[47] Translator’s note: The Hashwiyya seem to be an enigmatic entity of early Islam whose existence seems well attested in literature of various genres of medieval and classical Islam but whose true character and meaning remains obscure. However, there does seem to be a universal condemnation of this group in the Muslim sources with a marked attempt at disassociation from them. It has been suggested that the term Hashwiyya refers, not to a well-defined school but rather to a widespread orientation found among the early Muslim masses, which had its core doctrinal basis rooted in Sunni traditionalist hadith circles; whose theology and legal theory was centred on a narrow reductionist literalism embracing anthropomorphic and determinist views. Their theology was a narrative theology and similar was their jurisprudence; focused on a literal interpretation of the revealed scripture and the vast body of transmitted traditions. Al-Hasan bin Musa al-Nawbakhti (d 307 AH/ 920 AD) writes in his work Firaq al-Shi’a that a vast majority of those that had previously supported Imam ‘Ali (‘a) but then joined the opposing groups after his assassination, i.e. the group of Talha, Zubayr and ‘Aisha and the pro-Mu’awiya party, were called the ahl al-hashw, the followers of the kings and the victorious. Thus in this source the Hashwiyya are identified with the majority of the proto-Sunni public which comprised of virtually the entire community apart from the Kharjites and the Shi’ite. They were also characterised by a favourable propensity towards the Umayyad dynasty and reacted negatively to the calumniation of Mu’awiya. They considered unacceptable the criticism or repudiation of unjust ruling authorities even when such a ruler carried out injustices, maintaining that it was God Himself who had decreed the abuse and oppression experienced by Muslims from tyrannical authorities; a teaching that coincided with their deterministic attitudes, which they rigidly upheld. They believed in the election of the Imam by the community or a part of it, as against the assertion of those who maintained that the Imamate was bestowed by the Prophet (s) and by his successors after him. This is because according to them the Prophet had not designated anyone as his successor before departing from this life. The term Hashwiyya was later also applied as a pejorative term for the strict Sunni traditionalists among the ashab al hadith who interpreted Qur’anic verses and the transmitted traditions literally and consequently ended up interpreting verses and traditions on divinity in an anthropomorphic manner. Thus this term was a rude term for anthropomorphist traditionalists. They were also nicknamed ghutha (scum), Mujabbira (determinists) and Nabita (rogue upstarts). They had an extreme distrust and aversion to the employment of reason and in engaging in intellectual discourses and rational disciplines. They insisted on the bila kayfa doctrine, first enunciated by Malik bin Anas (d 179 AH/795 AD), in theological matters which forbade asking ‘how’ and ‘why’ with regards to various difficult issues of a theological nature. They also insisted on the beatific vision of God on the Day of Judgment. They fiercely insisted on the increate nature of not only the revealed Qur’an but also of the sounds pronounced by its reciters as well as the letters and words with which it was recorded and inscribed on pages. This group was definitely the opponent of the Mu ‘tazilites and the precursor of the Ash’aris. Nawbakhti writes that they were also called the Murji’a because they equally accepted the opposing parties that had been active during the early controversies that bedevilled the nascent Muslim community in the decades immediately following the Prophet’s death, as they believed that all the ahl-al-Qibla were believers by pronouncing the confession of faith, and hoped for forgiveness for all. This description of the Hashwiyya has to be understood in the context of the dispute between Imam ‘Ali and his opponents in the battle of Jamal and Siffin, which proved to be a real quagmire for later orthodoxy to solve and therefore many Muslims inclined to a refusal to discuss the past and adopting a non-committal attitude towards the past events involving important companions, preferring to brush aside and refusing to address the thorny issue rather than take sides and critique the Salaf. The Hashwiyya were later specifically identified with Hanbalite traditionalists and Hanbalites fanatics, especially in 10th-12th century AD Baghdad. The word Hashwiyya literally means ‘to stuff’ or ‘to pad’ as in a cushion or pillow with cotton or even