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The Ibāḍī movement, Ibadism or Ibāḍiyya (Arabic: الاباضية al-Ibāḍiyyah) is a form of Islam distinct from the Sunni and Shia denominations. It is the dominant form of Islam in Oman and Zanzibar. Ibadis can also be found in Algeria, Tunisia, East Africa as well as Libya.

Believed to be an off-shoot of one of the earliest schools, Khawarij, it is said to have been founded less than 50 years after the death of the prophet Muhammad. Historians as well as majority of Muslims believe that the denomination is a reformed Islamic sect, formally known as the Khawarij or Kharijites. However, Ibadis continue to deny any but a passing relation to the Kharijites (Khawarij), and point out that they merely developed out of the same precursor group; and whilst they may hold some beliefs in common, they and the Kharijites were never one and the same.

Origin[link]

The school derives its name from Abdullah ibn Ibadh at-Tamīmī. However, the true founder was Jabir ibn Zaid al-'Azdi from Nizwa, Oman.

Views[link]

Ibadi communities are generally regarded as conservative, for example Ibadiyya rejects the practice of qunut or supplications while standing in prayer.

Their views assimilate that of the Kharijites, in which they believe that the attitude of a true believer to others is expressed in three religious obligations:

• walāyah: friendship and unity with the practicing true believers, and with the Ibadi Imams.
• barā'ah: dissociation (but not hostility) towards unbelievers and sinners, and those destined for Hell.
• wuqūf: reservation towards those whose status is unclear.

Doctrinal differences with Sunni Islam[link]

Ibadis also have several doctrinal differences with Sunni Islam, chief among them:

• Muslims will not see God on the Day of Judgment. This is derived from the Qur'an where Musa (Moses) is told upon asking to see God, "You shall not see me." This is contrary to the mainstream Sunni belief that Muslims will see God with their eyes on the day of Judgment.^[1] This matches the beliefs of Shia Muslims. The Imam Ali said in Nahj al-Balagha: "Eyes cannot see Him, but he can be seen by the realities of faith".

• Whosoever enters the Hellfire, will live therein forever. This is contrary to the Sunni belief that those Muslims who enter the Hellfire will live therein for a fixed amount of time, to purify them of their shortcomings, after which they will enter Paradise. Sunnis also believe, however, that unbelievers in "One God" (Ahad-Allah, meaning the oneness of God, without association of others with God) will be in the Hellfire forever. (This may be compared to the differing Christian opinions on purgatory.)

• The Qur'an was created by God at a certain point in time. The Sunni community holds that the Qur'an is the speech of Allah, as exemplified by the suffering of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal during the Mihna. Much of the Shi'a community also holds that the Qur'an was created, one of many theological beliefs that they share with the Mu'tazilah.^{[dubious – discuss]}

• Ibadis have their own form of hadiths.

Views on Islamic history and caliphate[link]

Ibadis agree with Sunnis in approving of Abu Bakr and Umar ibn al-Khattab, whom they regard as the two rightly-guided Caliphs. They regard Uthman ibn Affan as having introduced bid'ah "innovations" into Islam, and approve of the revolt which overthrew him. They also approve of the first part of Ali's caliphate, and, like Shi'as, disapprove of Aisha's rebellion against him and also disapprove of Muawiya's revolt. However, they regard Ali's acceptance of arbitration at the Battle of Siffin against Muawiya's rebels as un-Islamic and as rendering him unfit for the Imamate, and they condemn Ali for killing the Muslims of an-Nahr in the Battle of Nahrawan.

In their belief, the fifth legitimate Caliph was Abdullah ibn Wahb al-Rasibi. All Caliphs from Muawiya onwards are regarded as tyrants except Umar ibn Abdul Aziz, on whom opinions differ. However, various later Ibadi leaders are recognized as true imams, including Abdullah ibn Yahya al-Kindi of South Arabia and the imams of the Rustamid dynasty in North Africa.

View of hadith[link]

Ibadis accept as authentic far fewer hadith than do Sunnis, and some hadith accepted by Ibadis are rejected by Sunnis. Ibadi jurisprudence, naturally, is based only on the hadith accepted by Ibadis. Several of Ibadism's founding figures – in particular Jabir ibn Zayd – were noted for their hadith research, and Jabir ibn Zayd is accepted as a reliable narrator by Sunni scholars as well as by Ibadi ones.

