Shaykh ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Nāṣir al-Faqīhī (d. 1446 AH/2024 CE) ؒ discusses the term Rāfiḍah in his introduction to Al-Imāmah wa-r-Radd ʿalā ar-Rāfiḍah by Abū Nuʿaym Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Aṣbahānī (d. 430 AH/1038 CE):
Rāfiḍah is a name applied to anyone who disavows the two shaykhs, Abū Bakr aṣ-Ṣiddīq and ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb , and likewise to anyone who disavows the Companions of the Messenger of Allah .
Concerning the origin of this name, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm ash-Shahrastānī (d. 548 AH/1153 CE) mentioned in Al-Milal wa-n-Niḥal:
“When the Shīʿah of Kūfah in Iraq heard that Zayd ibn ʿAlī expressed loyalty to Abū Bakr and ʿUmar, who were the two ministers of his ancestor, the Prophet , they rejected him, rafaḍūhu. He said to them: ‘You have rejected me.’ They were therefore called the Rāfiḍah, the rejectors.” (Al-Milal wa-n-Niḥal, 1:100.)
Ibn Manẓūr’s Lisān al-ʿArab:
كانوا بايعوه ثم قالوا له: إبرأ من الشيخين نقاتل معك فأبى وقال كانا وزيري جدي فلا أبرأ منهما فرفضوه وأرفضوا عنه فسموا رافضة.
“They had pledged allegiance to him. Then they said to him: ‘Disavow the two shaykhs, and we will fight alongside you.’ He refused and said: ‘They were my ancestor’s two ministers, so I will not disavow them.’ They rejected him and withdrew from him, and were therefore called the Rāfiḍah.” (Lisān al-ʿArab, 5:266, Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUmar Ibn Kathīr (d. 774 AH/1373 CE) and his Al-Bidāyah wa-n-Nihāyah, 9:32–33)
ʿAbd Allah ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal (d. 290 AH/903 CE) said that he asked his father, Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal (d. 241 AH/855 CE), about the Rāfiḍah:
سألت أبي: من الرافضة؟ فقال: الذين يشتمون أو يسبون أبا بكر وعمر رضي الله عنهما.
“I asked my father: ‘Who are the Rāfiḍah?’ He replied: ‘Those who revile, or insult, Abū Bakr and ʿUmar, may Allah be pleased with them both.’” (Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH/1328 CE), Aṣ-Ṣārim al-Maslūl ʿalā Shātim ar-Rasūl, p. 567F)
This is because their beliefs include loyalty and disavowal in speech, action and belief. Their loyalty means loyalty to ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, and they hold that loyalty to him includes disavowing the Prophet’s two Companions, Abū Bakr and ʿUmar. They likewise disavow the remaining Companions except those whom, according to their belief, they do not regard as having apostatised.
Accordingly, the Rāfiḍah are those who disavow, curse and insult the Companions. As Abū Muḥammad ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad Ibn Ḥazm (d. 456 AH/1064 CE) mentioned, the name is even more appropriately applied to those who declare the Companions disbelievers. The reader will find this applicable to the Imāmiyyah al-Ithnā ʿAshariyyah, the Twelvers, who hold that ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib’s imāmah was established by an explicit declaration from the Prophet , rather than an indication.
Translator’s Note
Their shaykh, Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn an-Nuʿmān al-Mufīd (d. 413 AH/1022 CE) defines the Shīʿah in Awāʾil al-Maqālāt fī al-Madhāhib wa-l-Mukhtārāt. His definition concerns the word with the definite article:
فأما إذا أدخل فيه علامة التعريف فهو على التخصيص لا محالة لأتباع أمير المؤمنين صلوات الله عليه على سبيل الولاء والاعتقاد لإمامته بعد الرسول صلوات الله عليه وآله بلا فصل ونفي الإمامة عمن تقدمه في مقام الخلافة وجعله في الاعتقاد متبوعا لهم غير تابع لأحد منهم على وجه الاقتداء.
