Hadith is a form of Islamic oral anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the prophet Muhammad. Each hadith is associated with a chain of narrators. Compilations of hadith were aggregated into distinct collections by Islamic scholars beginning one or two centuries after Muhammad's death. Hadith are widely respected in mainstream Muslim thought and are central to Islamic law. They are at the center of a major scholarly discipline in Islam known as the hadith sciences, in addition to a contemporary field of historiography known as hadith studies.
In Islam, sunnah, also spelled sunna, is the body of traditions and practices of the Islamic prophet Muhammad that constitute a model for Muslims to follow. The sunnah is what all the Muslims of Muhammad's time supposedly saw, followed and passed on to the next generations. According to classical Islamic theories, the sunnah are documented by hadith, and alongside the Quran are the divine revelation (wahy) delivered through Muhammad that make up the primary sources of Islamic law and belief / theology. Differing from Sunni classical Islamic theories are those of Shia Muslims, who hold that imams interpret the sunnah, and Sufi who hold that Muhammad transmitted the values of sunnah "through a series of Sufi teachers".
Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Muslim community, being appointed at the meeting of Saqifa. This contrasts with the Shia view, which holds that Muhammad appointed Ali ibn Abi Talib as his successor. Nevertheless, Sunnis revere Ali, along with Abu Bakr, Umar and Uthman as 'rightly-guided caliphs'.
Ilm al-kalam or ilm al-lahut, often shortened to kalam, is the scholastic, speculative, or rational study of Islamic theology (aqida). It can also be defined as the science that studies the fundamental doctrines of Islamic faith, proving their validity, or refuting doubts regarding them. Kalām was born out of the need to establish and defend the tenets of Islam against the philosophical doubters. A scholar of kalam is referred to as a mutakallim, a role distinguished from those of Islamic philosophers and jurists.
The Kharijites were an Islamic sect which emerged during the First Fitna (656–661). The first Kharijites were supporters of Ali who rebelled against his acceptance of arbitration talks to settle the conflict with his challenger, Mu'awiya, at the Battle of Siffin in 657. They asserted that "judgment belongs to God alone," which became their motto, and that rebels such as Mu'awiya had to be fought and overcome according to Qur'anic injunctions. Ali defeated the Kharijites at the Battle of Nahrawan in 658, but their insurrection continued. Ali was assassinated in 661 by a Kharijite dissident seeking revenge for the defeat at Nahrawan.
The Ibadi movement is a Muslim denomination concentrated in Oman, established after historically breaking off from the Kharijites. The followers of the Ibadi sect are known as the Ibadis or, as they call themselves, The People of Truth and Integrity.
Islam is the state religion in Oman, introduced during Muhammad's lifetime in the early 7th century. Muhammad appointed Amr ibn al-As as governor, who remained until Muhammad's death in 632 CE. Amr and Sa'id ibn Aws al-Ansari delivered Muhammad's letter to the Al-Julanda brothers; the rulers of Oman, inviting them to embrace Islam. This peaceful mission marked the beginning of Islam in Oman. Today, 95.9% of Oman's population is Muslim, with slightly over 45% following Sunni Islam, and around 45% Ibadi Islam, with the other 5% identifying as Shia Muslims.
Abū Yazīd Makhlad ibn Kaydād Dajjal, also known as the Man on the Donkey, was an Ibadi Berber of the Banu Ifran tribe who led a rebellion against the Fatimid Caliphate in Ifriqiya starting in 944. Abu Yazid conquered Kairouan for a time, but was eventually driven back and defeated by the Fatimid caliph al-Mansur bi-Nasr Allah.
Islamic schools and branches have different understandings of Islam. There are many different sects or denominations, schools of Islamic jurisprudence, and schools of Islamic theology, or ʿaqīdah (creed). Within Islamic groups themselves there may be differences, such as different orders (tariqa) within Sufism, and within Sunnī Islam different schools of theology and jurisprudence. Groups in Islam may be numerous, or relatively small in size.