The principal hadith collection accepted by Ibadis is al-Jami'i al-Sahih^{[dead link]}, also called Musnad al-Rabii ibn Habib, as rearranged by Abu Ya'qub Yusuf b. Ibrahim al-Warijlani. Ibadi jurists use the rules set by Abu Ya'qub al-Warijlani to determine the reliability of a hadith. These are largely similar to those used by Sunnis.

Ibadi jurists, however, criticize some of Muhammad's companions, believing that some were corrupted after the reign of the first two caliphs. Still, they accept hadith narrating the words of the companions as a third basis for legal rulings, alongside the Qur'an and hadith relating Muhammad's words.

Demographics[link]

Ibadi majority countries are coloured in blue.

Ibadi Muslims make up a majority (roughly 65%) of the population in Oman.^[2] They are also found in the Nafusa Mountains in Libya, M'zab in Algeria, East Africa (particularly Zanzibar) and Djerba Island in Tunisia. The early medieval Rustamid dynasty in Algeria was Ibadi, and refugees from its capital Tahert founded the North African Ibadi communities which exist today in the Mozabite Valley.

References[link]

External links[link]

Islam portal

• Ibadi Islam: an introduction
• A Concise History of al-Ibadiyyah
• Ibn-Ibad and the Ibadi School of Islamic Law

Islamic scholar Abd al-‘Azīz ibn Bāz
Title	Shaykh
Born	(1910-11-21)November 21, 1910 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Died	May 13, 1999(1999-05-13) (aged 88)
Ethnicity	Arab
Region	Middle East
Maddhab	Hanbali
Main interests	Sharia, Fiqh, Hadith
Influences	Ibn Abd al Wahhab
Influenced	Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani

Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah bin Baz (Arabic: عبد العزيز بن عبد الله بن باز‎) (November 21, 1910 – May 13, 1999), was a Saudi Arabian Islamic scholar, considered as one of the renowned Muslim scholars of the twentieth century. He was the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia from 1993 until his death in 1999.

Youth[link]

Ibn Baz was born in the city of Riyadh during the month of Dhu al-Hijjah, 1910 to a family with a reputation for their interest in Islam. His father died when he was only three, placing a big responsibility on his mother to raise him. When asked about his childhood, the sheikh said: “my father died when I was three years old, and I only had my mother who took care of me and educated me encouraging me to learn more about Shari'ah; she also died when I was twenty six.” By the time he was thirteen he had begun working, selling clothing with his brother in a market. Despite the fact that he helped a great deal in supporting his family, he still found time to study the Qur’an, Hadith, Fiqh, and Tafsir. In 1927, when he was sixteen, he started losing his eyesight after being afflicted with a serious infection in his eyes. By the time he was forty, he had totally lost his sight and had become blind.^[1][2]

Education[link]

At that time, Saudi Arabia lacked a modern, sophisticated university system. However, Ibn Baaz managed to learn a great deal through his constant reading of Islamic literature as well as his association with different scholars from whom he learned. These include:^[3][4]

• 'Abdullāh bin Fayrij whom he studied the Qur'an with at an early age.
• Muhammad ibn Zayd, the chief judge in the Eastern region.
• Rāshid ibn Sālih al-Khunayn.
• 'Abdul-Latif ibn Muhammad ash-Shudayyid.
• 'Abdullāh bin 'Abdur-Rahmān ibn Kimar
• 'Abdullāh bin Qu'ood.
• Sālih ibn Hussayn al-'Irāqi.
• 'Abdul-Rahmān al- Warrāq.
• The Mufti of his time, Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn 'Abd al-Latif ash-Shaikh. Ibn Bāz studied under this scholar for ten years. He had studied all the branches of Shari'ah from him during the years 1927 until 1938.
• Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Latif ibn Abdur-Rahmān ibn Hassan ibn ash-Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhāb.
• Sa’ad ibn Hamad ibn Atiq, the chief judge of Riyadh at the time.
• Hammad ibn Farris, under whom ibn Bāz studied the field of Arabic grammar.
• Sa’ad Waqqās al-Bukhāri, one of Makkah’s most renowned scholars in Tajweed.
• Sālih ibn 'Abdul-Aziz ibn 'Abdur-Rahmān ibn Hasan ibn Shaykh Muhammad ibn 'Abdul-Wahhāb, one of the judges in the city of Riyadh.

