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Ibadism

Islam

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Origin 680 to 750 CE

The predominant form of Islam in Oman and the oldest surviving branch of the faith, distinct from both Sunni and Shia. It descends from the early Kharijite movement that broke with Ali, though the Ibadis long ago repudiated the violence of the extremists and developed a moderate and scholarly tradition of their own. They hold that the leader of the community, the Imam, should be the most upright and capable believer, freely chosen and deposable, rather than one of Quraysh or of the Prophet's line, and that the community may live without an Imam when none is fit. Ibadi theology is austere, stressing the created nature of the Quran and denying that the blessed will see God with their eyes in paradise. They practice their own school of law and hold apart from the mainstream while living peaceably alongside it. Small and concentrated in Oman, East Africa, and parts of North Africa, Ibadism represents a distinct third path in Islam.

Facts
Disputed
Adherents Today
from 1,760,000 2
35.2 percent of Oman's reported 2023 population of about 5,000,772 (CIA World Factbook figure, archived 2021, as cited via Wikipedia), a computed figure rather than a directly reported count; Oman's government publishes no official statistics on citizens' religious affiliation, so this lower bound rests on an archived outside estimate rather than a census result.
Adherents Today
to 2,250,000 2
45 percent of Oman's reported 2023 population of about 5,000,772 (Minority Rights Group estimate, 2023), a computed figure rather than a directly reported count; Oman's government publishes no official statistics on citizens' religious affiliation, so every Ibadi population figure in circulation is an outside estimate rather than a census result.
Adherents Today
Estimates of Oman's Ibadi Muslim population range from about 35 to 45 percent of the country's roughly 5 million people (1.76 to 2.25 million), with no official government count to settle the range; Ibadism remains the largest single Islamic school in Oman, concentrated in rural and interior regions. 2
Oman's government does not publish official statistics on citizens' religious affiliation, so every figure here is an outside estimate. The CIA World Factbook (as archived and cited via Wikipedia) put Ibadi Muslims at 35.2 percent of Oman's population against 47.2 percent Sunni and 6.5 percent Shia; a separate Minority Rights Group estimate instead put Ibadism at 45 percent. Applied to Oman's reported 2023 population of just over 5 million, the two estimates imply roughly 1.76 million to 2.25 million Ibadi Muslims, a computed range rather than a directly reported count.
Membership Over Time
Ibadi Muslims are most often put at 35 to 45 percent of Oman's population, roughly 1.76 to 2.25 million people as of Oman's 2023 population of just over 5 million, with the government publishing no official religious count to settle the range. 2
A computed range, not a direct count; see adherents-min and adherents-max.
Membership Figure As Of
2023-01-01 2
No single dated count exists for Ibadi Muslims in Oman; 2023 is used here because that is when the higher-cited Minority Rights Group percentage estimate and Oman's most recent reported population figure were both current, allowing the two to be combined into a range.
Basis of the Membership Figure
Scholarly or Demographic Estimate 2
No Omani census records religious affiliation, so both bounds given here are outside demographic estimates rather than a government count: a CIA World Factbook figure for the lower bound and a Minority Rights Group estimate for the upper bound.
History
Separation or Divergence
Ibadis distinguish themselves sharply from the militant groups of that secession and reject the name "Khariji" applied to them by others 1
Separation or Divergence
The camp of Ali, in the secession that followed the arbitration at Siffin in 657 1
Date of Separation
657 to 750 CE 1
Belief
Defining Doctrinal Position
Leadership by the community's election of the most qualified, without descent 1Tradition: Islam
Defining Doctrinal Position
The Qur'an is God's created speech 1
Practice
Liturgical Language
Classical Arabic 1
Identity
Also Known As
Ibadi 1
Origins
Origin Period
680 to 750 CE 1
Place of Origin
Basra, in Iraq; established in Oman and the Mzab 1
Founder
Jabir ibn Zayd (d. c. 711); the name derives from Abd Allah ibn Ibad. 1
Organisation
Governance
An imam or caliph elected by the community or its electors 1
Ordination
No ordination; authority rests on learning or on the whole body 1
Status
Status Today
Living tradition, practised today 1
Learn More
The Third Branch, and the Label It Rejects

Ibadism is the oldest surviving branch of Islam and the one almost no general account mentions, and it is neither Sunni nor Shia.

It descends from the Kharijites, the party that broke with Ali in 657 after he agreed to arbitration at the battle of Siffin, on the principle that judgement belongs to God alone and that a leader who errs forfeits his office. Kharijite militancy became a byword in Islamic history for declaring other Muslims unbelievers and killing them, and this is where Ibadis part company with their own ancestry. The moderate wing that formed at Basra in the late seventh century around Abd Allah ibn Ibad and Jabir ibn Zayd rejected that violence, held that other Muslims who differed were not polytheists, and permitted ordinary dealings, intermarriage and coexistence with them.

