- Early Murjiism has to be reconstructed on the basis ofthe poetry of Awn b. Abdallah (d. 110s/728–30s), Thabit Qutna (d. 110/728 f), and Murib b. Dithr (d. 116/734 f) in conjunction with KI and Sirat Salim.
- ahl al-furqa: right or wrong?
- According to the early Murjiites, one must accept that Abu Bakr and Umar were rightly guided caliphs because there is agreement on this point, but one must suspend judgement on the participants in the first furqa because one cannot tell who was right and who was wrong in it: one cannot judge disputed events that one has not seen for oneself. Irj applies f-man ghba an al-rijl aw lam yashhaduhu, as KI, 5 puts it, or f amr ghba anhu aw lam yudrikhu, as Slim says (III, 91).
- ahl al-furqa: believers or infidels?
- Though the Murjiites did not presume to know whether Uthman or Ali were right or wrong, they affirmed that both were believers, not infidels as the Kharijites would have it. Thabit Qutna declares that Al and Uthmn were abdn who did not ascribe partners to God, i.e. they were believers rather than polytheists. Muhrib also affirms that they were abdn, now in the sense ofordinary believers rather than prophets whom one knows to be saved, and he adds that ‘I do not call anyone a polytheist’ (lam ashhad al qawmin bi-shirkin), possibly with reference to Al and Uthmn alone and possibly to Muslims in general.
- Today’s sinners: believers or infidels?
- The Murjiites affirmed that Uthman and Ali were believers because they awarded that status to all users of the qibla, be they past or present, sinners or otherwise: sin did not invalidate faith.
- ahl al-furqa: saved or damned?
- Thabit Qutna says that Al and Uthmn will be requited for their efforts (say), but that he himselfcannot tell where they have gone. Muhrib suspends judgement on Ali and Uthman, saying that he does not know anything about the deeds ofpast figures or about their future fate: ‘What do I know about the deeds of men who have gone before me and whom I have not seen? I do not know of any Quran(ic verse) about their success (in the other world), but neither do I know them to have committed faults (that would damn them)’.
- Today’s sinners: saved or damned?
