بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
والصلاة والسلام على رسوله الكريم
والعاقبة للمتقين
Here I shall examine some
of the deviated sects which denied the necessity of the institution of Imamate.
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him & his family) proclaimed:
مَنْ مَاتَ بِغَيْرِ إِمَامٍ
مَاتَ مِيتَةً جَاهِلِيَّةً
“Whoever died without an Imam died a death of jahiliyya” (Musnad
Ahmad)
Major Mu’tazilite theologians such as Abu Bakr al-Assam, Hisham
al-Fuwati, al-Nazzam, Abbad b. Sulayman and others all apparently denied the
necessity of the Imamate. (Studia Islamica, no. 88 (1998), pp. 55-76)
Perhaps the most prominent deniers of the necessity of the Imamate were
a Kharijite faction known as the Najadat or Najdiya, attributed to Najda b.
Amir al-Hanafi: “Ka’bi says of the Najdat that they permitted dissimulation in
everything said and done, even in the matter of homicide. He adds that the
Najdat unanimously asserted that men have no need whatever for an imam: all
that is required of them is to show mutual justice and fairness. If they should
find that this cannot be achieved without the authority of an imam, and,
accordingly, appoint one, this would be lawful.” (Kitab al-Milal wa ‘l-Nihal,
p. 105) One clearly sees elements of political anarchism in the idealogy of the
early Khawarij, especially subsects like the Najdiya. Their view that “the Umma
does not need an imam or anyone else, and that they and people (in general) are
only obliged to uphold the Book of God in their dealings with one another” directly
contradicts the guidance of the Prophet (peace be upon him & his family) who
emphasized the necessity of having an Imam.
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