Abd Allah ibn Ibad al-Tamimi was an Arab Islamic scholar and a leader of the Kharijites from Basra, of the tribe of Banū Saʿd of Tamīm. In traditional Islamic historiography, he is the founder and eponym of Ibāḍīsm.
Schools of Islamic theology are various Islamic schools and branches in different schools of thought regarding creed. The main schools of Islamic theology include the extant Mu'tazili, Ash'ari, Maturidi, and Athari schools; the extinct ones include the Qadari, Jahmi, Murji', and Batini schools.
Abu al-Sha'tha Jabir ibn Zayd al-Yahmadi al-Azdi was an Islamic scholar, theologian and one of the founding figures of the Ibadis, the third major denomination of Islam. He was from the Tabi‘un, or second generation of Islam, and took leadership of the denomination after the death of Abd-Allah ibn Ibadh.
The Ibadi revolt was an Ibadi Kharijite uprising that occurred in ca. 747–748 against the Umayyad Caliphate. It established the first Ibadi imamate, a short-lived state located in the Arabian Peninsula.
Muḥakkima and al-Haruriyya refer to the Muslims who rejected arbitration between Ali and Mu'awiya I at the Battle of Siffin in 657 CE. The name Muḥakkima derives from their slogan lā ḥukma illā li-llāh, meaning "no judgment (hukm) except God's". The name al-Haruriyya refers to their withdrawal from Ali's army to the village of Harura' near Kufa. This episode marked the start of the Kharijite movement, and the term muḥakkima is often also applied by extension to later Kharijites.
Abd al-Wahhab ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Rustam, was the second imam of the Imamate of Tahart and founder of the Wahbi Ibadism movement. He was part of the Rustamid dynasty that ruled a theocracy in Algeria. He became ruler after the death of his father, Abd al-Rahman ibn Rustam and founded an external Islamic religious movement called Wahhabism relative to his name Abd al-Wahhab. His Ibadi Kharijite preaching is often incorrectly associated with the modern day Wahhabi movement.
Ibadism, or the Ibadi school of Islam, which has followers in Oman and elsewhere, has been the subject of much academic study. Much of the earlier writings from within the Islamic world presented Ibadism as a heresy. Western academic interest in Ibadism began in the mid-19th century, when translations of Ibadi texts and other literature began to become available. French and Italian scholars focussed mainly on Ibadism in North Africa, while John C. Wilkinson and other British scholars have studied it in Oman, where few texts were accessible until the 1970s.
Ibāḍī theology refers to the study of God within the Ibāḍī branch of Islam, and shares a path with Islamic theology. Although the school was founded in Basra, modern-day Iraq, its followers subsequently sought refuge in Oman, Yemen, Hadramawt in the southeast peninsula of Arabia, and North Africa. Though largely ignored by the mainstream of Arab and Muslim scholarship, and scarcely tapped by Orientalist research, there does exist a continuous tradition of Ibāḍī scholarship throughout the centuries to this day.
Valerie Hoffman is an academic scholar on Islamic studies expertise on religion, anthropology of Islam and Ibadi studies.
Abū Muḥammad ʿAbdallāh ibn Yazīd al-Fazārī (c. 748–795), was an Ibadi scholar of theology hailing from the Arab tribe of Banu Fazara. His works comprise the earliest extant body of Islamic theology and considered by scholars as an important source for studying the first development of rational theology in Islam.
Abu Bilal Mirdas ibn Udayya al-Tamimi was the leader of quietist Kharijites of Basra during the early years of the Umayyad Caliphate. He was the brother of Urwa ibn Udayya, one of the instigator of the Kharijite movement at the Battle of Siffin, in which Abu Bilal himself participated. After the defeat of the Kharijites at the Battle of Nahrawan in 658, he adopted political quietism and opposed the extremist Kharijites. In 680, in response to persecution by the Umayyad governor Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad, Abu Bilal rose in rebellion and was killed in 681. His piety, military exploits, and death, which was seen by many as martyrdom, immortalized him among the later Kharijite circles. He is counted among the imams of the extinct Sufrism sect of the Kharijites and is venerated in Ibadism to this day.
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