Abu al-Sha'tha Jabir ibn Zayd al-Zahrani al-Azdi () was a Muslim theologian and one of the founding figures of the

Ibadi The Ibadi movement or Ibadism ( ar, الإباضية, al-Ibāḍiyyah) is a school of Islam. The followers of Ibadism are known as the Ibadis. Ibadism emerged around 60 years after the Islamic prophet Muhammad's death in 632 AD as a moderate sc ...

Donald Hawley Sir Donald Hawley (22 May 1921 – 31 January 2008) was a British colonial lawyer, diplomat and writer. Career Donald Frederick Hawley was educated at Radley College. At the outbreak of World War II, about to go to university, he volunteered for ...

, ''Oman'', pg. 199. Jubilee edition.

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensington Garden ...

: Stacey International, 1995. the third major denomination of Islam. He was from the

Tabi‘un The tābi‘ūn ( ar, اَلتَّابِعُونَ, also accusative or genitive tābi‘īn , singular ''tābi‘'' ), "followers" or "successors", are the generation of Muslims who followed the companions (''ṣaḥābah'') of the Islamic proph ...

, or second generation of Islam, and took leadership of the denomination after the death of

Abd-Allah ibn Ibadh ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ibāḍ al-Tamīmī ( ar, عبدالله بن إباض التميمي; died c. 700) was an Arab Islamic scholar and Kharijite from Basra, of the tribe of Banū Saʿd of Tamīm. In traditional Islamic historiography, he is the foun ...

.Valerie Jon Hoffman, ''The Essentials of Ibadi Islam'', pg. 12.

Syracuse Syracuse may refer to: Places Italy * Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa'' * Province of Syracuse United States *Syracuse, New York **East Syracuse, New York ** North Syracuse, New York * Syracuse, Indiana *Syracuse, Kansas *Syracuse, M ...

Syracuse University Press Syracuse University Press, founded in 1943, is a university press that is part of Syracuse University. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. History SUP was formed in August 1943 when president William P. Tolley pro ...

, 2012. Donald Hawley, ''Oman'', pg. 200.

Life

Ibn Zayd was born in the village of Firaq, near modern-day

Nizwa Nizwa ( ar, نِزْوَى, Nizwā) is the largest city in Ad Dakhiliyah Region in Oman and was the capital of Oman proper. Nizwa is about (1.5 hours) from Muscat. The population is estimated at around 72,000 people, including the two areas ...

Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of ...

. As a tabi'i from the second generation of Muslims, he was a student of Muhammad's widow

Aisha Aisha ( ar, , translit=ʿĀʾisha bint Abī Bakr; , also , ; ) was Muhammad's third and youngest wife. In Islamic writings, her name is thus often prefixed by the title "Mother of the Believers" ( ar, links=no, , ʾumm al- muʾminīn), referr ...

and cousin

Abd Allah ibn Abbas ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās ( ar, عَبْد ٱللَّٰه ٱبْن عَبَّاس; c. 619 – 687 CE), also known as Ibn ʿAbbās, was one of the cousins of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He is considered to be the greatest mufassir of the Qur'an ...

Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the ...

governor

al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf Abu Muhammad al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf ibn al-Hakam ibn Abi Aqil al-Thaqafi ( ar, أبو محمد الحجاج بن يوسف بن الحكم بن أبي عقيل الثقفي, Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf ibn al-Ḥakam ibn Abī ʿAqīl al-T ...

had friendly relations with Ibn Zayd personally, as the former viewed the Ibadi denomination as a more moderate branch of the

Khawarij The Kharijites (, singular ), also called al-Shurat (), were an Islamic sect which emerged during the First Fitna (656–661). The first Kharijites were supporters of Ali who rebelled against his acceptance of arbitration talks to settle the ...

that could be used as a bulwark against the more extreme adherents. This ended after Ibn Zayd ordered the execution of one of al-Hajjaj's spies, which led many Ibadis to be either imprisoned or exiled to Oman. After the death of Ibn Ibad, Ibn Zayd led the Ibadis to Oman where the aḥādīth ṣaḥīḥat al-isnād he narrated from different companions of Muhammad formed the corpus of the Ibadi interpretation of Islamic law.

Legacy

Ibn Zayd is well respected by both his own denomination as well as adherents of

Sunni Islam Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disag ...

, holding roughly the same level of prestige as the Sunnis' own

Hasan of Basra Abu Sa'id ibn Abi al-Hasan Yasar al-Basri, often referred to as Hasan of Basra (Arabic: الحسن البصري, romanized: ''Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī''; 642 - 15 October 728) for short, or as Hasan al-Basri, was an early Muslim preacher, ascetic ...

. He is the most commonly cited transmitter in Jami'ul Sahih, one of the two hadith collections of the Ibadis.Jonathan E. Brockopp, ''The Cambridge Companion to Muhammad'', pg. 92.

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer. Cambridge University Pr ...

, 2010.

Citations

Omani Ibadi Muslims 8th-century jurists 8th-century people from the Umayyad Caliphate 8th-century Omani people 8th-century Arabs {{Theologian-stub