“When the definite article is used, the term refers specifically to the followers of the Commander of the Faithful, ʿAlī, who affirm loyalty to him and believe in his imāmah immediately after the Messenger , without an intervening interval. They deny the imāmah of those who preceded him in the caliphate and consider him their leader, rather than a follower of any of them by way of emulation.” (Awāʾil al-Maqālāt, p. 35)
The translator’s original commentary describes the word Shīʿah in contemporary usage as referring to the Twelver sect, al-Ithnā ʿAshariyyah, owing to its overwhelming numbers across Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Gulf states and other places, and because its authoritative ḥadīth books contain a substantial proportion of the views held by Shīʿī sects throughout history.
The meaning here is that the Shīʿī, or Rāfiḍī, believes that ʿAlī was the immediate caliph after the Messenger of Allah , with no interval between them. This belief therefore rests on denying the legitimacy of the three caliphs, Abū Bakr, ʿUmar and ʿUthmān. According to al-Mufīd’s definition, Shīʿism therefore applies to someone who believes that ʿAlī’s caliphate extended from the Prophet’s death until ʿAlī’s martyrdom.
As-Saksakī’s Description
Abū al-Faḍl ʿAbbās ibn Manṣūr as-Saksakī (d. 683 AH/1284–1285 CE) writes in Al-Burhān fī Maʿrifat ʿAqāʾid Ahl al-Adyān:
وسميت الرافضة لرفضهم أبي بكر وعمر رضي الله عنهما، وقيل لرفضهم زيد بن علي رضي الله عنهما لما تولى أبا بكر وعمر رضي الله عنهما وقال بإمامتهما فقال زيد رضي الله عنه رفضوني فسموا رافضة. وسموا شيعة حين قالوا: نحن من شيعة علي رضي الله عنه إلا أن بعضهم قال فيه غير الحق وهم الغالية فجعله بعضهم إلها وجعله بعضهم نبيا وقد قتل علي رضي الله عنه بعضهم وأحرق بعضا في زمانه. والغالية منهم تنكر يوم الحساب. واجتمعت الرافضة على إثبات الإمامة عقلا وأن إمامة علي وتقديمه ثابتة نصا وأن الأئمة معصومون لا يجوز عليهم الغلط والسهو والخطأ وأنكروا إمامة المفضول والاختيار وقالوا بتفضيل علي على سائر الصحابة وأنه الإمام بعد رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم وتبرأوا من أبي بكر وعمر وكثير من الصحابة رضي الله عنهم إلا فرقة الزيدية. وقالوا إن الأمة ارتدت بتركها إمامة علي رضي الله عنه وأكثرهم يزعم أن الله تعالى لا يعلم ما يكون قبل أن يكون ويقولون برجعة الأموات إلى الدنيا قبل يوم الحساب وأكثرهم يقول إن الإمام يعلم كل شيء ما كان وما يكون في أمر الدين والدنيا حتى عدد الحصى وقطر الأمطار وورق الأشجار وهذا جنون ظاهر ينفون علمه عن الله تعالى ويثبتونه للمخلوقين ويقولون: إن الأئمة تظهر على أيديهم المعجزات كالرسل وأكثرهم شهد على من حارب عليا بالكفر، وهم ثماني عشرة فرقة الجارودية والمطرفية والمسيرية والإمامية الاثني عشرية والخطابية والكيسانية والهاشمية والمحمدية والغرابية والجريرية والمنتظرة والبيانية والمنصورية والكشبية والمغيرية والطريفية والقرمطية والإسماعيلية.
“They were called the Rāfiḍah because they rejected Abū Bakr and ʿUmar. It is also said that they were so named because they rejected Zayd ibn ʿAlī when he expressed loyalty to Abū Bakr and ʿUmar and acknowledged their imāmah. Zayd said: ‘They have rejected me’, rafaḍūnī, and they were called the Rāfiḍah.
