Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/750

* MOHAMMEDAN SECTS. 7: The last of thesc .Muiazilite sectarians to be iiu'iitioned are tlic Jhumumiijyah, who held, after their master, Thunianiali ibu Ashras, that sinners will undergo eternal damnation and punish- ment: that free actions liave no producing au- tlior: and that, at the resurrection, all intidcls. atheists. Jews. Christians, Magians, and lieretios will be returned to dust, and will not enter either paradise or hell. For the scientific development which the doctrines of the Mutazilites begot, and which resulted in the encvclopiedic labors called '■The Treatises of the Sincere Hrethren and True Friends," see Si.ncekk Brexiirex. Allied to the ilutazilitos in their view of the divine attributes, but diametrically opposed to them in their view of i)redestination. were the jAnAUiTEs ( Necessarians). They held that man's ^very act is the result of the will of God. and that" there is no luinian responsibility. There are pure Jabarites and middle .Tabarites. Opposed to both the Mutazilitcs and the Ja- barites were the Sifatites CAttributists'). With them God's attributes, whether essential or opera- tive, or declarative or liistorical — i.e. used in historical narration (eyes, face, hand I ; anthro- pomorphisms, in fact — were considered eternal. But here again lay the germs for more dissen- sions and more sects. Some, taking this doctrine of God's attributes in a strictly literal sense, assumed a likeness between God and created things, while others gave it a more allegorical interpretation, without, liowever, entering into any particulars beyond the reiterated doctrine that God had no companion or similitude. The different sects into which the Sifatites split were, first, the Axluirians. so called from Abu al Hasan al-Ashari (SS.'J-lirjl) . who, at first a Mutazilite, disagreed with his masters on the point of (_!o<rs being boind to do always that which is best. He became the founder of a new scliool, which held (1) that God's attributes are distinct from His essence, and that any literal imderstanding of the words that stand for God's members in the Koran is reprehensible. (2) That predestination must be taken in its most literal meaning — i.e. that God preordains everything. The opinions on this point of man's free will are, however, much diviiled. as. indeed, to combine a predestina- tion which ordains every act with man's free choice is not easy. The middle path, adopted bv the greater number of the doctors, is ex- p'rpssed in this formula: There is neither compul- sion nor free liberty, but the way lies between the two. the power and will being both created by God. while the merit or guilt is imputed to nian. Regarding mortal sin. it was held by this sect that if a believer die giiilty of it without repentance, he will not. for all that, always re- main a denizen of hell. God will either parilon him or the Prophet will intercede in his behalf. Further, he in whose heart thi're is faith but of the weight of an ant shall be delivereil from hell fire. Frimi this more philosophical opinion, how- ever, departed a number of other Sifatinn seet-uuictinu> regarded as the rep- resentatives of the whole sect, for their doctrines were very widespread, and they counted among them such men as Said ibn Jubair. The sect arose in Syria or North Arabia. It is worthy of note that "some of the Murjites hold views ap- proaching elo.sely not only to those of the lluta- zilites and .Tabarians, but even, with reference to the imam, to those of the Kharijitcs. Aside from the sects which owed their rise to political or theological dilVcrences. there were others in Islam which spnmg from mysticism and asceticism. It is true that the secluded life of the monastery or hermitage was forbidden to Mohammedans "by the Koran; nevertheless as earlv as the first and second centuries of the llejira a sect of mystics had come into existence the distinguishing external mark of whom was a garment of coar.se wool {fnif). such as had been worn bv the founder of the sect, Abu Said ibn Abi al-Khair (81.5) : they came therefore to be known as Sri-is. Their "main idea was that to attain to a nearer friendship with Goil there was necessary a certain course of life which, without demanding entire withdrawal from the world, insisted that religious laws be scrupu- lously observed, and that. God being loved above all else, everything worldly be despised. Merx has shown that this Oriental mysticism groes back finally to Palestine and Neo-Platonic philosophy, having come to the Mohammed:uis through the writings of Syrian ])liilosophers. The main stronghold of the sect, however, was, like that of so many others, in Persia, where Sufiism made many converts from among the heterodox, and also gradually altered its original character. At first the Sufi" had aimed by ascetic practices and religious contemplation to enter into a state of ecstasy in which he might attain to a real knowledge of the deity; but later Sufiism became in certain regards a real pantheism, and its ad- herents in the ecstatic state felt themselves united with, and a part of. the Go.lhead. Sufi- ism had its organization like other religious orilers: the religious meetings were called dliil.rs; novices (murid) were held to regular and exact- ing duties, as well as to strict compliance with the commands of the sheikh. A later development (twelfth and thirteenth centuries) of mysticism is represented by the various orders of Dervishes — Kiidirhiiinh. Hi- fuimiah, MauUiniytiah, etc. — each with its own garb and svmbols, rules of faith and jiractice as determined' by its founder. Their rf/nV.rs take ]dace once or oftener every week in their reli- gious houses (lakkiiiynh). There are howling, whirling, and dancing derishes, and in some orders the members become so insensible to phys- ical sensation while in the state of esctasy th.-it they swallow glass or glowing coals, and often wound themselves sevcridy in other ways. Most dervishes follow a trade, anil do not wit,hdraw from the alTairs of life. There are also some beirging dervishes, who have no dwelling places and live entirely from alms. See Dervi.sii. The last of the Shiite religious movements is known as Baiusm (<i.v.). In the earlier half of the nineteenth century :Iirza .li Jlohammed al-Bab (gale) made projiaganda for a mixture of Sufic and cabalistic doctrines which was soon accepted by a large following. They even thrent- ened the Persian Government at luie time, and had to be put down by force of arms.