Ibadis themselves generally reject the Kharijite label altogether, and modern scholarship is divided over how much continuity there really is between the quietist Basran school and the militant groups. Both accounts should be held: the historical descent is real, and the repudiation of Kharijite practice is also real and is very old.

Doctrinally the school is austere and rationalist in cast. Ibadis hold that the Quran is created rather than eternal, a position they share with the early Mutazila and which sets them directly against the Sunni doctrine of the uncreated word of God. They deny that the blessed will see God with their eyes in paradise, on the ground that vision would imply a body. On grave sin they take a hard line, holding that the unrepentant Muslim sinner is not an unbeliever but is also not a believer, and faces the fire.

Ritually and legally they are close to Sunni practice, with their own school of law and their own body of hadith.

The Elected Imam, and a State That Still Runs on It

Ibadism's political theory is its most distinctive feature and the one with the most direct modern consequence.

Where Sunnis require descent from Quraysh for the caliph and Shia require descent from the Prophet through Ali, Ibadis require neither. The imam should be the most upright and capable believer available, chosen by the scholars and notables of the community, and he may be deposed if he fails in justice or competence. Any qualified Muslim may hold the office regardless of lineage or origin. Ibadi thought also developed the position that the community may live legitimately without an imam when no fit candidate exists, a state of concealment, in which religion is maintained privately and no rebellion is required.

That theory was put into practice. An Ibadi imamate existed in Oman from the eighth century, in the Rustamid state in what is now Algeria until 909, and among Berber communities in the Maghreb. Oman is the only country in the world with an Ibadi majority, and the imamate persisted there in the interior in tension with the coastal sultanate until the two were merged by force in the 1950s.

The communities today are small: Oman, where Ibadis are usually estimated at somewhere near half to two-thirds of nationals; Zanzibar and the East African coast, a legacy of the Omani maritime empire; the Mzab valley of Algeria; Djerba in Tunisia; and the Nafusa mountains of Libya. The global total is commonly put at a few million.

Oman's foreign policy has been read by more than one analyst as an expression of the school's temperament, consistently neutral, on speaking terms with parties who are not on speaking terms with each other, and repeatedly used as a channel between Iran and the West. Whether that is theology or geography is arguable, and both explanations are offered.

Schools of Religious Law of Ibadism

Ibadi School

Schools of Religious Law
4 links
Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Basra, Cities

The moderate Ibadi wing of the Kharijites took shape at Basra in the late seventh century.

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors
Tracing the History of Ibadi Law and Jurisprudence: A State of Art (Islamic Law Blog), Sources

This source names Ibadi directly: "A survey of how Ibadi Islamic legal scholarship developed over its first several centuries, published on the Islamic Law Blog, hosted by the Program in Islamic Law at Harvard Law School."

Source Tracing the History of Ibadi Law and Jurisprudence: A State of Art (Islamic Law Blog)Ersilia Francesca

Belongs to Tradition

Islam, Religions

Branch Of

Islam, Religions

Derived From

Kharijites, Denominations

Ibadism broke early from the movement's more violent wing and is the only Kharijite branch to survive into the present.

Source Encyclopaedia of Islam (Brill), 2nd and 3rd editionsP. Bearman et al. (eds.)

Held Differently

Caliphate, Religious Organization & Structure

Ibadi teaching holds that any qualified Muslim may be imam regardless of descent, and that the community may lawfully live with no imam at all when circumstances do not permit one.

Iman, Doctrines

Iman is foundational to Ibadi Islam.

Source The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd editionP. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds.)
Iman, Doctrines

The Ibadis reject the extreme Kharijite form, holding that the grave sinner is an ingrate rather than an idolater and may not be killed for it.

Holds Element

Shura, Religious Organization & Structure

Ibadi practice makes consultation by the learned of the community the mechanism by which an imam is chosen and can be removed.

Tajwid, Sacred Sound

The science of recitation is held in common with the Sunni schools, the Ibadi difference lying in law and in theology rather than in how the Quran is read.

The Amman Message Conference, Councils and Synods

The Ibadi school is named among those the message recognises, which matters particularly for a school long treated by others as outside the fold.

Source The Amman MessageRoyal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought
The Three Points of the Amman Message, Religious Legal Instruments

The Ibadi school is named among the eight the message recognises, which mattered to a community long treated as outside the Sunni fold.

