Now what Mohammed Aš-Šahrastani really means by the Ṣabians of the Koran, I am unable to state. In his general discussion of Ṣabianism however (vol. 2, pp. 201-250), he seems to speak of two main Ṣabian sects. He refers to one together with the ancient philosophers; and declares that the Ṣabians followed rational ordinances and judgments which originally they may have derived from some prophetic authority, but that they denied all prophecy. The philosophers followed their own devices and took their system from no prophetic source. The authority we are quoting calls this sect “the original Ṣabian sect,” and says that it followed Seth and Enoch. In another place (vol. 1, p. 24) he writes, “The Jews and the Christians follow a revealed Book; the Magians and the Manichæans, a like Book; the original Ṣabian sect, ordinances and judgments, but accepts no Book; the original philosophers, the atheists, the star-worshippers, the idol-worshippers, and the Brahmans believe in none of these.”
The other main Ṣabian sect is mentioned together with the Jews, the Christians, and the Moslems. The difference between these religious bodies, according to Aš-Šahrastani, is that “the Ṣabians do not follow the Law (of God) or Islam; the Christians and the Jews believe in these, but do not accept the Law (religion) of Mohammed; while the Moslems believe in them all.
Aš-Šahrastani, moreover, derives the name Ṣabian (p. 203) from a root meaning one who turns aside, deviates; and declares that the Ṣabians were those who turned aside from the statutes of God, and deviated from the path of the prophets. He seems to regard the notion that man is incapable of approaching God, and that therefore he is in constant need of intercessors and mediators, as a controlling idea in Ṣabianism. This belief, the writer points out, has manifested itself in three different forms: in the veneration of angels among what he calls the followers of angels; the adoration of stars among the followers of stars; and in the worship of idols among the followers of idols, heathens (pp. 203, 244). The last two, we are told, are polytheists, and referred to in the Koranic statement:
(“When Abraham said to his father, Azar, ‘Dost thou take idols for gods?’—Surah 6, 74. Said he—Abraham—‘Do ye serve what ye hew out?’—Surah 37, 93. When he—Abraham—said to his father, ‘Oh my sir! why dost thou worship what can neither hear nor see nor avail thee aught?’—Surah 19, 43.”)
And in the following references:
(“And when the night overshadowed him he saw a star and said, ‘This is my Lord.’ And when he saw the moon beginning to rise he said, ‘This is my Lord.’ And when he saw the sun beginning to rise he said, ‘This is my Lord, this is greatest of all.’”)—Surah 6, 76, 77, 78.
But Mohammed Aš-Šahrastani makes mention of another Ṣabian sect which he names Al-Ḫarbâniyah (pp. 248-250). Its distinctive feature, he says, is the belief that the Creator indwelleth in other beings. They held that God is one in his essence, but many in his appearances. He dwells in the seven planets, and in the earthly beings that are rational, good, and excellent in righteousness. Human body is his temple; he may abide within it and live and move as a man. He is too good, we read, to create anything evil. God is the source of good, and evil is either an accidental and necessary thing, or related to the evil source. They believed also, our authority informs us, in the transmigration of souls, and taught that the Resurrection of which the prophets had spoken was only the end of one generation and the beginning of another here on earth. This doctrine, the Mohammedan critics affirm, is alluded to in the passages:
(“Does he promise you that when ye are dead, and have become dust and bones, that then ye will be brought forth? Away, away with what ye are promised,—there is only our life in the world! We die and we live and we shall not be raised.”)—Surah 23, 37-39.
Now I cannot say which of the Ṣabian sects are those that “are mentioned in the Koran,” which Yezid bn Unaisa says, the Persian Apostle will follow; nor can I say which are those that “are found in Ḥarran and Wasit.” One thing, however, is clear: according to Aš-Šahrastani the Ṣabians of the Koran differ in their faith from those of Ḥarran. The Ḥarranians were remnants of the old heathen of Mesopotamia; they were polytheistic, and star-worship had the chief place in their religion, as in the worship of the older Babylonian and Syrian faiths. They were regarded as such by the Mohammedans, so that under Al-Mamûn, they sheltered themselves under the name, Ṣabians, that they might be entitled to the toleration which the Ṣabians of the Koran have because they were considered among the people of the Book.[119] Another thing to be noticed is that there is a close resemblance between the belief of the Ṣabian sect which Aš-Šahrastani calls Al-Ḫarbâniyah and that of the Yezidi sect.
Such is, in the main, the religion of the Persian Apostle and is logically the religion of Yezid bn Unaisa which announces the coming of such a messenger. We may conclude, therefore, that the founder of the Yezidi sect believed in God and in the Day of Resurrection; that he, perhaps, honored the angels and the stars, and that he was neither polytheistic nor a true believer in the Prophet of Islam. This last point is referred to also explicitly in the statement quoted, that Yezid associated himself with those of the people of the Book who recognized Mohammed as a prophet though they did not become his followers. This is the negative aspect, so to speak, of bn Unaisa’s religious views. He is also said to have claimed that the followers of the ordinances[120] agreed with him. This statement tends to indicate that he might have accepted some phases of the Muslim faith. And the fact that he belonged to Al-Ḫawarij implies that he was one of those who were “condemning and rejecting ‘Ali for his scandalous crime of parleying with Mu‘awiya, the first of the Omayyid line, and submitting his claims to arbitration.” Such are in brief the fundamental elements in the religious system of one who may be held responsible for the rise of the sect in question.