Murji'ah

Origins and history

The emergence of the Murji'ah is not attributed to a single founding figure, but to the thought of a collection of figures, including Jahm ibn Safwan and others.

It is broadly agreed among historians that the Murji'ah group emerged in the aftermath of the Shiite revolt in Kufa by al-Mukhtar. Muslims, for the first time, had to confront intense political and theological disagreements and try to make sense of the fate of other Muslims who stood on other sides in political and sectarian conflict. The solution of the group that emerged as the Murji'ah was that only God ultimately knows who is correct, and so to God should judgement be deferred. Muslims themselves should not support or dissociate from other Muslim opponents in such conflicts. Early scholars of the Murji'ah themselves had a positive view of the first two caliphs (Abu Bakr and Umar), but suspended judgement on the third and fourth caliphs (Uthman and Ali). Regarding the latter, since the past was no longer available for evaluation, there was little other option but to suspend judgement (over committing to a negative view of them). At first, the Murji'ah worked on restoring peace among Muslim factions. Later, their attention shifted to combating the injustices being done to non-Arab converts to Islam. However, the Murji'ah (like the Sunnis in that era) still came to the belief that a legitimate ruler of the Islamic realm not only had to be Arab, but particularly, a descendant of the Quraysh tribe (from whom Muhammad originated).

The Murji'ah emerged as a theological school that was opposed to the Kharijites on questions related to early controversies regarding sin and definitions of what is a true Muslim. The Khawarij believed that committing a sin amounted to leaving Islam and the Murji'ah reacted with the opposite extreme, that deeds not only do not result in leaving Islam, but do not affect one's faith at all. An intermediate position was taken between the Murji'ah and the Kharijites by the Mu'tazilites, holding that an individual that commits a cardinal sin is not a believer, but is also not a disbeliever. Instead, they belong to an in-between position, which the Mu'tazilites referred to as the "intermediate position" (manzilah bayn al-manzilatayn). The first position attributed to have held this latter position was Wasil ibn Ata (a student of Hasan al-Basri) after being asked a question about the contrast between the Murji'ah and Kharijite positions.

According to the Ta'rikh of Al-Tabari, the Murji'ite position came to be associated with shirk, the ultimate Islamic sin of associating something with God. In 117/735, Nasr ibn Sayyar, soon to become the governor of Khorasan, accused the rebel leader Al-Harith ibn Surayj of shirk on the basis of his support for the doctrine of irjāʾ.

At some point, the Murji'ah sect ceased to exist. They stop appearing in biographical dictionaries after the mid-9th century onwards. According to Christopher Melchert, they may have been absorbed into the Mu'tazilite sect, as a number of entries on Mu'tazilite figures in 9th-century dictionaries comment that they were inclined towards 'postponement' (irjāʾ) and traditionalists in later periods would associate the two schools with each other (such as Abu Muhammad ibn abi Hamzah).