An Account from the Jewish Encyclopaedia
The Jewish Encyclopaedia presents the following account concerning ʿAbd Allah ibn Sabaʾ:
“He was a Jew of Yemen, Arabia, of the seventh century, who settled in Medina and embraced Islam. Having adversely criticised Caliph ʿUthmān’s administration, he was banished from the town. Thence he went to Egypt, where he founded an anti-ʿUthmānian sect to promote the interests of ʿAlī. On account of his learning, he obtained great influence there, and formulated the doctrine that, just as every prophet had an assistant who afterwards succeeded him, Muḥammad’s vizier was ʿAlī, who had therefore been kept out of the caliphate by deceit. ʿUthmān had no legal claim whatsoever to the caliphate, and the general dissatisfaction with his government greatly contributed to the spread of ʿAbd Allah ibn Sabaʾ’s teachings.
Tradition relates that when ʿAlī had assumed power, ʿAbd Allah ibn Sabaʾ ascribed divine honours to him by addressing him with the words, ‘Thou art Thou!’ Thereupon ʿAlī banished him to al-Madāʾin. After ʿAlī’s assassination [in 40 AH / 661 CE], ʿAbd Allah is said to have taught that ʿAlī was not dead but alive and had never been killed; that a part of the Deity was hidden in him; and that after a certain time he would return to fill the earth with justice. Until then, the divine character of ʿAlī was to remain hidden in the imāms, who temporarily filled his place.
It is easy to see that the whole idea rests on that of the Messiah in combination with the legend of Elijah the Prophet. The attribution of divine honours to ʿAlī was probably a later development and was fostered by the circumstance that in the Qurʾān Allah is often styled al-ʿAliyy (The Most High).”
(The Jewish Encyclopaedia, vol. 1, p. 43)
Statements of Ahl as-Sunnah Regarding ʿAbd Allah ibn Sabaʾ
Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr aṭ-Ṭabarī (d. 310 AH / 923 CE):
“Ibn Sabaʾ was a Jew from Ṣanʿāʾ in Yemen.”
ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAsākir (d. 571 AH / 1176 CE):
“His origin was from the people of Yemen, and he was a Jew who clothed himself in Islam.”
Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad Ibn al-Athīr (d. 630 AH / 1233 CE):
“ʿAbd Allah ibn Sabaʾ was a Jew from the people of Ṣanʿāʾ in Yemen, and his mother was black.”
Al-Ṭabarī on His Encounter with Abū al-Dardāʾ (d. 32 AH / 652 CE):
“ʿAbd Allah ibn Sabaʾ approached Abū al-Dardāʾ, who said to him, ‘Who are you? By Allah, I suspected you to be a Jew.’”
Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUmar Ibn Kathīr (d. 774 AH / 1373 CE):
“Among them was Ibn al-Sawdāʾ, and he was from those disbelievers who had a covenant with the Muslims. He then appeared as a Muslim and introduced innovative statements and actions. May Allah destroy him.”
Taqī ad-Dīn Aḥmad ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH / 1328 CE):
وقد ذكر أهل العلم أن مبدأ الرفض إنما كان من الزنديق عبد الله بن سبأ فإنه أظهر الإسلام وأبطن اليهودية وطلب أن يفسد الإسلام كما فعل بولص النصراني الذي كان يهوديا في إفساد دين النصارى
“The people of knowledge have mentioned that rafḍ originated from the heretic ʿAbd Allah ibn Sabaʾ. He manifested Islam while concealing his Judaism and sought to corrupt Islam, just as Paul the Christian, who was a Jew, corrupted the religion of the Christians.”
ʿAlī ibn ʿAlī Ibn Abī al-ʿIzz al-Ḥanafī (d. 792 AH / 1390 CE):
أصل الرفض إنما أحدثه منافق زنديق قصده إبطال دين الإسلام والقدح في الرسول صلى الله عليه وسلم كما ذكر ذلك العلماء فإن عبد الله بن سبأ لما أظهر الإسلام أراد أن يفسد دين الإسلام بمكره وخبثه كما فعل بولص بدين النصرانية فأظهر التنسك ثم أظهر الأمر بالمعروف والنهي عن المنكر حتى سعى في فتنة عثمان وقتله ثم لما قدم علي الكوفة أظهر الغلو في علي والنصر له ليتمكن بذلك من أغراضه وبلغ ذلك عليا فطلب قتله فهرب منه إلى قرقيسيا
“The foundations of rafḍ began with a heretic and hypocrite who intended to introduce falsehood into the religion of Islam and to insult the Messenger of Allah . That was ʿAbd Allah ibn Sabaʾ. When he manifested Islam, he sought to corrupt the religion through plotting and deception, as Paul did with Christianity. He first displayed piety and enjoined good and forbade evil, until he worked to bring about the turmoil concerning ʿUthmān and his killing. When ʿAlī arrived in Kūfah, he displayed extremism towards ʿAlī in order to achieve his purposes. This became clear to ʿAlī, who sought to execute him, so he fled from him to Qirqīsiyā.”
