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ibada See five pillars.

Ibadiyya

The Ibadiyya sect of Islam is one of several Mus-

lim Kharijite movements that declared war against

the wider Muslim community in the seventh and

eighth centuries because of what they considered

to be gross moral shortcomings of its leadership.

It is named after one of the leaders in these move-

ments, Abd Allah ibn Ibad (d. late seventh century

or early eighth century) of Basra, known as “imam

of the Muslims” and “imam of the people” in Ibadi

sources. The Ibadis also hold the Omani scholar

Jabir ibn Zayd al-Azdi (d. ca. 722) in high esteem.

Ibadis have adopted a moderate stance toward

nonmembers and dissociated themselves from

extremist Kharijis, who called unrepentant Mus-

lims who had committed a grave sin (mushrikun).

On the other hand, they also claim to be distinct

from Sunni and Shii Muslims. The Ibadi sect

today has its largest following in the Persian Gulf

country of Oman (about 75 percent of the popu-

lation), but branches also exist in east aFrica,

libya, tUnisia, and algeria. During the Middle

Ages, it also had followers who lived along old

routes of conquest and trade in iraq, egypt, the

sUdan, the Hijaz, yemen and Hadramawt, iran,

and perhaps india and china.

Ibadi doctrine about God is similar to that

of the Mutazila in several respects. They affirm

the createdness of the qUran, and they interpret

anthropomorphic references to God in the Quran

symbolically rather than literally. On the other

hand, with respect to the question of free will

versus predeterminism, their belief is like that of

the Sunni ashari school, with its affirmation of

God’s power to determine events while leaving

human beings with the capacity to acquire the

consequences of their actions, whether good or

evil. Ibadis differentiate between inward belief in

God’s oneness, outward declaration of this belief,

and implementing this belief in practice. This is

an outcome of their historical experience as an

Islamic sect that witnessed moments when con-

cealment of belief (kitman) was a key to survival

in the face of persecution by enemies. In this

respect, they are like the Shia, who developed

the analogous doctrine of pious dissimulation

(taqiyya). Like the Shia, they have also witnessed

times when they were strong enough to defend

themselves. They have even developed a concept

of martyrdom, which Ibadis call shira (pur-

chase)—the willingness to sacrifice one’s life on

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