Mohammedan Sects. "IMy community," the Pro))lul of I>l.iui is reported to have said, " will separate itsulf into SLventy-three sects; one onl\' will be saved — all the others sliall perish." This prophecy, if it were ever made, has in a large measure been fuliillcd. The Mohammedans are divided into fifty-five orthodox and eighteen liberal sects. I'robably the prophecy was made after the division had taken place. (A verj- im- portant and instructive treatise on this subject was pre- sented by Silvestre de Sacy to the Institute of France. It is based on the writings of the Slohammedan writer Sheristani, and also on Macrisi.) But, be this as it may, differences of opinion arose among the Pro])het's followers even during his own lifetime, and nudtiplicd rapidly after his death. A perusal of the articles Ko- ran and jMoiiammedanism will reveal clearly that the fundamentals of Islam were by no means unequivocal, and hence a great variety of interpretation of the Ko- ran has resulted. To add to the poetical uncertainty of the Koranic principles, a vast lumiber of oral tradi- tions accutnulated in Islam, and were circulated as an expansive corollary of the Koran. Political causes soon came to assist the confusion and contest, and religion was made the pretext for faction-fights, wliich in reaUty had their origin in the ambition of certain men of infiu- ence. Thus " sects" increased in far larger numbers even than the Prophet is said to have foretold, and though their existence was but short-lived in most instances, they yet deserve attention, were it only as signs and tokens of the ever-fresh life of the human spirit, which, though fettered a thousand times by narrow and hard formulas, will break these fetters us often, and i)rove its everlasting riglit to freedom of thought ami action. Tlic bewildering mass of these currents of controversy has by the .tVrabic historians been brought under four
MOHAMMEDAN SECTS
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chief heads or fundamental bases. The first of these relates to the divine attributes and unity. Which of these attributes are essential or eternal? Is the om- nipotence of God absolute ? If not, what are its limits '? Furtlier, as to the doctrine of God's predestination and man's liberty — a question of no small purport, and one which has been controverted in nearly all religions — How far is God's decree influenced by man's own will ? How far can God countenance evil? and questions of a similar kind belonging to this province. The third is, perhaps, the most comprehensive " basis," and the one that bears most directly upon practical doctrines — viz., the promises and threats, and the names of God, to- gether witli various other questions chiefly relating to faith, repentance, infidelitj', and error. The fourth is the one that concerns itself with the influence of reason and history upon the transcendental realm of faith. To this chapter belong the mission of prophets, the office of Imam, or head of the Church, and such intricate subtleties as to what constitutes goodness and badness ; how far actions are to be condemned on the ground of reason or the " law," etc,
I. One broad line, however, came to be drawn, in the course of time, among these innumerable religious divi- sions— a line that separated them all into orthodox sects and heterodox sects; orthodox being those only who adopted the oral .traditions, or Sunna (q. v.). Of these Sunnites, i. e. traditionists, or believers in the Sunna, there are four divisions, which, though at issue on most points, are yet acknowledged by each other as Jh it /if til, and capable ofsalfation. They are severally designated by the name of the men who in leadership attained to greatest authority. Each of these guides also to this day continues the expounder of the sect by a manual which each left to his adherents as a compend of theol- ogy and jurisprudence.
1. The first of these sects are the Uanefites, founded by Abu Hanefa, who died 150 years after the Hegira. They are emphatically called " the followers of reason," while the other three are guided exclusively by tradi- tion. They allow reason to have a principal sliare on decisions in their legal and other points. To this sect belong chiefly the Turks and Tartars.
2. The second sect are the Makkites, founded by IMalek Ibn Ans, who died about 180 of the Hegira at Medina. As one of the chief proofs of his piety and humility, it is recorded that when asked for his decision on forty-eight questions, he would only decide on six- teen, freely confessing his ignorance on the others. In Barbary and other portions of Africa the greatest part of his adherents are found.
3. Mohammed al-Shafei, born in Palestine in 150 of the Hegira, but educated in Mecca, is the founder of the third sect, Shajiites. He was a great enemy to the scholastic divines, and seems altogether to have been of an original cast of mind. He never swore by God, and always took time to consider whether he should at all answer any given questions or hold his peace. The most characteristic saying recorded of him is, " Whoso- ever pretends to love both the work and the Creator at the same time is a liar." He is accounted of such im- portance that, according to his contemporaries, " he was as the sun to the world, and as health to the body;" and all the relations of the traditions of Mohammed Avere said to have been asleep until he came and awoke them. He appears to have been the first who reduced Moslem jurisprudence to a method, and thus made it, from a number of vague sayings, a science. His follow- ers are now chiefly found in Arabia and Persia.