ʿAbd Allah ibn Sabaʾ is thus regarded by the scholars of Ahl as-Sunnah as a principal originator of extremist tendencies, from whom the Rawāfiḍ Shīʿa later emerged.
ʿAbd al-Qāhir ibn Ṭāhir al-Baghdādī (d. 429 AH / 1037 CE):
“Ibn al-Sawdāʾ, meaning ʿAbd Allah ibn Sabaʾ, was a Jew.”
Statements of Shīʿī Scholars Regarding ʿAbd Allah ibn Sabaʾ
Ḥasan ibn Mūsā an-Nawbakhtī (d. 300 AH / 912 CE):
“Some of the scholars among the companions of ʿAlī narrated that ʿAbd Allah ibn Sabaʾ was a Jew who embraced Islam.”
Saʿd ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Qummī (d. 301 AH / 913 CE):
“He is ʿAbd Allah ibn Sabaʾ, whom the text identifies as ʿAbd Allah ibn Wahb ar-Rāsibī al-Hamdānī … He was the first to openly revile Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, and the Companions.”
ʿAbd Allah al-Māmaqānī (d. 1351 AH / 1932 CE):
“ʿAbd Allah ibn Sabaʾ returned to disbelief and displayed extremism. He was an accursed extremist whom ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib burnt with fire. He used to claim that ʿAlī was Allah and that he himself was a prophet.”
References
Al-Baghdādī, ʿAbd al-Qāhir ibn Ṭāhir (d. 429 AH / 1037 CE). Al-Farq bayna al-Firaq. Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifah, 1977, p. 235.
Hartwig Hirschfeld, “Abdallah ibn Saba”, Jewish Encyclopaedia, 1:43; the entry’s authorship and page were verified.
Ibn Abī al-ʿIzz al-Ḥanafī, ʿAlī ibn ʿAlī (d. 792 AH / 1390 CE). Sharḥ aṭ-Ṭaḥāwiyyah fī al-ʿAqīdah as-Salafiyyah. Damascus: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1984, p. 490.
Ibn Abī al-ʿIzz, Sharḥ al-ʿAqīdah aṭ-Ṭaḥāwiyyah, consulted text, 2:738–739. Original p. 490.
Ibn al-Athīr, Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad (d. 630 AH / 1233 CE). Al-Kāmil fī at-Tārīkh. Beirut: Dār Ṣādir, 1965–1967, vol. 3, p. 77.
Ibn ʿAsākir, ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan (d. 571 AH / 1176 CE). Tārīkh Madīnat Dimashq. Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1987, vol. 29, p. 408.
Ibn Kathīr, Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUmar (d. 774 AH / 1373 CE). Al-Bidāyah wa-n-Nihāyah. Beirut: Maktabat al-Maʿārif, 1966, vol. 7, p. 181.
Ibn Taymiyyah, Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā, 28:483, for the Arabic quotation. Original 2012 software attribution identifies an electronic product, not a verified print edition.
Ibn Taymiyyah, Taqī ad-Dīn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm (d. 728 AH / 1328 CE). Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā. Riyadh: Markaz al-Turāth lil-Barmajīyāt, 2012, vol. 28, p. 483.
Al-Māmaqānī, ʿAbd Allah (d. 1351 AH / 1932 CE). Tanqīḥ al-Maqāl fī ʿIlm ar-Rijāl. Vol. 2. Najaf: al-Maṭbaʿah al-Ḥaydariyyah, n.d., pp. 183–184.
Al-Nawbakhtī, Ḥasan ibn Mūsā (d. 300 AH / 912 CE). Firaq ash-Shīʿah. Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifah, 1977, p. 22.
Al-Qummī, Saʿd ibn ʿAbd Allah (d. 301 AH / 913 CE). Al-Maqālāt wa al-Firaq. Tehran: Dār al-Maʿrifah, 1963, p. 20.
Saʿd ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Qummī, Al-Maqālāt wa-l-Firaq, printed p. 20, for the reported identification and omitted intervening names.
Al-Ṭabarī, Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr (d. 310 AH / 923 CE). Tārīkh ar-Rusul wa-l-Mulūk. Beirut: Dār Ṣādir, 1965–1967, vol. 4, pp. 340, 456.
The Jewish Encyclopaedia, edited by Isidore Singer et al., vol. 1, Funk and Wagnalls, New York, 1901, p. 43.
