Shahrastani on Murji'ites

Al-Shahrastani in his book al-milal wa al-nihal stated (in chapter 5, page 119)

On meaning of al-Irja
Deferring the case of one who commits a grave sin to the day of judgement. In this world, therefore, no judgement is made as to whether he belongs to the people of Paradise or the people of hell.

I am going to briefly go through all the murjiyyah sects mentioned by him (these are pure Murjiyyah sects)

• Yunusiyya: Eman/faith only consists of knowledge and love of God. Deeds is not part of Iman, hence act of disobedience doesn't injure your faith.
• Ubaidiya: All sins other than polytheism will be forgiven. God is in the likeness of man because Adam was created in his image.
• Ghassaniya: Faith increases but does not decreases. (What happens if you keep on committing sins every single day?)
• Thaubaniyya: Deeds are secondary (unimportant) to faith. If god forgives one sinner on the day of judgement then He will forgive every single sinner.
• Taumaniyya: Agrees on the qualities that makes someone a disbeliever but refraining from calling a person disbeliever or fasiq
• Salihiyya: Worship of God is knowledge of him. Prayers/salat is not worship of God. Even if someone said God is one of the three this is not unbelief!

These beliefs sound a little bit Christian (accept Jesus Christ as your lord and savior and you will be safe)

Reference
Kitab al-Milal wal Nihal by al-Shahrastani

Qaddari sect is not a Sufi order

When you search for the Qaddari sect, google think you are interested in the Qadiriyya Sufi order.

The Qadari sect was one of the early sects (in the first hundred years mark). The Qadari sect came out against some of the disturbing interpretation of the Ummayad and the Murjiyyah sect.

The Ummyyad and the Murjiyyah sect promoted the belief that one should not question someone's evil action. So if Yazeed (la) slaughtered the grandson of the Prophet (pbuh) and his family then one should not question or blame Yazeed because the judgement is deferred until Qiyamah (the day of judgment) and all the bad/evil actions are predestined by Allah swt!

The Qaddari sect challenged the interpretation of the free-will and predestined as understood by the Umayyad and Murjiyyah.

The following personalities were members of the Qaddari sect: Mabad al-Juhanī and Ghaylān al-Dimashqī.

Sunnism is heavily influenced by some of the philosophies from Murjiyyah. A number of prominent Sunni scholars were also members of the Murjiyyah sect.

Saudi Women and voting

They are saying that the Saudis are giving the women a right to vote.

It is kind of shameful that it took them this long to give women just a tiny bit of freedom to exercise their Islamic rights.

Overall the Saudi religious authority is very ignorant of Islamic laws. Most of their Islamic laws are hateful and discriminative towards women and people of other sects.

What is the origin of the ritual of Ashura? (part 12)

This is perhaps the final part of the following paper

Summary:
There is not a single format for commemorating the Ashura in ritualistic aspect because it differs significantly from one place to another (various examples were given of rituals practices in the Arab communities of Iraq and Lebanon, the Persian community in Iran, Ashura observance among the Turkish and Indian Shia).

You are also able to draw the following three conclusions about the origin of the main Ashura rituals

• The oldest Ashura rituals are the memorial services and the visitation of Husayn's tomb (because these were established in the earliest days of Shi'ism).
• The public procession and the Ashura play (dramatization of the events at Karbala on Ashura) appeared in the time of Buyid and Safawid
• The introduction of the ritual of flagellation by Turkoman tribes and Christian Armenians reflected the input of Shi'i converts, demonstrating the influence of Christian practices on Shi'ism (Note: taken verbatim)

What is the origin of the ritual of Ashura? (part 11)

The author maintain that the Qizilbash had copied the flagellation (done in remembrance of Imam Husayn (as) with a slight influence from the Sufis) from the Armenian Christians who used to revere Jesus (as) in the same manner.

The earliest record of Christianity points the start of the flagellation in Italy (year 1260 AD) lead by the Franciscans. According to the author, there were over a hundred fraternities in Italy between the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries that practiced flagellation. At least one of the fraternities had between 500-600 memberships.

Flagellation in reverence of Christ and as a form of sharing his sufferings constituted an important ritual in the religious life of these fraternities, and this activity was believed to procure the salvation of those who engaged in it

The author suggested two ways in which these ceremonies could have spread among the Muslims

• When the Ottomans started invading territories in the Mediterranean and Aegean Sea in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
• War captives or locals transmitted the ritual to eastern Anatolia or the Caucasus (through trade).