Source The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd editionP. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds.)

Objects and Practices of This Tradition

Afterlife, Doctrines

An afterlife of resurrection and judgement is affirmed doctrine in Ibadi Islam.

Source The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd editionP. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds.)
Alcohol and intoxicants are forbidden, Beliefs & Restrictions
Source The Qur'an
Fasting from dawn to dusk in Ramadan, Beliefs & Restrictions
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Finality of Prophethood, Doctrines

Muhammad is affirmed as the last of God's prophets in Ibadi Islam.

Source The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd editionP. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds.)
Hadith, Scriptures & Texts

Hadith are affirmed as a source of doctrine in Ibadi Islam, transmitted through its own distinct chains and compiled chiefly in the Jami of al-Rabi' ibn Habib, which the atlas does not yet catalogue as a separate scripture text entry.

Source Hadith as Scripture: Discussions on the Authority of Prophetic Traditions in IslamAisha Y. Musa
Imamate, Doctrines

Ibadi Islam holds that the imamate belongs to whichever believer is most qualified by piety and knowledge regardless of tribe or descent, and that an unjust imam may rightly be deposed.

Source The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd editionP. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds.)
Jami' al-Rabi', Scriptures & Texts
Source Encyclopaedia of Islam (Brill), 2nd and 3rd editionsP. Bearman et al. (eds.)
Kitab al-Jami' (The Comprehensive Book), Literary Works

An Omani jurist's tenth century legal compendium, built roughly two centuries after the school's own hadith corpus was already fixed, doing the separate, later work of systematic legal method rather than hadith transmission.

Source Tracing the History of Ibadi Law and Jurisprudence: A State of Art (Islamic Law Blog)Ersilia Francesca
Kitman: The Community May Withhold Its Identity Under Hostile Rule, Beliefs & Restrictions
Leadership by the most qualified elected imam, Beliefs & Restrictions
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Meat must be slaughtered halal, Beliefs & Restrictions
Source The Qur'an
Pilgrimage to Mecca once in a lifetime, Beliefs & Restrictions
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Pork is forbidden (haram), Beliefs & Restrictions
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
Prophecy, Doctrines

Nubuwwah, prophethood culminating in Muhammad, is affirmed doctrine in Ibadi Islam.

Source The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd editionP. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds.)
Qiyamah, Doctrines

Qiyamah, the resurrection, is affirmed doctrine in Ibadi Islam.

Source The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd editionP. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds.)
Sharia, Doctrines

Sharia is affirmed as binding in Ibadi Islam, elaborated through its own distinct legal tradition descended from the moderate wing of the earliest Kharijite movement.

Source The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd editionP. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds.)
Tawhid, Doctrines

Tawhid, the absolute oneness of God, is affirmed foundational doctrine in Ibadi Islam.

Source The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd editionP. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds.)
The Createdness of the Quran, Doctrines

Ibadi theology holds the Quran to be created speech, a position it shares with the Mutazila and against the Sunni majority, and one of the clearest markers of Ibadi difference.

Source The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd editionP. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds.)
The Five Pillars, Practices

Ibadis keep the five acts and follow their own school of law in the detail, praying with the arms at the sides rather than folded and not joining prayers as the Shia do, a distinct third path alongside Sunni and Shia.

Source Sahih al-BukhariMuhammad al-Bukhari
The Quran, Scriptures & Texts

The Quran, held to be the literal and uncreated word of God revealed to Muhammad, is canonical scripture across every branch of Islam, including this tradition.

Source The Study Quran: A New Translation and CommentarySeyyed Hossein Nasr (editor-in-chief)
The Quran is created, Beliefs & Restrictions
Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)
The Sunna Recorded in Hadith Is a Binding Source of Law, Beliefs & Restrictions
Usury (riba) is forbidden, Beliefs & Restrictions
Source The Qur'an

Opposes

Ismah (The Protection of the Imams From Error), Doctrines

Ibadi doctrine denies that the imam is protected from sin or error. The imam is elected on qualification, is answerable, and may be deposed, which is the Ibadi position against both the Sunni caliphate and the Shia imamate.

Source The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd editionP. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds.)

Originates in Language

Classical Arabic, Languages
Source The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd editionP. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds.)

Position On

Barzakh, Doctrines

Barzakh is affirmed in Ibadi doctrine.

Source The Islamic Understanding of Death and ResurrectionJane Idleman Smith and Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad
Bidah, Doctrines

The category of bidah is affirmed in Ibadi doctrine.

Source The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd editionP. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds.)
Fitra, Doctrines

Fitra is affirmed in Ibadi doctrine.

