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Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān / Dissension
Partisan quarreling which, in the Qurʾān, denotes religious sectarianism. The qurʾānic concept of dissension is expressed by the Arabic terms ikhtilāf or tafarruq, both of which carry a pejorative sense. ¶ According to q 2:213 and 10:19, humankind started its existence on earth as a united religious community. The nature of this primordial religion is not specified in the Qurʾān; in exegetical literature it is described as “the religion of truth” ( dīn al-ḥaqq), sometimes explicitly equated with Islam. The dissension that set in later and resulted in the disruption of this unity is seen as a negative development, which God wanted to rectify by sending prophets to preach and warn (see prophets and prophethood; warner). Dissension is reported to have been rampant between Jews and Christians who denounced each other's religion ( q 2:113; see jews and judaism; christians and christianity). Dissension within each of these two scriptuary communities (see people of the book ) was also recorded: Some believed in the revelation they received and some rejected it ( q 2:253). The Qurʾān instructs Muslims not to follow the example of the scriptuaries but rather to guard their own unity ( q 3:103, 105). Religious dissension is thus perceived as a negative phenomenon; nevertheless, God did not use his power to unify all humanity in one religious community and saved from dissension only those to whom he showed mercy (q.v.; q 11:117-8; see community and society in the qurʾān ).
Attitudes to dissension in the ḥadīth vary (see ḥadīth and the qurʾān ). Prior to his death, the Prophet intended to write a document that — according to some interpretations — would have prevented later dissension among Muslims. He is also reported to have said that “Unity is tantamount to (divine) mercy while dissension is torment” (al- jamāʿa raḥma wa-l-furqa ʿadhāb, Ibn Ḥanbal, Musnad, iv, 278, 375). The Companion of the Prophet, Ḥudhayfa b. al-Yamān, advocated the codification of the Qurʾān to save Muslims from the dissension that plagued Jews and Christians (Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, Faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān, 3, iii, 393; see the collection of the qurʾān). ¶ Given the failure to achieve this ideal of unity, however, a ḥadīth offers the gloomy prospect of the division of the Muslim community into 73 sects, only one of which will merit paradise (q.v.; Dārimī, Sunan, ii, 158).
In support of the opposing view is the well-known tradition which maintains that “dissension among my Companions (or in my community) is (divine) mercy” (ihktilāfu aṣ ḥābī/ummatī raḥma). Diversity among the Companions of the Prophet (q.v.) is implied and legitimized in a tradition that states: “My Companions are like the stars: Whichever one [of them] you follow, you will find the straight path” (aṣḥābī ka-l-nujūm bi-ayyihim iqtadaytum ihtadaytum). Such diversity was seen as minimizing the danger of deviations from the prophetic sunna (q.v.). Similarly, the Umayyad ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (r. 99/717-101/720) gave legitimacy to the diverse views of the religious scholars ( ʿulamāʾ) in various areas of the Muslim state and refused to impose a unified code on all (Dārimī, Sunan, i, 122). The Shāfiʿī jurist al-Dimashqī (fl. eighth/fourteenth century) wrote in the introduction to his Raḥmat al-umma fī ikhtilāf al-aʾimma that the scholars “dissented while exerting themselves in the search of truth and their dissension was mercy for the people” (fa-khtalafū bi-shiddat ijtihādihim fī ṭalab al-ḥaqq wa-kāna ikhtilāfuhum raḥmatan lil-khalq).
Traditions with a sympathetic view of dissension were not included in the canonical collections of ḥadīth. They were relegated to compilations of lesser authority or to compilations dedicated to traditions considered “fabricated” ( mawḍūʿ) by the Muslim mainstream. Conversely, traditions advocating unity found their way into the more authoritative compilations. ¶ This is an indication of the importance attributed by mainstream Islam to the unity of religious belief. Nevertheless, the idea of dissension was accepted in jurisprudential literature, where differences of opinion between schools of law and individual jurists became a permanent fact of life (for a survey of relevant literature, see J. Schacht, Ikhtilāf; see law and the qurʾān; creeds). In an attempt to find theological justification for the existence of dissension amongst Muslims, some scholars have argued that without religious dissension the world would cease to be a place of trial (q.v.), in which people must choose the right way; there would be no need of ijtihād and the ʿulamāʾ would loose their prestige ( faḍīla) as arbiters of the law.
Political dissension in the Muslim community is referred to as “strife” ( fitna), sometimes equated with ikhtilāf (see Ibn Ḥanbal, Musnad, ii, 345; v, 292). Al-Bukhārī (d. 256/870; Ṣaḥīḥ, Maghāzī, 12, iii, 70) mentions two such moments of strife in early Muslim history: the assassination of ʿUthmān (q.v.) and the battle of Ḥarra (see L. Veccia Vaglieri, al-Ḥarra). The struggle between ʿAlī (see ʿalī b. abī ṭālib ) and Muʿāwiya and other internal disputes among the Muslims are also considered to be strife which threatened the unity of the Muslim community (see also rebellion ).
- Primary
Bukhārī, Saḥīḥ
Dārimī, Sunan, Medina 1966
Dhahabī, Mīzān al-iʿtidāl, ed. ʿA.M. al-Bijāwī, nos. 1511, 2299
al-Dimashqī (al-ʿUthmānī), Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad, Raḥmat al-umma fī ikhtilāf al-aʾimma, Cairo 1300/1883, 2
al-Fattanī, Muḥammad al-Ṭāhir b. Aḥmad al-Hindī, Tadhkirat al-mawḍūʿāt, Beirut n.d., 90-1
Ibn Ḥanbal, Musnad
Ismāʿīl b. Muḥammad al-Jarrāḥī, Kashf al-khafāʾ wa-muzīl al-ilbās ʿammā shtahara min al-aḥādīth ʿalā alsinat al-nās, Beirut 1351 AH, i, 132, no. 381 (for aṣḥābī ka-l-nujūm bi-ayyihim iqtadaytum ihtadaytum)
al-Khaṭṭābī, Ḥamd b. Muḥammad, Aʿlām al-ḥadīth fī sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Mecca 1988-, i, 217-2 (for ihktilāfu ummatī raḥma; I am indebted to V. Tokatli for this reference)
Murtaḍā al-Zabīdī, Itḥāf al-sāda al-muttaqīn bi-sharḥ asrār Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn, 10 vols., Cairo 1311/1894, i, 204-6
al-Muttaqī al-Hindī, Kanz al-ʿummāl, 18 vols., Aleppo 1969-1984, x, 136 (no. 28686)
- Secondary
van Ess, tg, iv, 654-60
L. Gardet, Fitna, in ei2, ii, 930-1
I. Goldziher, The Zahiris, trans. and ed. W. Behn, Leiden 1971, 89-102
G.H.A. Juynboll, Muslim's introduction to his Ṣaḥīḥ, translated and annotated with an excursus on the chronology of fitna and bidʿa, in jsai 5 (1984), 303-8
R. Paret, Innerislamischer Pluralismus, in U. Haarman and P. Bachmann (eds.), Die islamische Welt zwischen Mittelalter und Neuzeit. Festschrift für Hans Robert Römer zum 65. Geburtstag, Beirut 1979, 523-9
J. Schacht, Ikhtilāf, in ei2, iii, 1061-2
id., The origins of Muhammadan jurisprudence, Oxford 1950, 95-7
R. Sellheim, Der zweite Bürgerkrieg im Islam (680-692), Wiesbaden 1970
L. Veccia Vaglieri, al-Ḥarra, in ei2, iii, 226-7
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