RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIESunable to judge. They felt that sinners should be punished by the
authorities but not excluded from the community.44
NEUTRALISTS
Such Khawarij were very close to the neutralists who disassociated
(Ar. i'tazala) themselves from both sides in the conflict during the first
two fitnas. Abii Miisa al-Ash'ari was such a neutralist at Kufa during
the first fitna and he tried to dissuade others from participating.^45 Such
neutralists were opposed to Muslims fighting each other and may have
felt that both sides were wrong. Immediately after the first fitna, al-
Mughira ibn Shu'ba is said to have followed such a neutralist policy
as governor of Kufa for Mu'awiya in 622. Hisham ibn Mu~ammad
al-Kalbi relates from Abii Mikhnaf that al-Mughira told Kufans who
accused each other of Shi'i or Khariji sympathies, "God has decided
that you will continued to disagree. And God will judge among His
creatures concerning that in which they disagree."46 Disassociation
was one way of dealing with differences of opinion, sometimes in
order to concentrate on more important issues. The Basran Khawarij
did not really support the claims of Ibn az-Zubayr, so those who joined
him at Makka in 683 in order to fight the Syrians are said to have
treated him with disassociation.^47
Neutrality was also expressed by suspending or postponing judg-
ment (Ar. irja') between the cause of 'Uthman and that of All. This
murjr (Ar.) attitude could also take the form of postponing the de-
cision between 'Ali and 'Uthman in order to combat the oppression
and injustice of subsequent rulers.48 Otherwise irja' was used to deny
a religious sanction for revolt against the government in order to avoid
conflict among Muslims. Those who took this position believed, like
the Khawarij, that God would judge sinners, but they did not presume
to know what that judgment would be. Whether a Muslim who sinned
would go to Paradise or Hell could not be answered by humans but
must be left to the decision of God on the Day of Judgment. Muslims
who sinned should be punished according to the Qur'an, but they
.. W. Thomson, "The Character of Early Islamic Sects," in 19nace Goldziher Me-
morial Volume (Budapest, 1948), I, 108; Montgomery Watt, Formative Period, pp.
26-32.
45 Dinawari, Akhbar at-tiwal, pp. 154, 205-6.
46 Tabari, Ta'rtkh, 11, 20, This seems to be a paraphrase of Qur'an 42:10.
47 Baladhuri, Ansab, lVb, 96.
48 J. Van Ess, "Les Qadarites et la Gailaniya de Yazid Ill," SI 31 (1970), 280.