الزندقة

الزندقة

Zandaqa — the accusation of freethinking/heresy that ran through the first Abbasid era, levelled truly and falsely; Ahmad Amin frames the struggle between doubt and faith as an all-out war fought by ruse, sword and disputation alike 1.

Depth

At a glance

Era
The Early Abbasid Caliphate
Region
Levant & Iraq
Review
Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it

Sects and schoolsCreed

Overview

Zandaqa (heresy), as Ahmad Amin presents it, was an accusation that circulated on the tongues in the early Abbasid period, and people were attributed to it rightly and wrongly. 2

The accusation and public opinion

Ahmad Amin says that people would hear a poet's verse and look into it to accuse him of heresy. 2

The conflict between doubt and faith

Ahmad Amin describes the conflict between doubt, atheism, and pure faith in that age as a raging war. He notes that trickery, secret methods, the sword, gatherings, and arguments were used in it. He says that the historians did not take care to record it as they recorded political wars, so the researcher finds only scattered fragments. 2

What is not recorded here: the juristic definition of heresy and the views of the scholars on it. It needs a further source.

People and things also explored

The people of the qibla and not declaring takfir for sin· الغيبة· علم الكلام· الإمامة· المهدية· الرجعة· التقية· The pen-and-paper incident

Sources

  1. Duha al-Islam — Ahmad Amin (Hindawi 2012), p. 136-137
  2. Duha al-Islam — Ahmad Amin (Hindawi 2012), p.136-137
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “الزندقة”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/zandaqa/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Accessed 2026-10-17.

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Wing

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Related

The people of the qibla and not declaring takfir for sin

al-Tahawi's principle of calling the people of the qibla Muslims and believers so long as they accept what the Prophet brought, and of not declaring any of them an unbeliever for a sin unless he declares it lawful.