Draft:Bayaniyya
Template:Infobox School Bayāniyya is a sect of Shi'a extremists (ghulāt), followers of Bayān (Banān) b. Sam'ān al-Tamīmī al-Nahdī. According to the belief of this sect, Abū Hāshim 'Abd Allāh b. Muḥammad b. al-Ḥanafiyya explicitly designated the Imamate of Bayān b. Sam'ān and called him the Imam after himself. The Bayāniyya are among those who removed the Imamate from the House of Banī Hāshim and the Family of 'Alī (a). In the classification of Shi'a sects, the Bayāniyya are considered part of the Kaysāniyya, who believed in the Imamate of Muḥammad b. al-Ḥanafiyya after Imam 'Alī (a) and the Imamate of Abū Hāshim after him. Bayān has been counted among the ghulāt because he believed in the divinity of Imam 'Alī (a) and said that a divine part had incarnated in 'Alī (a) and become one with his body. The reports mentioned in Ikhtiyār ma'rifat al-rijāl (Rijāl al-Kashshī) indicate that Bayān was rejected by the Imams of the Shi'a.
Founder
The Bayāniyya sect are the supporters of Bayān b. Sam'ān.[1] Bayān b. Sam'ān was of Arab descent, and some consider him a Tamīmī, but evidence shows that he had no connection with this tribe. The more correct view is that he was from the tribe of Banū Nahd in the south of Saudi Arabia (Yemen).[2] Some reports indicate that Bayān b. Sam'ān was a follower of Ḥamza b. 'Amāra. Ḥamza, who was a supporter of the Karbiya group, claimed that Muḥammad b. al-Ḥanafiyya was God and he himself was a prophet.[3]
However, some doubt the alliance of Bayān b. Sam'ān with Ḥamza, because Bayān b. Sam'ān, unlike Ḥamza and the Karbiya, recognized the leadership of Abū Hāshim, the son of Muḥammad b. al-Ḥanafiyya.[4] His name is also mentioned in some books as Banān b. Sam'ān al-Tamīmī al-Nahdī, and his sect has been called the Banāniyya.[5]
Bayān's Extremism (Ghulu)
Bayān has been counted among the ghulāt because he believed in the divinity of Imam 'Alī (a) and said that a divine part had incarnated in 'Alī (a) and become one with his body. He believed that 'Alī (a) informed of the unseen (ghayb) and participated in wars and was victorious with this knowledge of the unseen. He took this statement of Imam 'Alī — "I uprooted the gate of Khaybar not with physical strength but with celestial power" — as evidence for his claim.[6] In Bayān's view, that celestial power was in the soul of 'Alī (a) like a lamp in a niche, and the divine light is like the brightness of the lamp. Bayān said that a part of God was transferred to him through a kind of transmigration of souls (tanāsukh); therefore, he attained the merit for Imamate and Caliphate, and this divine part is the same that was in Adam (a) and because of it, he became worthy for the angels to prostrate to him. He also considered the meaning of the verse Template:Quran text to be Imam 'Alī (a), who would come in masses of clouds while the thunder is his voice and the lightning is his smile.[7]
Rejection of Bayān by the Imams
The reports mentioned in Ikhtiyār ma'rifat al-rijāl (Rijāl al-Kashshī) indicate that Bayān was rejected by the Shi'a Imams. In a tradition from Imam al-Riḍā (a), it is stated: Bayān used to attribute lies to 'Alī b. al-Ḥusayn, and Allāh made him taste the heat of iron.[8]
Bayāniyya Beliefs
Anthropomorphism (Tashbih)
Bayān b. Sam'ān was among the anthropomorphists (mushabbbiha) and believed that God has a form and a face, and he held that the body of God perishes and only His face remains. He cited two verses: Template:Quran text and Template:Quran text.[9] According to al-Baghdādī,[10] Bayān believed that God is an eternal man made of light. He claimed that he knew the Greatest Name (Ism al-A'zam) and could defeat armies with it. He claimed that he addressed the planet Venus and Venus answered him. According to Nashwān al-Ḥimyarī, Bayān believed that his deity is in the form of a human and calls the stars and they answer him.[11] According to Ibn al-Athīr, Bayān considered 'Alī, Ḥasan, Ḥusayn (a), Muḥammad b. al-Ḥanafiyya, and after him his son Abū Hāshim as God.[12]
Succession of Abū Hāshim, the Son of Muḥammad b. al-Ḥanafiyya
The Bayāniyya believed that after the occultation of Muḥammad b. al-Ḥanafiyya, the bequest (waṣiyya) reached his son, Abū Hāshim 'Abd Allāh b. Muḥammad, and this bequest is not a bequest after death, but a bequest during life, just as the Prophet (s) made 'Alī (a) and others his successors in his battles in Medina; thus, he is the Hujjat of God over the creation and people must obey him.[13] According to Sa'd b. 'Abd Allāh al-Ash'arī, a group of the Bayāniyya say that Abū Hāshim is the same Imam al-Qā'im who died but will return and take charge of the Imamate and will become the owner of the earth, and after him there will be no other executor (waṣī).[14]
Bayān's Claim to Prophethood
According to al-Nawbakhtī,[15] Bayān claimed prophethood after the death of Abū Hāshim. The Bayāniyya believed that Abū Hāshim made Bayān a "Prophet" (nabī) and the verse Template:Quran text indicates the prophethood of Bayān.[16] According to narrations, Bayān wrote a letter to Imam al-Bāqir (a) and invited him to acknowledge his prophethood. Imam al-Bāqir (a) rebuked the carrier of the letter, 'Umar b. 'Afīf al-Azdī.[17]
Notes
- ↑ Tucker, "Bayān b. Sam'ān wa l-Bayāniyya", p. 126.
