Murji'a Jews of the Qibla

  بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

وأفضل الصلاة وأتم التسليم على سيدنا محمد وعلى آله الطيبين وصحبه الغر المحجلين ومن والاهم واتبع هداهم إلى يوم الدين

Previously I discussed the Qadariyya sect being termed the ‘Magians of the Umma’• Another early sect that broke away from the mainstream of Islam was the Murji’a• If the Qadariyya are the Magians of the Umma, then the Murji’a are best described as the ‘Jews of the Umma’, as has been reported from the eminent jurist among the Tabi’in, Sa’id b_• Jubair (rahimahullah):

الْمُرْجِئَةُ يَهُودُ الْقِبْلَةِ

“The Murji’a are the Jews of the Qibla”

(as-Sunna of Abd Allah b_• Ahmad b_• Hanbal)

In a nutshell, the Murji’a are those who expel deeds from the reality of faith_• They are the polar opposite of the Khawarij who claim that the one who commits a major sin loses his faith altogether and cannot be termed a Believer• The Mu’tazila adapted yet another absurd view that the one who commits a major sin is neither a Believer nor a disbeliever, but in a position between the two (al-manzila bayn al-manzilatayn), an idea first advocated by Wasil b_• Ata when he broke away from the circle of the great Imam, Hasan al-Basri (rahimahullah)• As for the creed of the people of Sunna, the orthodox Muslims, it is that deeds are included in the reality of faith, and that good deeds result in an increase of faith while bad deeds result in decreasing and diminishing of faith• Committing a major sin does not necessitate expulsion from faith•

Returning to the Murji’a, I have outlined six of their major factions and their respective particular doctrines• Among the scandalous statements of the Murji’a is that the faith of a grave sinner is equal to the faith of the Angel Gabriel (peace be upon him), and this is a necessary result of their doctrine that faith is static, not fluid or fluctuating• The vast majority of the Murji’a adapted the Hanafi madhhab, and they were mostly based in the northeastern land of Transoxania• Counter-intuitively, the early Murji’a were not a pro-government group which sought to cement the thrones of the hedonistic dynastic rulers• On the contrary, an early prominent Murji’ite, al-Harith b_• Surayj, led an armed insurrection against Umayyad rule in the early to mid 8^th century CE• While acknowledging that even the most corrupt and sinful Muslim who confesses the creed of Islam is a Believer on par with the Angels, Prophets and Saints, this apparently did not mean that the Muslim committed to justice and obedience to Allah could not fight against and overthrow those corrupt and sinful Believers who hold political authority• Incidentally, this is by and large the position of the Hanafi madhhab; a tyrannical, unjust and corrupt Muslim ruler may be fought against and overthrown by his own Muslim subjects if they deem that necessary• This unholy marriage between Hanafi jurisprudence and Murji’ite theology particularly took off in the northeastern lands of the Muslim dominion, notably, Transoxania• Today, the predominant inhabitants of that region are the various Turkic groups; the Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Turkmen, and Kirghiz who have each recently attained statehood after the collapse of the Soviet Union• Consequently, the Murji’a of today are basically the Muslims of Central Asia• Perhaps it was their lax Murji’ite tendency among these people which facilitated their conquest by the Russian infidels and atheistic, communist Soviets• For the better part of the 20^th century they were subject to aggressive Soviet indoctrination and the suppression of Islam along with religion in general• For this reason, the least observant Muslims, in general, are the people of Central Asia• Although recently freed from communist Soviet rule, the ‘Stans’ are autocratic, secular dictatorships where the practice of Islam remains severely restricted• Now it becomes apparent why it has been prophesied that the Turks shall be in the forefront of following the Antichrist• As for Sa’id b_• Jubair’s (may Allah have mercy on him) terming the Murji’a “Jews of the Qibla” that is something which requires deep insight and nuanced understanding• I shall explore this from the angle of communal description without going into any similarity between the defining creed of the Murji’a with Judaism as a belief system• Recall that I had compared the Hadith which states that the Antichrist shall be followed by 70 thousand Jews of Isbahan wearing tallis (prayer shawls) with another Hadith that describes these 70 thousand as having Turkic physical features:

لَيَنْزِلَنَّ الدَّجَّالُ خُوزَ وَكَرْمَانَ فِي سَبْعِينَ أَلْفًا ، وُجُوهُهُمْ كَالْمَجَانِّ الْمُطْرَقَةِ

“The Dajjal shall descend to Khuz and Kerman among seventy thousand; their faces are like shields coated with leather”

(Musnad Ahmad)

In other Ahadith in which the Prophet (sall Allahu alayhi wasallam) predicts future fighting with the Turks, he describes them as having faces like shields coated with leather• The Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews, including the small community of Jews that are presently in Iran, do not fit this description• But if we understand the Hadith of 70 thousand Jews following the Dajjal to possibly mean the ‘Jews of the Qibla’ i_•e_•.the Murji’a, it makes perfect sense• There is a peculiar connection between the Jews or Judaism to the Turks going back to the legendary Khazars who may have converted to Judaism, though to what extent is currently being debated by academics and historians• It is also noteworthy that Turkic states, though Muslim, have relatively good relations with the State of Israel, for example Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan• Israel maintains embassies in each of those countries• Even the Republic of Turkey, before the current Erdogan government, had relatively good relations with Israel• In conclusion, it remains to be seen just how Turkic or Judaic (or perhaps both) the 70 thousand followers of the Antichrist will be• There is no denying a bizarre connection between the Turks and the Jews, and that the stage is being set for the emergence of the Antichrist from a region that is inhabited by Muslims that belong to heterodox tendencies•