The Essentials of Ibāḍī Islam
Valerie J. Hoffman

Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2012. 344 pages.

When writing about Islamic sectarian diversity, the vast majority of authors
pay attention only to Sunni and Shi‘i Islam. Yet there exists a third group
drawn from the earliest conflicts that rent the Muslim ummah apart: the Ibadis.
If they are mentioned at all, it is usually little more than a footnote remarking
that this group is the remnant of the Khariji secession in 657. Yet this third
group – today predominant in Oman and Zanzibar, with populations also in
Algeria, Libya, and Tunisia – played an important political and theological
role in the immediate post-Prophetic period. Due to this word’s negative con-
notation, however, Ibadis do not refer to themselves as Kharijis, a group his-
torically viewed as religious extremists by other Muslims. Instead, “Ibadi”
comes from the enigmatic Abdullah ibn Ibad/Abad who died early in the
eighth century, although, as the author notes, it is likely that his successor Jabir
ibn Zayd played a more important role in founding the group.

Addressing the dearth of English-language resources on Ibadi beliefs, Va-
lerie J. Hoffman has written The Essentials of Ibāḍī Islam in “an attempt to
introduce Ibadi Islamic theology to students and scholars of Islam” (p. 4) – a
task in which she succeeds admirably. Her book is primarily a translation of
a theological primer and supplementary text, preceded by a short introduction
on the origins and history of Ibadi Islam to orient the readers and prepare them

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for perspectives that are largely unfamiliar even to those in the world of Is-
lamic studies. 

The author has arranged her book in three parts. Part 1, the abovemen-
tioned introduction, outlines the book’s goal and presents a brief account of
the emergence of Ibadi Islam in the context of the proto-Sunni/Shi‘i/Khariji
split and the crisis surrounding the deaths of caliphs Uthman and Ali. Next,
there is a short history of the Ibadi states, the first of which was briefly estab-
lished in the Hadramawt (Yemen) in 745, as well as in Oman and parts of
North and East Africa, and a discussion of important Ibadi figures and their
literary output. In its next section, the introduction explains the school’s dis-
tinctive theological positions – the status of sinning Muslims; religious affil-
iation and dissociation (the relationship Ibadis have with other Muslims and
non-Muslims); the concept of reward and punishment in the afterlife; free will
vs. predestination; rejection of anthropomorphism of the deity; the nature of
reason and revelation; the unity of God, His essence, and His attributes; the
created nature of the Qur’an; and some points of agreement and disagreement
in questions of jurisprudence – and how they differ from those of other theo-
logical schools. This part concludes with a brief outline of the authors and
texts covered in the following two parts. 

Part 2, the meat of the book, is Hoffman’s translation of Nasir al-
Rawahi’s (d. 1920) theological primer Al-‘Aqīdah al-Wahbīyah (The Wahbi
Creed), the adjective being drawn from the name Abdallah ibn Wahb al-Ra-
sibi (d. 658), whom Ibadis recognize as their first imam. This is the first trans-
lation of an Ibadi primer into English, and Hoffman notes that it is relatively
unknown despite its utility as a clear elucidation of Ibadi theology. The
primer’s format is that of a hypothetical teacher/student exchange of ques-
tions and answers, which Hoffman suggests may have been written as an
Ibadi counterpart to Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Sanusi’s (d. 1490) popular
Sunni creed. A type of systematic theology, its seven chapters range, among
other topics, from the unity of God, the nature of His essence and attributes,
the foundation and principles of right religion, questions about the beatific
vision in the hereafter, religious affiliation and dissociation, and interaction
with non-Muslims. 

Part 3 contains a two-chapter selection of Abd al-Aziz al-Thamini al-
Mus‘abi’s (d. 1808) Kitāb Ma‘ālim al-Dīn covering the topic of predestination,
a lacuna in al-Rawahi’s primer that Hoffman suggests was due to his death be-
fore the text’s completion. Lastly, the author helpfully includes in the back mat-
ter a glossary and a biographical dictionary with entries on important historical
figures, both Ibadi and other, as well as the requisite references and index. 

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Readers with a pre-existing knowledge of early Islamic politics and the-
ological debates will recognize why al-Rawahi and al-Thamini chose to ad-
dress certain questions, even though they were writing many centuries later.
They enter into the scholastic discourse by addressing the positions taken by
(usually) Ash‘ari and Mu‘tazili scholars and elucidate where Ibadi theology
agrees and where it differs with them. This makes the book useful not only
for understanding Ibadi beliefs, but also serves as an example of Islamic tex-
tual debate. Given that Ibadi positions on these foundational questions are al-
most invariably overlooked even in comparative works makes The Essentials
of Ibāḍī Islam an important contribution.

The book is dense at times, with the introduction’s historical account not
so much telling a story as providing accessible information about names and
dates. Having said that, the translation of the Ibadi texts is well done and easy
to read, with useful (but not excessive) footnotes. It would help for readers to
come to this book with a prior familiarity concerning the period of leadership
crisis in the early Muslim community as well as with the various theological
debates, as it is directed toward a more scholarly audience than the novice.
Helpfully, Hoffman has interwoven in the text transliteration of key Arabic
terms, which are useful for those who understand the technical meanings of
certain important words. My one minor quibble is that she has not always in-
cluded death dates on first introduction of a person. In brief, The Essentials of
Ibāḍī Islam is a welcome and timely addition to the world of English-language
works on Islamic theology.

Rachel Woodlock
Independent Researcher in Islam and Muslims in the West

Fethard, Tipperary, Ireland

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