Career[link]

He had assumed a number of posts and responsibilities such as:^[5]

• The judge of Al Kharj district upon the recommendation of Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Lateef ash-Shaikh from 1938 to 1951.
• Held a teaching position in Riyadh at the Ma'had al-'Ilmee in 1951
• In 1951 after spending fourteen years in al-Kharj as a judge, he was transferred to Riyadh where he became a teacher in the Riyadh Institute of Science and taught in the Faculty of Sharia from 1951 to 1961.
• In 1961 he was appointed Vice President, and later President, of the Islamic University of Madinah.
• In 1970 he became the Chancellor of the University upon the death of Muhammad ibn Ibraaheem Aal ash-Shaykh and he remained chancellor until 1975.
• In 1975 a royal decree named him Chairman of the Department of Scientific Research and Ifta with the rank of Minister.
• In 1992 he was appointed Grand Mufti of the Saudi Arabia and Head of the Council of Senior Scholars and was granted presidency of the administration for scientific research and legal rulings.
• President of the Permanent Committee for Research and Fatawa.
• President and member of the Constituent Assembly of the World Muslim League.
• President of the Higher World League Council.
• President of the Islaamic Fiqh Assembly based in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
• Member of the Higher Council of the Islamic University of Medina.
• Member of the Higher Committee for Islaamic Da'wah in Saudi Arabia.

Over the years, he held a large number of positions as president or member of various Islamic councils and committees, and chaired a number of conferences both within Saudi Arabia and overseas, in addition to writing a great number of books in different fields and issuing a large body of fatwa. In 1981 he was awarded the King Faisal International Prize for Service to Islam.^[6][7] He was the only Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia not to come from the Al ash-Sheikh family.^[8]

Activities[link]

Ibn Bāz had undertaken a number of charitable and other activities such as:^[6]

• His endless support for Dawah organizations and Islamic centers in many parts of the world.
• The establishment and supervision of schools for teaching the Qur'an.
• The foundation of an organization that facilitates marriage for Muslim youth.
• The popular radio program, Nurun AlaDarb ("light on the path"), in which he discussed many current issues and answered questions from listeners as well as providing fatwa if needed.

Ibn Bāz was considered by many to be prolific speaker both in public and privately at his mosque. Like his books, his lectures and sermons were numerous and revolved frequently around the situation of the Muslim world. In addition, much of his time was devoted to the lessons he gave after Fajr prayer, teaching during the day, meeting delegates from Muslim countries and sitting with people after Maghrib prayer to provide counseling and advice on personal matters. He also used to invite people after Isha prayer to share a meal with him.^[6]

Ibn Bāz was among the Muslim scholars who opposed regime change using violence.^[9] He called for obedience to the people in power unless they ordered something that went against God.^[10]

Works[link]

This section requires expansion.

The number of books written by Ibn Bāz exceeds sixty and the subject matter covered many topics such as Hadith, Tafsir, Fara'ed, Tawheed, Fiqh and also a great deal of books on Salat, Zakat, Dawah, Hajj and Umrah.^[6]

Death[link]

On Thursday morning, May 13, 1999, Ibn Bāz died at the age of 88. The next day, following Friday prayer, King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz, Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, and hundreds of thousands of people performed the funeral prayer at the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca.^[11]

King Fahd issued a decree appointing Abdul-Azeez ibn Abdullaah Aal ash-Shaikh as the new Grand Mufti after Ibn Bāz's death.^[12]

In his career as the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, he attempted to both legitimize the rule of the ruling family and to support calls for the reform of Islam in line with Salafi ideals. Many criticized him for supporting the Saudi government when, after the Gulf War, it muzzled or imprisoned those regarded as too critical of the government, such as Safar al-Hawali and Salman al-Oudah.

When Ibn Bāz died in 1999. The loss of "his erudition and reputation for intransigence" was so great the Saudi government was said to have "found itself staring into a vacuum" unable to find a figure able to "fill ibn Bāz's shoes."^[13] His influence on the Salafi movement was large, and most of the prominent judges and religious scholars of Saudi Arabia today are former students of his.

