Imam Al-Sadiq

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THE RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS AND SECTS
The days of Abu Abd Allah al- Sadiq, peace be on him, were the days of religious schools,
sects, ideas, desires, theology, research, misguidance, suspicion, and doubts. Now, we will
mention the origin of those groupings and schools in a brief manner, following the methods
that we have adopted in this book because the enlargement upon the research will take us out
of the plan of the book, and in the books on the religious schools and sects are many details.
The Origin of the Islamic Groupings:
Indeed, the Muslim nation divided into seventy- three groupings. That was what our Truthful
Trusty Prophet, may Allah bless him and his family, said: "My nation will divide into
seventy- three groupings." 29
In this chapter, we want to study the well- known groupings in the time of al- Sadiq. We will
devote our research to the origins of those groupings. We may refer to sub- groupings after
we have mentioned the origins. Of course, this will suit our purpose and plan.
All Muslim sects belong (30) to four groupings: the Murjeia, the Mu'tazila, the Shi'a, and the
Kharijites. So every Muslim sect belongs to one of these origins. Also al- Ghulat, though the
other sects have regarded them as unbelievers, is a subdivision of the above mentioned
origins. These four origins are as follow:
1. The Murjeia:
We may say: Indeed, the Murjeia means today the Ash'aris only, and they are the sunnis in
general according to the belief in this time, because there is no one who follows the school of
the Mu'tazila in these times.
Before al- Ash'ary, the Murjeia were many sects, and those sets were subdivisions of the
Sunnis equivalent to the Shi'a and the Kharijites. But when al- Ash'ry's school of thought
appeared, the Murjeia became another title for the Sunnis or for al- Ash'ry's school in general.
In (his book) al-Milal and al- Nihal, al- Shahristany said: "And it is said (that) al-
Irja' (delaying) (means) the delaying of 'Ali, peace be on him, from the first degree to the