a lamb or a fowl with rice. By extension this word means ‘empty verbiage, a redundant excess of speech of no profit or utility’ and more frequently the ignorant rabble and the most base sort of people given to repeating empty nonsense. Thus the Hashwiyya may be rendered ‘ignoramuses spouting empty nonsense’ and also having the secondary meaning of ‘unruly rabble’ and ‘ignorant throng’. Thus the word seems to be more in the nature of a popular term used to refer to an orientation among Muslims that was literalist and non-rational in the interpretation of the Qur’an and the hadith texts, including a belief in the increate nature of the Qur’an in its extreme form, an aversion to a critical study and analysis of the Islamic past, an anthropomorphic and deterministic belief with regards to divinity and the problem of human choice, respectively and when criticised that such an attitude would necessitate belief in the multiplicity of Godhead or resulting in notions of injustice attributed to God, would respond by invoking the bila kayfa dictum. For a detailed historical and theological overview of this orientation, refer to the article ‘The Hashwiyya’ by A.S. Halkin, published in the Journal of the American Oriental Society, volume 54, no. 1, 1934. For the remnants of this orientation among modern Muslims, refer to the working paper series of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, titled ‘Roots of Radical Sunni Traditionalism: Fear of Reason and the Hashwiyya’ by Karim Douglas Crow (May., 2008): www.rsis.edu.sg/publications/WorkingPapers/WP158.pdf
[48] Translator’s note: The word ‘father’ in the phrase ‘sons of his father’ does not refer, in my estimation, to the immediate father of Mutawakkil, but rather refers to the progenitor of the ‘Abbasids; al-’Abbas bin ‘Abd al-Muttalib.
[49] Translator’s note: His name was Abu Yusuf Ya’qub bin Ishaq. ‘Al-Sikkit’, meaning exceedingly silent, was his father’s nickname and thus his epithet ‘Ibn Sikkit’. He was born in Baghdad in the year 186 AH/802 AD in a family who were natives of Khuzistan. His father was reputed to have been an expert in poetry and lexicography and he was his son’s first tutor. Ibn Sikkit grew up to be a celebrated philologian and lexicographer. Like many of his contemporaries who wished to excel in the Arabic language, he spent some time among the Bedouins in order to perfect his knowledge of Arabic. He later taught in Baghdad and there dictated the most important of his works to his pupils. He was entrusted by the Abbasid caliph Mutawakkil with the education of his two son al-Mu’taz and al-Mu’ayyad, yet it was his attachment to the Alids which brought about his downfall. Due to the incident narrated in the text of this article he was said to have been trampled underfoot by the Turkish soldiers of the guard who constituted the military of the Abbasids at that time and is even said to have had his tongue torn out. He thus died at the age of 58 in 244 AH/858 AD. A specialist in lexicography and Arabic poetry, he is said to have left behind about twenty works in this genre. For more on him, refer to the article on Ibn Sikkit by P Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. Van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs in the second edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam, volume 3, page 940.
[50] Translator’s note: The Jahmiyya is considered to be an early sect, which is frequently mentioned, but very little is known about its members apart from the name of its alleged founder Jahm bin Sufyan and some of its alleged doctrines. They are said to have held to an extreme form of the doctrine of human predestination according to which man is considered to act only in a metaphorical sense similar to the sun’s act of setting which is not by its own volition but according to a predetermined natural system. They also held that the Qur’an was created and denied the distinct existence of God’s attributes, thus denuding God’s essence of any attribute and as a result of which they were accused of ta’til (making God a bare entity). They rationally interpreted the verses of the Qur’an which describe God in an anthropomorphic manner while their view regarding faith and its relation to works were similar to that of the Murji’a. For more details, refer to the article ‘Djahmiyya’ by W.M. Watt in the second edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam, volume 2, page 388.
[51] Tarikh al-Islam, in the context of the reports of the deaths that took place between the years 230 AH – 240 AH. Tarikh Baghdad volume 10, page 22.
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