Controversies[link]

His obituary in The Independent said "His views and fatwas (religious rulings) were controversial, condemned by militants, liberals and progressives alike".^[14] According to his obituary in The Economist, Ibn Baz "was an easy man to mock. His pronouncements—that the earth was flat, that photography of a living thing was immoral, that women who studied with men were no better than prostitutes—embarrassed the more liberal princes".^[15] He was also criticized by hardline Salafists and Jihadists for supporting the decision to permit U.S. troops to be stationed in Saudi Arabia in 1991.^[16]

Cosmology[link]

In 1966, when Ibn Baz was vice-president of the Islamic University of Medina, he wrote an article denouncing Riyadh University for teaching the "falsehood" that the earth rotates and orbits the sun: "The Holy Quran, the Prophet's teaching and the majority of Islamic scientists prove...that the sun is running in its orbit and...that the earth is fixed and stable".^[17] King Faisal was reportedly so angered by this statement he ordered the burning of all copies of the article.^[17] In 1982 Ibn Baz published a book, Jarayan al-shams wa'l qamar wa-sukan al-ard ("The Motion of the Sun and the Moon and the Stationarity of the Earth"), in which he repeated his belief that the sun orbited the earth.^[18] He threatened all who did not accept his view with a fatwa of takfir, declaring them infidels.^[19] Ibn Baz did not change his mind until 1985 when Prince Sultan bin Salman returned home after a week aboard the space shuttle Discovery to tell him that he had seen the earth rotate.^[17]

Women's rights[link]

Criticism of Ibn Baz includes his harsh and inflexible attitudes towards women^[20] and for being a bulwark of restrictions on women's rights.^[21] Commenting on the Sharia rule that the testimony in court of one woman was insufficient, Ibn Baz said: "The Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) explained that their shortcoming in reasoning is found in the fact that their memory is weak and that their witness is in need of another woman to corroborate it."^[21] He also issued a fatwa against women driving cars, which may have been his most well known ruling.^[22] He declared: "Depravity leads to the innocent and pure women being accused of indecencies. Allah has laid down one of the harshest punishments for such an act to protect society from the spreading of the causes of depravity. Women driving cars, however, is one of the causes that lead to that."^[21]

Gulf War[link]

During the Gulf War Ibn Bāz issued fatwa allowing the deployment of non-Muslim troops on Saudi Arabia soil to defend the Kingdom from the Iraqi army. Some noted that this was in contrast to his opinion in the 1940s, when he contradicted the government policy of Islamically allowing non-Muslims to be employed on Saudi soil.^[23] However, according to The New York Times, his fatwa overruled more radical clerics.^[22] In response to criticism, ibn Baz condemned those who "whisper secretly in their meetings and record their poison over cassettes distributed to the people."^[22]

Osama bin Laden[link]

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Open Letter to Shaykh Bin Baz on the Invalidity of his Fatwa on Peace with the Jews

Ibn Baz held the view of righteously following the Salaf (Predecessors')].^[14] However, his views were, according to The Independent, not draconian enough for Osama bin Laden who condemned ibn Baz for "his weakness and flexibility and the ease of influencing him with the various means which the interior ministry practices".^[14] Ibn Bāz was the subject of Osama bin Laden's first public pronouncement intended for the general Muslim public. This open letter condescendingly criticized him for endorsing the Oslo peace accord between the PLO and Israeli government.^[24] Ibn Baz defended his decision to endorse the Oslo Accords by citing the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, saying that a peace treaty with non-Muslims has historical precedent if it can avoid the loss of life.^[25][26]

See also[link]

• Islam in Saudi Arabia
• Salafi
• Muhammad ibn al Uthaymeen
• Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani

References[link]

External links[link]

• The Official Site of 'Abd al-'Aziz ibn Baaz (Arabic)
• Some videos of bin Baaz
• Biography of Ibn Baaz
• Biography of Ibn Baaz – 2
• Assorted Images and Press Clippings Regarding the Death of Ibn Baaz
• Jewels of Guidance (selected words and incidents from the life of Abdul-Aziz ibn Baaz)
• Fatawa of Bin Baz