- ↑ Tucker, "Bayān b. Sam'ān wa l-Bayāniyya", p. 127.
- ↑ Tucker, "Bayān b. Sam'ān wa l-Bayāniyya", p. 127.
- ↑ Tucker, "Bayān b. Sam'ān wa l-Bayāniyya", p. 127.
- ↑ al-Ash'arī, Tarīkh-i 'aqā'id wa madhāhib-i Shī'a, 1371 Sh, p. 273.
- ↑ Regarding this statement, see: al-Ṣadūq, Amālī, 1400 AH, p. 415; al-Majlisī, Biḥār al-anwār, 1403 AH, vol. 21, p. 26.
- ↑ al-Shahrastānī, al-Milal wa l-niḥal, Cairo, vol. 1, p. 246.
- ↑ al-Kashshī, Ikhtiyār ma'rifat al-rijāl, 1348 Sh, p. 302.
- ↑ al-Ash'arī, al-Maqālāt wa l-firaq, 1361 Sh, pp. 37-38.
- ↑ al-Baghdādī, al-Farq bayn al-firaq, 1998, p. 237.
- ↑ al-Ḥimyarī, al-Ḥūr al-'īn, 1972, pp. 161, 260.
- ↑ Ibn al-Athīr, al-Kāmil, 1398 AH, vol. 4, p. 231.
- ↑ al-Ash'arī, al-Maqālāt wa l-firaq, 1361 Sh, p. 34.
- ↑ al-Ash'arī, al-Maqālāt wa l-firaq, 1361 Sh, p. 37.
- ↑ al-Nawbakhtī, Firaq al-Shī'a, 1936, p. 34.
- ↑ al-Ash'arī, al-Maqālāt wa l-firaq, 1361 Sh, p. 37.
- ↑ al-Nawbakhtī, Firaq al-Shī'a, 1936, p. 34; al-Ash'arī, al-Maqālāt wa l-firaq, 1361 Sh, p. 37; al-Shahrastānī, al-Milal wa l-niḥal, Cairo, vol. 1, pp. 246-247.
References
- ʿArab Aḥmadī, Amīr Bahrām, Shīʿayān-i Khūja dar āyīna-yi tārīkh, Tihrān, Pazhūhishgāh-i ʿUlūm-i Insānī wa Muṭālaʿāt-i Farhangī, 1st ed., 1387 Sh.
- ʿArab Aḥmadī, Amīr Bahrām, Shīʿayān-i Khūja-yi Ithnā ʿAsharī dar gustara-yi jahān, Qum, Shīʿa-shināsī, 1st ed., 1389 Sh.
- al-Ashʿarī, Saʿd b. ʿAbd Allāh, Tarīkh-i ʿaqāʾid wa madhāhib-i Shīʿa (al-Maqālāt wa l-firaq), ed. Muḥammad Jawād Mashkūr, trans. Yūsuf Faḍāʾī, Tihrān, ʿAṭāʾī Publications, 1st ed., 1371 Sh.
- al-Ashʿarī, Saʿd b. ʿAbd Allāh, al-Maqālāt wa l-firaq, ed. Muḥammad Jawād Mashkūr, Tihrān, Markaz-i Intishārāt-i ʿIlmī wa Farhangī, 1361 Sh.
- al-Baghdādī, ʿAbd al-Qāhir b. Ṭāhir, al-Farq bayn al-firaq, ed. Muḥammad Muḥyī l-Dīn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd, Beirut, al-Maktabat al-ʿAsriyya, 1998.
- al-Ḥimyarī, Nashwān b. Saʿīd, al-Ḥūr al-ʿīn, ed. Kamāl Muṣṭafā, Tihrān, n.p., 1972.
- al-Kashshī, Muḥammad b. ʿUmar, Ikhtiyār maʿrifat al-rijāl, abridged by Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan al-Ṭūsī, ed. Ḥasan Muṣṭafawī, Mashhad, Mashhad University, 1348 Sh.
- al-Majlisī, Muḥammad Bāqir, Biḥār al-anwār, Beirut, Muʾassasat al-Wafāʾ, 1403 AH.
- al-Nawbakhtī, al-Ḥasan b. Mūsā, Firaq al-Shīʿa, ed. Muḥammad Ṣādiq Āl Baḥr al-ʿUlūm, Najaf, al-Maṭbaʿat al-Ḥaydariyya, 1355/1936.
- al-Ṣadūq, Muḥammad b. ʿAlī, Amālī, Beirut, n.p., 1400/1980.
- al-Shahrastānī, Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Karīm, al-Milal wa l-niḥal, ed. Aḥmad Fahmī Muḥammad, Cairo, n.p., 1367-1368/1948-1949.
- Ibn al-Athīr, ʿAlī b. Muḥammad, al-Kāmil fī l-tarīkh, Beirut, n.p., 1398/1978.
- Tucker, William, "Bayān b. Samʿān wa l-Bayāniyya", trans. Muṣṭafā Ṣādiqī, in Majalla-yi Ḥikmat wa Falsafa-yi Islāmī, vol. 7, no. 25, Spring 1387 Sh.
External Links
- Source of the article: Danishnama-yi jahan-i Islam