[501] Jamaât signifies properly the assembly, or as we may say, the church of Muselmans. This name is assumed by the Ashârian, who, as Sheheristâni contends (see Pococke, p. 211), were the sect whom the prophet indicated as selected for salvation.
[502] The Sonnites, just mentioned, are divided into four sects, the founders of which I shall mention, in the order as they occur, in the text of the Dabistán.
[503] The Sifátiah are one of the orthodox sects; they maintain the existence of the eternal attributes of God, and are on this account named Sifátiah, or “Attributists.”
[504] The Mâtazalah, or “Separatists,” were the followers of Wasel Ebn Ata. He was the disciple of Hassan al Baśri, of whom hereafter. When he separated from his master, the latter exclaimed: Kad êttazal amma Wassel, “Wassel separates from us:” hence is derived the name of his followers, Mâtazalah—(See Herbelot). They entirely rejected all eternal attributes of God, saying that eternity is the proper or formal attribute of his essence; that God knows by his essence, and not by his knowledge, and the same they affirmed of his other attributes, and hence this sect were also named Mâtalah, or Mâtalites, from their divesting God of his attributes, in which they place the unity of God. They denied also all vision of God in paradise by the corporeal eye, and rejected all comparison or similitude applied to God. They established further, that the word of God is created; that God is necessarily holden to the observation of justice in his decrees, to the rewarding of good and the punishment of the wicked. Moreover they refuted the dogma of absolute predestination, maintaining that God was not the author of evil, but of good only, and that man was a free agent: on which account they are also called Kadarian, from kadr, “destiny.” They are subdivided into twenty sects, taxing each other with infidelity—(See Sale’s Koran, vol. I. Prelim. Discourse, pp. 211-212). The latter are to be particularly mentioned in these pages hereafter.
[505] There is a sect among the Shiîtes, or “the Dissidents,” called the Gholats, or “the Exaggerators.”
[506] متكلم Matkallem, according to Richardson’s Dictionary, Johnson’s edition, signifies “a speaker, orator, declaimer, advocate;” but, according to Pococke (vide pp. 195, 198 1st edit.), Al Motacalmín are those who investigate and dispute. Al Kalem signifies “scholastic theology,” synonymous with Al mantik, “logic.” According to Eben al-Kossai, quoted by Pocock, Al Kalem is a science by which disquisitions are made about the essence and attributes of God, and the condition of possible things, about creation and restitution, pursuant to the canons of Islamism. Others define it the science of legal principles which belong to the articles of faith, and are acquired by positive demonstrations. Further, conformably with the author of Al Mawakef, “stations, or rather theses of metaphysics,” who himself composed a system of this science, it is a doctrine by which one is rendered capable of confirming by demonstrations the articles of religion, and of solving doubts.
[507] Mâlik Ebn Ans (see Sale’s Koran, vol. I. p. 206), was born at Medina, according to different accounts, in the years of the Hejira 90, 93, 94 or 95 (A. D. 708, 711, 712, or 713), and died there in the years of the Hejira 177, 178, or 179 (A. D. 793, 794, or 795). This doctor and head of his sect, is said to have paid great regard to the traditions of Muhammed. He was distinguished by the humble confession of his ignorance. Being asked his opinion as to forty-eight questions, his answer to thirty-two of them was, that he did not know.
[508] Ahmed Ebn Hanbal (see Sale’s Koran, vol. I. p. 208) was born in the year of the Hejira 164 (A. D. 780) at Meru, in Khorasan, according to some, or according to others in Baghdad, where he died in the year of the Hejira 241 (A. D. 855). He could repeat no less than a million of Muhammed’s traditions. Refusing to acknowledge the Koran to be created, he was, by order of the Khalif Al Mótasem, severely scourged and imprisoned.
Ahmed Hanbal was the contemporary and friend of Muhammed Ebn Edris al Shâfei, the founder of the sect of the Shafâites. The latter was born in the year of the Hejira 150 (A. D. 767-8) either at Gaza or at Ascalone, in Palestine, and died in the year of the Hejira 204 (A. D. 819-20), in Egypt. He is said to have been the first who discoursed of jurisprudence, and reduced that science into a method (ibid., p. 207).
To the names of the three founders of sects just mentioned, I am to add the name of Abu Hanîfa al Noman Ebn Thabet, who was born at Cufa, in the year of the Hejira 80 (A. D. 699), and died in the year 150 (A. D. 767). He is the founder of the sect called the Hanefites. This sect is reckoned, in the order of time, the first of the four orthodox sects of the Sonnites, distinguished by the title of “the followers of reason,” whilst the other three are called “the followers of traditions.” Of these three last, the sect founded by Mâlik Ebn Hans is the second; that instituted by Muhammed Ebn Edris al Shâfei, the third; and that of the followers of Ahmed Ebn Hanbal, the fourth of the orthodox sects, acknowledged by the Sonnites.