“They were called the Shīʿah when they said: ‘We are among the party of ʿAlī.’ However, some said things about him that were untrue; these are the extremists, the ghāliyah. Some made him a deity, while others made him a prophet. ʿAlī killed some and burnt others in his time. Among these extremists are those who deny the Day of Reckoning.
“The Rāfiḍah agree on establishing the imāmah by rational argument, and on ʿAlī’s imāmah and precedence being established by an explicit text. They hold that the imāms are infallible and cannot make mistakes, forget or err. They reject the imāmah of a less meritorious person and appointment by election. They consider ʿAlī superior to all the other Companions and the imām after the Messenger of Allah . Apart from the Zaydiyyah, they disavow Abū Bakr, ʿUmar and many other Companions.
“They say that the ummah apostatised by abandoning ʿAlī’s imāmah. Most claim that Allah does not know what will happen before it happens. They hold that the dead return to this world before the Day of Reckoning. Most claim that the imām knows everything that has happened and will happen in religious and worldly affairs, even the number of pebbles, raindrops and leaves on trees. This is evident madness: they deny this knowledge to Allah and affirm it for created beings! They hold that miracles appear at the hands of the imāms as they do at the hands of the messengers. Most declare those who fought ʿAlī disbelievers.
“They comprise eighteen sects: al-Jārūdiyyah, al-Muṭarrifiyyah, an-Nuṣayriyyah, al-Imāmiyyah al-Ithnā ʿAshariyyah, al-Khaṭṭābiyyah, al-Kaysāniyyah, al-Hāshimiyyah, al-Muḥammadiyyah, al-Ghurābiyyah, al-Jarīriyyah, al-Muntaẓirah, al-Bayāniyyah, al-Manṣūriyyah, al-Kashbiyyah, al-Mughīriyyah, aṭ-Ṭarīfiyyah, al-Qarmaṭiyyah and al-Ismāʿīliyyah.” (Al-Burhān, pp. 65–66 in the scanned al-ʿAmmūsh edition.)
References
Abū Nuʿaym al-Aṣbahānī, Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allah (d. 430 AH/1038 CE). Al-Imāmah wa-r-Radd ʿalā ar-Rāfiḍah, edited by ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Nāṣir al-Faqīhī. pp. 22–23/vol. 2. Maktabat al-ʿUlūm wa-l-Ḥikam, al-Madīnah, 1407 AH/1987 CE
Ibn Ḥazm, ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad (d. 456 AH/1064 CE).
Ibn Kathīr, Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUmar (d. 774 AH/1373 CE). Al-Bidāyah wa-n-Nihāyah, 9:32–33.
Ibn Manẓūr. Lisān al-ʿArab, Dār Iḥyāʾ at-Turāth al-ʿArabī, Beirut, 5:266.
Ibn Taymiyyah, Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm (d. 728 AH/1328 CE). Aṣ-Ṣārim al-Maslūl ʿalā Shātim ar-Rasūl, p. 567, report from ʿAbd Allah ibn Aḥmad
Al-Mufīd, Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn an-Nuʿmān (d. 413 AH/1022 CE). Awāʾil al-Maqālāt fī al-Madhāhib wa-l-Mukhtārāt, p. 35 in the electronic transcription, Dār al-Mufīd, Beirut; edition 35/413
As-Saksakī, Abū al-Faḍl ʿAbbās ibn Manṣūr (d. 683 AH/1284–1285 CE). Al-Burhān fī Maʿrifat ʿAqāʾid Ahl al-Adyān, edited by Bassām ʿAlī Salāmah al-ʿAmmūsh, Maktabat al-Manār, az-Zarqāʾ, Jordan, pp. 65–66 in the verified scan; p. 47 .
Ash-Shahrastānī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm (d. 548 AH/1153 CE). Al-Milal wa-n-Niḥal, 1:100
