# Who are the Ibadis and what does the Mufti think of them?

*The Ibadis: early origins, Oman, and a third tradition for triangulation*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/--pntsar8ck/s/46/
- Date: 2021-02-16 · Kind: question · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Monday Nights with Mufti #202| Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth (2:31:10–2:37:32)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--PntsaR8ck&t=9070s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/--pntsar8ck/

**Topics:** Sects, sectarianism and takfir; Atheists and polemicists

**Question as asked:** Thoughts on Ibadism?

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Mufti Abu Layth says the Ibadis, an early and now peaceful offshoot of the Khawarij based in Oman, give a third tradition by which to cross-check claims, such as the Petra thesis.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says the Ibadis help form a kind of triangulation method in Islam because they are very early.

**Evidence, his words at 2:31:10:** “you see ibadis do help form a kind of triangulation method if we want in islam because they are very early” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--PntsaR8ck&t=9070s)

## Longer summary

Asked his thoughts on Ibadism, Mufti Abu Layth says the Ibadis help form a kind of triangulation method in Islam alongside mainstream Sunnis and the Shia, because they are very early. He says they were a splinter of the Khawarij, a spectrum of factions, but the less extreme type, tracing themselves to the time of the Umayyads and to Jabir ibn Zayd, a student of the companions; they developed their own fiqh and fatwas and a small hadith collection, al-Jami al-Sahih [?], compiled some three hundred years later, and pray with the arms at the sides as the Malikis do. He says that in the early Umayyad period Khawarij in North Africa sought to kill Umayyads, which is why Abd al-Rahman ibn Mu'awiya avoided the region, and that over time, as an extreme minority, the Ibadis became a coexisting, peaceful people now found in Oman, an Ibadi state whose late Sultan Qaboos was widely praised. He says he would love to have an Ibadi shaykh on MindTrap, and that because Sunnis, Shia and Ibadis were all anti-Umayyad, they could never all have agreed to replace Makkah with another city, as the Petra thesis would require.

## Sources and names cited

- Ibadi
- Khawarij
- Shia
- the Umayyads
- Jabir ibn Zayd
- al-Jami al-Sahih (Ibadi hadith collection) [?]
- Maliki school
- Abd al-Rahman ibn Mu'awiya (al-Dakhil)
- Sultan Qaboos
- the Petra thesis

## Transcript (machine tier, 2:31:10–2:37:32)

[2:30:30] so all right so so uh doesn't abdul bassett to earth you infer that hence scholars like ibm said that the story was entirely on earth to begin with oh i take it you're speaking about um i take it you're speaking about the story of adam yes many ulama felt this is on earth which obviously it was you know it was obviously on earth they weren't kind of beamed down but uh some people felt oh maybe they

[2:31:09] were in a different universe not in heaven because heaven is the afterlife but they felt that maybe they were in different universe and then they but really they were just on earth thoughts on ibadism yeah you know that's ibar these are interesting i mean you see ibadis do help form a kind of triangulation method if we want in islam because they are very early and the way you've got sunnis mainstream and you've got shia

[2:31:49] but there was another splint that was ibaldi's which were from the khoarich which were the extremists but you know the khawarij did have um they were like a spectrum not everybody was butchering people but many of them were but not every they had a lot of splinter factions and it happens with any kind of nutcase groups that they then start fighting amongst themselves and hence it happened with the uh as well so you had like the azad and you had other people

[2:32:27] and you had the ibadis now you know there's some that its roots are with this person called um and he's quite early actually so from the time of bunny omega and they also trace it back to jabyrib nazid as well um the companion oh sorry the the student of the companions although i don't know if some claim he falls

[2:33:05] under a companion as well but they trace it back to jabari benzaid as well so the this group of seem to be the less nutcase type and over time they developed and started to have their own fear and then they they've got like um their own fatawa they were very keen on people trying to learn their own fear can develop their own rulings as they go along they also did believe in hadith but they believed in hadith that came i believe mainly through jabber nazid and stuff

[2:33:43] like that so they only have a very small collection which um they their book is also called sahih something but it comes much later i think it comes about 300 plus years later on so after like sahil bukhari and stuff but they also call it the german sahih forgotten what their full name is now but and they do have certain strange prac not strange sorry peculiar practices like they also pray with the arms to the side like the malikia do and they seem to have continued that practice

[2:34:21] but as time went by they did move remove themselves from that extremist um kind of manifesto so they stopped because you see maybe that's just um maybe that's just adaptation because in the early days in the time of bani omega they were in north africa yeah um those of you that have watched my andalus stories mandalus history or even heard my lecture on abdul rahman

[2:34:58] ibn marawiya who who kind of escapes and he the abba sids and then he goes to africa and goes to what is like modern-day libya but he avoids north africa because there they were the khawarij and the khawaris were also after the umayyads to execute them so they weren't at that stage of peaceful people but then over north africa they get kind of crushed so in time what happens is they seem to have remained

[2:35:36] an entity in i think around the bahrain region and oman and today they are in oman that's where they still are so oman is a um it it is an ibadi state so they they have rulers and you know and who is it that passed away recently sultan kabus that's he was really praised by people but in time because they became an extreme minority it was important for them that they're not extreme because if you're extreme you will be

[2:36:15] crushed and annihilated by the majority so they became very kind of coexisting and all about peace and not all about but all about coexistence and they are quite seen as peaceful so that's a brief history but i would love to learn more about them in depth i have tried to look out for an ibadi sheikh if i could find one and maybe you know get a dialogue it'd be awesome to get an ibadi sheikh on mind trap you see what is interesting and i've spoken about this on the petra question the makkah question that was this

[2:36:53] makkah just a bunny um invention and i've highlighted that that would have been impossible because you see it's not just the sunnis the shia were anti-pani umayya and the ibadis were anti-bani umayya there's no way that these three traditions which have continued till today would agree to replace makkah with a different city and replace the hajj with a different location and they would all agree on it that's impossible so this triangulation method is good in ascertaining certain um

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment --PntsaR8ck/s/46. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/--pntsar8ck/s/46/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.