straight path. After the prophet conveys the message from Allāh in 23 years, Islam becomes the religion of perfection. Islam is the only religion which is accepted by Allāh. He mentions this in the Quran:

“….This day I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favor upon you and have approved for you Islam as religion. …” (Quran 5:3).

There is no more after perfection than a degradation. After Islam spread in the era Khulafāʾ Rāshidūn, the dispute slowly appeared. The first among them is started when the appointment of the successor of the prophet, due to the no real clues from the Prophet about his successor. However, due there are many the companion at that time, this problem can be overcome as seen in the early Islamic history by appointing Abu Bakr as-Șiddīq by unanimous decision of the companion. In the era of the fourth caliph in the seventh century i.e. Ali ibn Abi Talib the al-Khawarij –the first sect in the Islamic history- emerged. After that many deviated sects came after another.

This phenomena exactly what has been predicted by the prophet in his life. The famous hadīth as follows:

“Jews were divided into 71 sects. One of them is in Heaven, seventy of them are in Hell. Christians are split into 72 sects. Seventy-one of them are in Hell, the one is in Heaven. I swear to Allah whose mighty hands hold the Muhammad’s will, beyond any doubt, my umma will be divided into 73 sects. One will be in Heaven, seventy-two will be in flames. Said: ‘Oh the Messenger of Allah! Who are they?’ Thus he spoke: ‘They are al-jamā‘a (the community)’”. (Ibn Maja, “Fitan”, 17).

This is famous hadīth to legitime the benchmarking about deviation sects in Islam. As clearly seen in the text hadīth the only one sect of Islam in the right guided is the al-jamā‘a. Although there is research who do not agree with the matter (Gömbeyaz, K, 2018). The term “al-jamā‘a” come to have a prestigious label in Islamic society which later become a more general term as “Ahl-us-Sunnah wal-Jama’ah”.

The Dispute among the Sects in Aqedah

The Ahlussunaah wal Jamaah is those who follow the Sunnah and preserve unity (Al-Izz, n.d.). By the definition the knowing the Sunnah of the Prophet will lead to the correct understanding of this Religion. However, Islamic history showed there were many different opinions in the area of Islamic belief. Some of them are permissible differences and forbidden differences. In the general, the are several main factors which lead to this matters such as the different understanding of the interpretation of the meaning of Islamic sources, The differences in the validation of the hadith which bring to the different conclusion, and the different of the methodology. Who has been studied in Islamic jurisprudence will be familiar with different opinion of the Islamic scholars in many fields.

However, when a dispute occurs in the field of theology this will be a big problem due to its consequences. The correct belief will lead someone to the guided path but incorrect belief will cause someone to go to the Fire. As I stated previously, the correct benchmarking is the Ahl-us-Sunnah wal-Jama’ah which refers to the three-generation after the life of the Prophet. Because of that reason, the emerging of the deviated sects in the Islamic world can be solved by refereeing them.

From the time of the righteous caliph until modern time today, there are many deviated sects that appeared. At that time the deviated sect can be recognized by the affiliation. They are usually forming a different group from the majority. Some of them, the deviated sect can be known by the person who initiates misguide thought, some of them addressed by someone who spread that thought. However, a group like these, almost disappeared in the Islamic world today. But, these group still pass down theirs believe to the astray people until nowadays. So, it’s difficult to point out the group people today belong to them. However, the benchmarking instrument can be used to clarify the misguided thought from the past until today.

Conflict and Reconciliation: in the time of Islamic History

As we can see today, the biggest conflict from the early Islamic era is the conflict between Sunni and Shia. The Sunni as a representation of the majority of the Islamic belief around the world today, compared to the Shia theology which today represent by the Republic of Iran. The differences between Sunni and Shia not only in the Islamic jurisprudence only, but also occur in the field of Islamic Theology (Aqeedah). This violence has increased during the last decade, after the Arab revolution. These conflicts started in long time history, due to its complexity, however the reconciliation until today has not been achieved, but the effort to that seems to be promoted (Krause, 2019).

