A non-denominational Muslim is a Muslim who does not belong to, does not self-identify with, or cannot be readily classified under one of the identifiable Islamic schools and branches. Such Muslims do not think of themselves as belonging to a denomination but rather as "just Muslims" or "non-denominational Muslims." Muslims who do not adhere to a sect are also known as non-sectarian Muslims.
While the majority of the population in the Middle East identify as either Sunni or Shi'a, a significant number of Muslims identify as non-denominational. According to a 2012 study by the Pew Research Center, Muslims who do not identify with a sect and identify as "just a Muslim" make up a majority of the Muslims in these countries: Kazakhstan (74%), Albania (65%), Kyrgyzstan (64%), Kosovo (58%), Indonesia (56%), Mali (55%), Bosnia and Herzegovina (54%), Uzbekistan (54%), and a plurality in four countries: Azerbaijan (45%), Russia (45%), Nigeria (42%), and Cameroon (40%). They are found primarily in Central Asia. Southeastern Europe also has a large number of Muslims who do not identify with a sect. Identification as "just a Muslim" is less prevalent in North Africa (median of 12%) and South Asia (median of 4%). In Lithuania, non-denominational Muslims fall into the category of "non-traditional religious communities", and are formally separated by law from Sunnis.
Sectarian controversies have a long and complex history in Islam and they have been exploited and amplified by rulers for political ends. However, the notion of Muslim unity has remained an important ideal and in modern times intellectuals have spoken against sectarian divisions. Surveys have reported that large proportions of Muslims in some parts of the world self-identify as "just Muslim" or "Muslim only", although there is little published analysis available regarding the motivations underlying this response.
Etymology
Non-sectarian Muslims
Muslims who do not adhere to a sect are also known as non-sectarian Muslims.
Non- The description non- may be used for example in relation to Islamic studies at educational institutions that are not limited in scope to one particular madhhab or school of jurisprudence. For non-denominational Muslims, Pew uses the description of "choose not to affiliate"Rane, Halim, Jacqui Ewart, and John Martinkus. "Islam and the Muslim World." Media Framing of the Muslim World. Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2014. 15-28 while Russian officials use the term "Unaffiliated Muslims" for those who do not belong to any branch or denomination.Obydenkova, Anastassia V. "Religious pluralism in Russia." Politics of religion and nationalism: Federalism, consociationalism and secession, Routledge (2014): 36-49 Unlike Sunnis, Shias, and Ibadis, non-denominational Muslims are not affiliated with any school of thought (madhhab).
The term , i.e. "non-blind-follower", can be used to describe the adherents of movements such as Salafism and Ahl-e-Hadith, who do not necessarily follow the rulings of a particular traditional but identify as Sunni Muslims.Qasmi, Ali Usman. "Islamic Universalism: The ‘Amritsarī’Version of Ahl al-Qurʾān." Journal of Islamic Studies 20.2 (2009): 159-187.Maghen, Ze'ev. "See No Evil: Morality and Methodology in Ibn Al-qattān al-Fāsī's Ahkām al-nazar bi-Hāssat al-Basar." Islamic Law and Society 14.3 (2007): 342-390.Abou Zahab, Mariam. "Salafism in Pakistan." Global Salafism: Islam’s New Religious Movement, Roel Meijer (ed.)(New York: Columbia University Press, 2009) (2011): 126-142.Khan, Mohammad Sharif, and Mohammad Anwar Saleem. Muslim Philosophy and Philosophers. APH Publishing, 1994.
Beliefs Non-sectarian Muslims often cite Qur'anic verses to support their stance, including Surah al-Imran: Verse 103: "And hold firmly to the rope of Allah all together and do not become divided. And remember the favor of Allah upon you - when you were enemies and He brought your hearts together and you became, by His favor, brothers. And you were on the edge of a pit of the Fire, and He saved you from it." Critics of non-denominational Muslims argue that they misinterpret the Qur'anic injunction against division, neglect the broader Islamic teachings and hadiths, and disregard Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh).
Unlike Sunnis, Shias, Ibadis, and Ahmadis, non-denominational Muslims are not affiliated with any school of thought. Some Muslims who oppose sectarian divisions also reject hadith, believing that hadith contribute to sectarianism.Ahmad, Kassim. "Hadith: A Re-evaluation", 1986. English translation 1997
History of Islamic sectarianism
After the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, two conflicting views emerged about who should succeed him as the leader of the Muslim community. Some Muslims, who believed that Muhammad never clearly named his successor, resorted to the Arabian tradition of electing their leader by a council of influential members of the community. Others believed that Muhammad had chosen his cousin and son-in-law Ali ibn Abi Talib to succeed him. This disagreement eventually resulted in a civil war which pitted supporters of Ali against supporters of the founder of the Umayyad dynasty Mu'awiyah ibn Abi Sufyan, and these two camps later evolved into the Sunni and Shia denominations. For the Shias, Ali and the Imams who succeeded him gradually became the embodiment of God's continuing guidance, and they tended to stress the religious functions of the caliphate and deplore its political compromises; Sunnis were more inclined to circumscribe its religious role and more readily accepted its pragmatic dimensions. As these differences became increasingly vested with religious importance, they gave rise to two distinct forms of Islam.
