List_of_extinct_Shia_sects

List of extinct Shia sects

List of extinct Shia sects

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The following is a list of extinct unorthodox movements within Shia Islam. These are movements that no longer have any living followers or practitioners. These movements were created around certain beliefs that were unorthodox and not held by the mainstream Shia Muslims. These movements eventually, after their very brief existence, had their followers fall into mainstream Islam.

Ghulat sects

  • Bazighiyya who believed that Ja'far al-Sadiq was God.
  • Dhammiyya who believed that Ali was God and Muhammad was his appointed Messenger and Prophet.
  • Ghurabiyya who believed the angel Gabriel was mistaken.
  • Hurufiyya who believed God is incarnated in every atom, reminiscent of the Alevi-Bektashism.
    • Nuqtavi who believed in a cyclical view of time, reminiscent of the Isma'ili Shia.
  • Kaysanites who believed in the Imamate of Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah after the death of Husayn Ibn 'Ali Ibn abu Talib.
  • Mughiriyya who were influenced by Mandean and Manichean doctrines and were founded by the first Shi'i gnostic al-Mughira, who claimed that God is a man of light with a crown of light on his head resembling Mandean doctrine of deity referred to as "king of light". Al-Mughira further added that God has limbs corresponding to the letters of Arabic alphabet reminiscent of the teaching of Marcus the Gnostic.[4]:72
  • Rawendis who believed in the transmigration of souls. They asserted that the spirit that was in Jesus was in Ali, and the spirit of Adam was in Othman ibn Nahik.
  • Soldiers of Heaven who believed that their former leader Dia Abdul Zahra Kadim (died 2007 CE) was the Mahdi and reincarnation of Ali ibn Abi Talib.
  • Ya’furiyya who believed in reincarnation and that a man named Mu’ammar al-Kufi was their Lord.
  • Salmaniyah who believed that Salman the Persian is the incarnation of God and sent Muhammad and Ali to Muslims. Little is known about this sect and the only books that talked about it were Kitab al Akwar wal Adwar of Ibn Nusair and Firaq al Shia (Maqalat wal Firaq) of Asha'ri Qumi. We know that it was a syncretic sect which held beliefs mixed between Zoroastrianism and Islam and may have believed that Salman was the Saoshyant.

Zaydi Shia sects

  • Mutrafya A Hamdani-based sect of the Zaydi Shia led Mutraf bin Shihab that start gaining followers in Yemen after the fall of the Ismaili Zurayids, they were weakened by Sunni Ayyubids & later famously exterminated as heretics by the Zaydi imam Al-Mansur Abdallah for calling for backing a Hamdani imam
  • Dukayniyya who believed Muhammad's followers fell into unbelief after his death because they did not uphold the Imamate of Ali.
  • Khalafiyya who believed in a unique line of Imams after Zayd ibn Ali ibn Husayn Ibn 'Ali Ibn abu Talib, starting with a man named Abd al-Samad and continuing with his descendants.
  • Khashabiyya who believed that the Imamate must remain only among the descendants of Hasan and Husayn, even if that Imam is ignorant, immoral and tyrannical.
  • Tabiriyya/Butriyya/Salihiyya who believed the companions, including Abu Bakr, Umar and Uthman, had been in error in failing to follow Ali, but it did not amount to sin.

Imami/pre-Twelver Shia sects

Ismā'īlī Shia sects

  • Hafizi who believed the Caliph of the Fatimid Caliphate, Al Hafiz and his descendants were also the Imam of the Time.
  • Sevenersbelieved that Isma'il ibn Jafar was the seventh and the last Imam (hereditary leader of the Muslim community in the direct line of Ali). They believed his son, Muhammad ibn Isma'il, would return and bring about an age of justice as Mahdi.
  • Qarmatians a sect of Seveners who believed in a world view where every phenomenon repeated itself in cycles, where every incident was replayed over and over again.

See also


References

  1. al-Ḥasan ibn Mūsá Nawbakhtī (2007). Abbas K. Kadhim (ed.). Shi'a Sects: (Kitab Firaq Al-Shi'a). London: ICAS Press. p. 83. ISBN 9781904063261.
  2. CRISIS AND CONSOLIDATION IN THE FORMATIVE PERIOD OF SHI'ITE ISLAM. Hossein Modarressi. Chapter 3: The Crisis of Succession. P83-84

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