Looking the earlier scholars in their effort of the refutation of the deviated sect, established in many ways. Allāh says in the Quran explaining the method of the da’wa for the sake of Allāh:

“Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good instruction, and argue with them in a way that is best. Indeed, your Lord is most knowing of who has strayed from His way, and He is most knowing of who is [rightly] guided” (Quran 16:125)

The verse above showing that discussion is one of the methods for the reconciliation of various sects in the time of Islamic history until today. The discussion is an effective way to defend the correct belief from the incorrect ones.  Of course, the discussion here is not only debate in the private or public domain, but also including all the means to challenge anyone thought using others methods such as sending a letter to each other’s or make rebuttals using a book. These methods are well known in the previous Islamic Scholar until today. This is a highly valuable method to maintain Islamic belief on the right path. History recorded the important contribution of Islamic scholar to protected Islam from deviations in the matters of correct Islamic theology and showed a successful result.

Remembering the famous event in history related to the effort defending the correct belief is debating the heretical thoughts brought by the-Khawarij, one of the early deviated sects during the time of the fourth righteous caliph. He is Ibn Abbas who successfully debated the argument of the-Khawarij and expose their heretical belief. Another way in this case, is the number of books specifically written by Islamic scholars to counter deviated sect such as “Ar-Radd 'ala Jahmiyya” by Imam Ahmad. In some cases, some books are intended directly to refute a particular heretic person, and the others defending by mentioning the characteristic of the correct belief than describing the false ones in their books.

An example of the debating in a public room to defend the valid Islamic teaching is portrayed in the Mihnah, the inquisition instituted by the Abbasid Caliph al-Ma'mun towards the end of his reign about the creation of Al-Quran. As in history, the culmination of the events was the discussion of the Imam with the Ahmad Ibn Abi Du’at, a proponent of Mutazilite ideology at that time. In this event appear that debating to refute the deviated sects become effective ways to stop the spreading of false belief. The other great example is what has happened to Ibn Taimiyyah, a leading scholar in the seventh century to defend Islam from heretic sects at that time. He has shown a persistent effort in refuting the deviated groups such as al-Radd `ala al-Zanadiqa wa'l-Jahmiyya "Refutations of the Heretics and the Jahmites". Defending his jurist view on several matters leads him challenged by other scholars of jurist schools in the public room. Consistently teaching in the correct belief, make the public aware to the pure Islamic teaching at that time, after spreading of the invalid thought.

I already present an example from the previous era of Islamic history. Then I want to show nowadays in modern contexts.  It is cannot be denied that the conditions of the previous time were different than today. The modern era benefited from technology which leads to the fast exchange of information. In the old-time, searching for a written book of a scholar can be lead to a tedious journey, tiresome of copywriting, and spending a lot of money. The spreading of false thought can be localized to a particular area, due to the difficulty in accessing it. But, today the information widely publicly opened by the invention of the internet, the people can get the various information in order of a second, without filtering, without barriers, and without censoring. On one side, this is beneficial to provide the correct Islamic teaching but on another side to promotes the false ideology. The battle of argument changes from real-life into virtual war. The real example in the modern era is promoting of the idea of false jihad, bring to terrorism in the world such as the emergence of ISIS (Khdir, 2018). This is an important thing that should be considered by knowledge seeking of the Islamic belief. The refutation of the deviated belief in the modern era strongly happened in the virtual world by the internet. But, this does not neglect the importance of the convention ways as happened in history.

Conclusion

After the era of the Prophet, the rise of the deviated sects slowly appeared in the Islamic world as informed by him. The Islamic scholar comes forward as the guard of the Islamic teaching to defend, refute, and spreading the correct belief in many ways. This happed from the early time of the Islamic era until today. However, the invention of modern technology such as the internet, shift to the new paradigm in the defending valid ideology from the real-world to the virtual ones. This should be known to the seeking knowledge of the true Islamic teaching to counter the war of opinion in the virtual.

Bibliography

Quran. Translation in English by Sahih International.

Ibn Majah (n.d.)

Gömbeyaz, K. (2018). The Influence of the 73 Sects Ḥadīth on the Classification of Theological Sects in Islamic Heresiographical Literature. Ulum, 1(2), 245–258.

Al-Izz, I. A. (n.d.). Commentary on The Creed of At-Tahawi-Part 4. pp. 479. Translated by Muhammad Abdul-Haqq Ansari. 2000.

Krause, D., Svensson, I., & Larsson, G. (2019). Why is there so little shia–sunni dialogue? Understanding the deficit of intra-muslim dialogue and interreligious peacemaking. Religions, 10(10). https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10100567.

Khdir, R. R. (2018). Jihad Between Islamic Jurisprudence and Practice of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. European Scientific Journal, ESJ, 14(5), 40. https://doi.org/10.19044/esj.2018.v14n5p40.