One assumption is that Sunnis represent Islam as it existed before the divisions, and should be considered as normative, or the standard. This perception is partly due to the reliance on highly ideological sources that have been accepted as reliable historical works, and also because the vast majority of the population is Sunni. Centuries of competition between Sunnis and Shias have led to ideological struggles. Both sects used each other to further cement their own identities and divisions.
During the Umayyad period, many non-Arab converts (mawali) and their sects and schools tended to be willing to join anti-Umayyad causes. Both Sunni and Shia scholars have held anti-Umayyad views, most notably concerning Yazid ibn Mu'awiyah.
In the early modern period, the conflict between Shias and Sunnis took a turn for the worse when the Safavid and Ottoman dynasties turned the military conflict between them into a religious war after the Safavids made Shia Islam the state religion in their empire. During that era some Sunnis and Shias for the first time began refusing to recognize each other as Muslims. Sectarianism continued to be exploited for political benefits into modern times. An example of this was the Zia regime in Pakistan, who used sectarian divisions between the Sunni and Shia to counter the growing geopolitical influence of Iran, as well as to distract from the domestic political problems. Post-Zia governments in Pakistan continued to "cynically manipulate sectarian conflicts for short term political gain."
Development and thought
Non-denominational Muslims defend their stance by pointing to the Qur'an such as Surah al-Imran: Verse 103, which asks Muslims to stay united and not to become divided.Intra-Societal Tension and National Integration, p 119, A. Jamil Qadri - 1988
The seventh Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun (r. 813–833) was known for his attempts to end sectarian rivalry in Islam and to impose upon his subjects a rationalist Muslim creed.
Many scholars hold the Brethren of Purity to be "free-thinkers" who transcended sectarian divisions. Besides founding their views on the Qur'an, the Ikhwan also appealed in their Epistles to the Torah (Tawrat) and the Gospel (Injeel). While it is generally accepted that their literature belonged to a Shi'ite legacy that had strong connections with the Isma'ili tradition, the Ikhwan were also inspired by the works of Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Euclid, Ptolemy, Porphyry, and Iamblichus. Their syncretism, as a result, overcame the sectarian discords of their time.
Talking about sectarianism, Persian Muslim poet Hafiz (d. 1389–1390) said, "Forgive the war of the 72 sects; since they did not see the truth they have struck out on the road to fancy". Hafiz regarded sectarian quarrels as afsana (a tale) that preoccupies those who fail to understand the diversity of faith. The poems of Hafiz were known for their non-sectarian tone, and were even quoted by Debendranath Tagore.
The third Mughal emperor Akbar (r. 1556–1605), who was from a Sunni family and was tutored by two Shia scholars from Iran, was aware of the dangers of Muslim sectarian dissension, and did not tolerate sectarian disputes disrupting the public order. In 1578, Akbar forced all major ulama to sign a mahzar, in this case a declaration that he alone was the caliph and that, consequently, his opinion in religious matters prevailed.
Condemning the historically prevailing trend of blindly imitating religious leaders, the pan-Islamist revolutionary Jamal al-Din al-Afghani refused to identify himself with a specific sect or imam by insisting that he was just a Muslim and a scholar. A proponent of Muslim unity, he criticised Sunni and Shia extremists as well as the ideology of nationalism, insisting that Islam was doctrinally the only nationality for all Muslims and historically the only bond that effectively tied them all together.
Believing in the unification of Muslims in order to go back to the "true Islam", Egyptian scholar Muhammad Abduh (d. 1905) held that the extreme fervour of sects was responsible for the divide of Muslims, and this division, alongside unsubstantiated religious practises and false religious doctrine such as the exaggerations of the Sufi order, was one of the reasons for their decline.
Islam originally brought a radical egalitarianism to a fiercely tribal society, within which a person's status was based on his tribal membership. The Quran set all believing individuals as equals, erasing the importance of tribal status. The primary identity of "Muslims" became simply "Muslim", rather than as a member of a tribe, ethnicity or gender. The Quranic concept of the ummah depends on this unified concept of an Islamic community, and it was appealed to again in the 19th century, as a response to colonialism by European powers. One Muslim scholar leading the emphasis on Muslim unity was Muhammad Iqbal, whose views have been referred to as "ummatic". Iqbal emphatically referred to sectarianism as an "idol" that needed to be "smashed forever". He is quoted as having stated, "I condemn this accursed religious and social sectarianism, there are no Wahhabis, Shias or Sunnis. Fight not for interpretations of the truth when the truth itself is in danger." In his later life, Iqbal began to transcend the narrow domain of nationalist causes and began to speak to the Muslims spread all over the globe, encouraging them to unify as one community.
Iqbal's influence on Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, is also well documented. Jinnah was born to an Ismaili Shia family and briefly converted to Sunni Islam as a young man. Jinnah publicly described himself as neither Shia nor Sunni, and his standard answer to questions asking him to define his sect being: "was the Prophet Muhammad a Shia or a Sunni?"
Other intellectuals who spoke against sectarianism during this era were Altaf Hussain Hali, who blamed sectarianism for the decline of Muslims, the Aga Khan III, who cited it as a hindrance to progress, and Muhammad Akram Khan, who said sectarianism drained the intellectual capacities of Muslim scholars.