The Sabians are mentioned in several verses of the Qur’aan. Who were they? What was the religion they followed?.
This group of people are mentioned in three places in the
Qur’aan. The first is the verse in which Allaah says (interpretation of the
meaning):
“Verily, those who believe and those who are Jews and
Christians, and Sabians [wa’l-saabi’een ], whoever believes in Allaah and
the Last Day and does righteous good deeds shall have their reward with
their Lord, on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve”
[al-Baqarah 2:62]
The second is the verse in which Allaah says (interpretation
of the meaning):
“Verily, those who
believe (in Allaah and in His Messenger Muhammad), and those who are Jews,
and the Sabians [wa’l-saabi’een], and the Christians, and the Majoos, and
those who worship others besides Allaah; truly, Allaah will judge between
them on the Day of Resurrection. Verily, Allaah is over all things a
Witness”
[al-Hajj 22:17]
And the third is the verse in which Allaah says
(interpretation of the meaning):
“Surely, those who believe (in the Oneness of Allaah, in
His Messenger Muhammad and all that was revealed to him from Allaah), and
those who are the Jews and the Sabians [wa’l-saabi’oon] and the Christians,
— whosoever believed in Allaah and the Last Day, and worked righteousness,
on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve”
[al-Maa’idah 5:69]
The word saabi’ (Sabian) is derived from the verb saba’a
which refers to the action of leaving one religion and entering another.
Al-Tabari said: al-saabi’oon is the plural of
saabi’, which means one who has changed his religion, such as an
apostate from Islam who has left his religion, or anyone who leaves the
religion that he used to follow and joined another. The Arabs called such a
person saabi’… And it is said in Arabic saba’at al-nujoom meaning the
stars appeared…
See Tafseer al-Tabari, 2/145; Lisaan al-‘Arab
under the heading saba’a.
With regard to their beliefs, Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allaah have
mercy on him) said: The people differed greatly concerning them, and the
imams were unsure about them because they did not have enough knowledge of
their beliefs and religion. Al-Shaafa’i (may Allaah have mercy on him) said:
They are a kind of Christian. And he said elsewhere: Their case is to be
examined further; if they resemble the Christians in basic matters but they
differ from them in some minor issues, then the jizyah is to be taken from
them. But if they differ from them in basic issues of religion then their
religion cannot be approved of by taking the jizyah from them.
With regard to the views of the salaf concerning them,
Sufyaan narrated from Layth that Mujaahid said: They are a people who come
between the Jews and the Magians and have no religion. In Tafseer
Shaybaan it is narrated that Qataadah said: The Sabians are a people who
worship the angels.
Ibn al-Qayyim said: I said: The Sabians are a large nation
among whom are both blessed and doomed. They are one of the nations who are
divided into believers and disbelievers, for the nations before the coming
of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) were of two
types, kaafir nations all of whose people were doomed and among whom were
none who were blessed, such as the idol-worshippers and the Magians; and
others who were divided into those who were blessed and those who were
doomed, namely the Jews, Christians and Sabians. Allaah has mentioned the
two types in His Book, where He says (interpretation of the meaning):
“Verily, those who believe and those who are Jews and
Christians, and Sabians [wa’l-saabi’een ], whoever believes in Allaah and
the Last Day and does righteous good deeds shall have their reward with
their Lord, on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve”
[al-Baqarah 2:62]
And He says something similar in al-Maa’idah. And in Soorat
al-Hajj He says (interpretation of the meaning):
“Verily, those who
believe (in Allaah and in His Messenger Muhammad), and those who are Jews,
and the Sabians [wa’l-saabi’een], and the Christians, and the Majoos, and
those who worship others besides Allaah; truly, Allaah will judge between
them on the Day of Resurrection. Verily, Allaah is over all things a
Witness”
[al-Hajj 22:17]
He did not say here: those among them who believed in Allaah
and the Last Day, because He mentioned alongside them the Magians and those
who worship others besides Allaah. So He mentioned six nations, among whom
are two who are doomed and four who are divided into the doomed and the
blessed. When He promised the reward to those who believed and did righteous
deeds, he mentioned four nations and no more. In the verse which speaks of
the judgement between the nations He included these two nations with them,
and in the verse which speaks of the promised reward He did not include
them. Thus it is known that the Sabians included both believers and
disbelievers, both doomed and blessed.
This is an ancient nation which existed before the Jews and
Christians and they were of different types: Sabians who were haneefs
(monotheists) and Sabians who were mushrikoon (polytheists). Their kingdom
was in Haraan, before the time of the Messiah. They wrote books and had
knowledge. There were many of them in Baghdad, including Ibraaheem ibn
Hilaal al-Saabi’, the author of al-Rasaa’il. He followed their
religion but he fasted Ramadaan with the Muslims. Most of them were
philosophers and wrote famous essays which were mentioned by the scholars
who wrote about philosophy and religion.
In brief, they did not reject the Prophets or regard it as
obligatory to follow them. In their view, whoever followed (the Prophets) is
blessed and saved, and whoever follows a path similar to that of the
Prophets by virtue of his own reasoning is also blessed and saved, even if
he did not follow the Prophets in specific terms. In their view the call of
the Prophets was true but there was no one specific route to salvation. They
believed that the universe had a Creator and Sustainer, Who is Wise and
above any resemblance to created beings, but many of them, or most of them,
said: we are unable to reach Him without intermediaries, so we have to
approach Him through the mediation of spiritual and holy who are pure and
free of any physical elements and who are above place and time, rather they
are created pure and holy.
Then he mentioned that they used to worship these
intermediaries and seek to draw close to them, and they said, “These are our
gods and intercessors with the Lord of lords and God of gods.”
Then he said: This is some of what was narrated by the
scholar who studied religion and philosophy about the religion of the
Sabians, and is based on what had come down to them. But among this nation
are some who believe in Allaah and His names and attributes, His angels and
Messengers and the Last Day; and among them are disbelievers. There are some
who took from the religion of the Messengers whatever suited their own
reasoning and ideas of what is good, so they followed it and were content
with it.
Basically, they took what they thought was good from other
religions, and they did not take the people of one religion as friends and
others as enemies; they did not favour one religion over another. In their
view all religions served some purpose in this world, so there was no sense
in their fighting one another, rather the good things in each were to be
adopted so as to perfect the human condition. Hence they were called
saabi’een because they refrained from following any one particular
religion. Hence more than one of the salaf said: They are not Jews or
Christians or Magians.
There are two types of
Sabians: the monotheistic Sabians (saabi’ah hunafa’) and polytheistic
Sabians (saabi’ah mushrikoon). The monotheists are the ones who are saved
and there were debates among them, and one group refuted the view of the
other. These are the people of Ibraaheem as the Jews were the people of
Moosa, and the monotheists among them were his followers.
Ahkaam Ahl al-Dhimmah, 1/92-98.
What he mentioned about the Sabians being divided into
monotheists and polytheists was confirmed by Shaykh al-Islam in more than
one place. See al-Radd ‘ala al-Mantiqiyyeen, 287-454; 290-458;
Minhaaj al-Sunnah, 1/5. See also the discussion by Shaykh Ibn ‘Aashoor
on this issue, in his commentary on the verse from al-Baqarah.
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