Source The Study Quran: A New Translation and CommentarySeyyed Hossein Nasr (editor-in-chief)
Haram, Doctrines

The forbidden category is affirmed in Ibadi law as the strongest of the five rulings.

Source The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd editionP. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds.)
Haya, Doctrines

Haya is affirmed in Ibadi doctrine.

Source The Study Quran: A New Translation and CommentarySeyyed Hossein Nasr (editor-in-chief)
Ijma (Scholarly Consensus), Doctrines

Consensus is accepted in Ibadi legal theory, defined as the agreement of the Ibadi scholars.

Source The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd editionP. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds.)
Ijtihad and taqlid, Doctrines

Ibadi jurisprudence holds both terms, and the school has kept a working ijtihad without the four-school framework the Sunni world organised itself into.

Source The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd editionP. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds.)
Jihad, Doctrines

Jihad is affirmed in Ibadi law, and the Ibadi tradition developed a graded doctrine of the community's conditions, from open rule to concealment, which governs when rising is permitted at all.

Source The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd editionP. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds.)
Kaba'ir and Sagha'ir, Doctrines

The division into grave and lesser sins is affirmed in Ibadi doctrine, and it carries more weight here than elsewhere because the standing of the grave sinner is the question the school was founded on.

Source The Study Quran: A New Translation and CommentarySeyyed Hossein Nasr (editor-in-chief)
Kaffara, Doctrines

Kaffara is affirmed in Ibadi law as a defined expiation discharging a particular liability.

Source The Study Quran: A New Translation and CommentarySeyyed Hossein Nasr (editor-in-chief)
Mizan, Doctrines

The weighing of deeds at the judgement is affirmed in Ibadi doctrine.

Source The Islamic Understanding of Death and ResurrectionJane Idleman Smith and Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad
Sabr, Doctrines

Sabr is affirmed in Ibadi doctrine.

Source The Study Quran: A New Translation and CommentarySeyyed Hossein Nasr (editor-in-chief)
Sharia, Doctrines

The Ibadi school, neither Sunni nor Shia, surviving in Oman and in communities in Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Zanzibar.

Shirk, Doctrines

Shirk is affirmed in Ibadi doctrine.

Source The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd editionP. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds.)
Shukr, Doctrines

Shukr is affirmed in Ibadi doctrine.

Source The Study Quran: A New Translation and CommentarySeyyed Hossein Nasr (editor-in-chief)
Takfir, Doctrines

Takfir is admitted in Ibadi doctrine and is the point at which Ibadism separated itself from the wider Kharijite movement: the grave sinner is an ungrateful unbeliever, kufr al-nima, and not an idolater, so his life and property are not forfeit.

Source The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd editionP. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds.)
Taqwa, Doctrines

Taqwa is affirmed in Ibadi doctrine as the Quran's measure of human worth.

Source The Study Quran: A New Translation and CommentarySeyyed Hossein Nasr (editor-in-chief)
Tawakkul, Doctrines

Tawakkul is affirmed in Ibadi doctrine.

Source The Study Quran: A New Translation and CommentarySeyyed Hossein Nasr (editor-in-chief)
Tawbah, Doctrines

Tawbah is affirmed in Ibadi doctrine as a turning back to God.

Source The Study Quran: A New Translation and CommentarySeyyed Hossein Nasr (editor-in-chief)
The five rulings, Doctrines

The five rulings are the classification of acts in Ibadi jurisprudence as in the Sunni schools.

Source The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd editionP. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds.)
Usul al-fiqh, Doctrines

Ibadi legal theory takes the Quran, the Sunna and consensus, with the consensus of the Ibadi scholars rather than of the wider community.

Source The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd editionP. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds.)
Sources
1. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition
P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds.), Brill, 2005s.v. IbadiyyaView the Source
2. Oman, Religions (The World Factbook, 2021 Archive, Central Intelligence Agency)
Central Intelligence Agency (The World Factbook)View the Source
The Study Quran: A New Translation and Commentary
Seyyed Hossein Nasr (editor-in-chief), HarperOne, 2015View the Source
The Islamic Understanding of Death and Resurrection
Jane Idleman Smith and Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, Oxford University Press, 2002View the Source
The Amman Message
Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, 2008View the Source
Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005Entry on the Kharijites and Ibadiyah
Quote, Entry on the Kharijites and Ibadiyah
Ibadis descend from the quietist Basran wing and repudiate Kharijite violence; the continuity is argued by scholars.
View the Source
Encyclopaedia of Islam (Brill), 2nd and 3rd editions
P. Bearman et al. (eds.), Brill, Leiden, 2005
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