Indeed all praises are due to Allah, we praise Him, we seek His help, we ask for His forgiveness, and we rely solely on Him. We seek His refuge from the evil in our souls and from our wicked deeds. Whoever Allah guides, no one can misguide. And whomever Allah misguides, no one can guide. I bear witness that there is no one worthy of worship except Allah, He is One, with no partners, and I testify that Mohammad (pbuh)  is His Messenger and His slave. 

This category of Tawheed deals with Names and Attributes of Allah (swt). All the names and attributes that belong to Allah (swt) are told to us by Allah (swt) in the Quran. The Tawheed of Allah in His Names requires that we believe in each and every name that He (swt) ascribed to Himself.

وَلِلّهِ الأَسْمَاء الْحُسْنَى فَادْعُوهُ بِهَا وَذَرُواْ الَّذِينَ يُلْحِدُونَ فِي أَسْمَآئِهِ

7.180 And (all) the Most Beautiful Names belong to Allah, so call on Him by them, and leave the company of those who belie or deny (or utter impious speech against) His Names

The Names of Allah (swt) are those proper nouns/adjectives given in Quran by Allah (swt) Himself. Every one of these names refers to one or more attribute of Allah (swt). The meaning of al-husnaa الْحُسْنَى implies the utmost beauty, and that each name includes the quality of perfection

Each of these Name is derived from its verbal noun, such as All-Knowing, the Able, the All-Hearing, the All-seeing etc. The Name All-Knowing is derived from the attribute of “knowledge”.

Barely there is a Surat or even a single page of Quran that does not include a mention of Allah’s names and Attributes.

Uniqueness: Nothing is like Allah (swt)

Allah (swt) is not like any one else. Nor His name is like any one else, neither His actions are like any one else. His Attributes are unique to Himself, and He (swt) resembles nothing. This is the general meaning of وَلَمْ يَكُن لَّهُ كُفُوًا أَحَدٌ

Allah (swt) described Himself to us in the Quran with His Names and Attributes, in the language known to us. For instance: He says وَجْهُ اللّهِ “Face of Allah”. But he didn’t describe how face of Allah looks like. Thus, face of Allah and face of His creation are not same.

فَلاَ تَضْرِبُواْ لِلّهِ الأَمْثَالَ إِنَّ اللّهَ يَعْلَمُ وَأَنتُمْ لاَ تَعْلَمُونَ

16:74 So put not forward similitude for Allah (as there is nothing similar to Him, nor He resembles anything). Indeed, Allah knows and you do not know.

He mentioned that we have to assume their linguistic meaning and do not create similarities between Allah’s attributes and Attributes of His creation. Because Allah (swt) said that there is nothing like Himself: لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٌ (42:11)

Imam Ahmed bin Hanbal said: “Allah should only be attributed with those characteristics He described Himself with or was described by His Prophet (pbuh). His names and attributes should not extend beyond Quran and Sunnah”.

We must try not to investigate about the nature of Allah (swt)’s attributes or manner of His actions. As in order to enquire such one must know and be able to comprehend it. And Allah (swt) did not reveal to us the vary nature of “How” He sits and “How” his hands are, inquiring such question will be irrelevant, and none will know the answer. And further to that, it will not really benefit to life of Human, and if it did Allah (swt) would’ve revealed this knowledge to us. As Imam Malik said: “الاستوا معلوم كيف مجحول ايمان به واجبٌ و سوال عنه بدعة” The Sitting of Allah (swt) is known, How is not known, believing in it is Mandatory, and questioning it is Bidda (heresy)”.

Allah swt gave two examples:

• 16:75
  ضَرَبَ اللّهُ مَثَلاً عَبْدًا مَّمْلُوكًا لاَّ يَقْدِرُ عَلَى شَيْءٍ وَمَن رَّزَقْنَاهُ مِنَّا رِزْقًا حَسَنًا فَهُوَ يُنفِقُ مِنْهُ سِرًّا وَجَهْرًا هَلْ يَسْتَوُونَ الْحَمْدُ لِلّهِ بَلْ أَكْثَرُهُمْ لاَ يَعْلَمُونَ
  16:75 Allah presents an example: a slave [who is] owned and unable to do a thing and he to whom We have provided from Us good provision, so he spends from it secretly and publicly. Can they be equal? Praise to Allah! But most of them do not know.
• 16:76
  وَضَرَبَ اللّهُ مَثَلاً رَّجُلَيْنِ أَحَدُهُمَا أَبْكَمُ لاَ يَقْدِرُ عَلَىَ شَيْءٍ وَهُوَ كَلٌّ عَلَى مَوْلاهُ أَيْنَمَا يُوَجِّههُّ لاَ يَأْتِ بِخَيْرٍ هَلْ يَسْتَوِي هُوَ وَمَن يَأْمُرُ بِالْعَدْلِ وَهُوَ عَلَى صِرَاطٍ مُّسْتَقِيمٍ
  16:76 And Allah presents an example of two men, one of them dumb and unable to do a thing, while he is a burden to his guardian. Wherever he directs him, he brings no good. Is he equal to one who commands justice, while he is on a straight path?

Attributes of Allah

The Names and Attributes of Allah (swt) defines His Majesty, His Powers, His Knowledge, etc. The Attributes of Allah (swt) mentioned in Quran are of two types:

1. Individual Attributes: These are fixed constituents of Allah, constant part of His very being. They include knowledge, life, power, hearing, seeing, the face, the hands, speech, sovereignty, majesty, exaltation, self sufficiency, mercy and wisdom.
2. The Attributes of Action: These concerns with Allah’s Will and Power, such as, His occupation of Throne, His decent, marveling, laughter, pleasure, love, detestation, wrath, joy, anger etc.

Allah (swt) Names and Attributes are not limited to 99. 

Allah (swt) is All-Mighty and His Majesty is beyond our comprehension. The Prophet (pbuh) said “Allah has ninety-nine names, one hundreds minus one; and who he who counts them all will enter Paradise.” (Bukhari).  

This Hadith does not negate existence of other Attribute and Names of All-Mighty, rather just inspire us to learn them. In Another Hadith Prophet said: “… I call upon you by every one of the beautiful names by which You have described Yourself, or which You have revealed in Your Book,…, or which You have chosen to keep in the Knowledge of the Unseen”. (Imam Ahmed)

Allah has beautiful names

1. All Beautiful Names belong to Allah (swt):
   • 17:110
     قُلِ ادْعُواْ اللّهَ أَوِ ادْعُواْ الرَّحْمَـنَ أَيًّا مَّا تَدْعُواْ فَلَهُ الأَسْمَاء الْحُسْنَى
     17:110 Say, "Call upon Allah or call upon the Most Merciful. Whichever [name] you call – to Him belong the best names."
2. Calling Allah (swt) with His beautiful names: He (swt) taught them to us in the Quran. We must call upon Allah (swt) with the names He gave it to himself, without creating any newer names or changing them. وَلِلّهِ الأَسْمَاء الْحُسْنَى فَادْعُوهُ بِهَا . “And (all) the Most Beautiful Names belong to Allah, so call on Him by them”
3. Allah (swt) said: “and leave the company of those who belie or deny (or utter impious speech against) His Names” 7:180.
   Nai’m ibnu Hamad, the Sheikh of al-Bukhari said: “A person who compares Allah to His creation becomes disbeliever (Kafir), and a person who denies the attributes Allah ascribed to Himself, or that the Prophet ((pbuh)) ascribed to Him, has become disbeliever. None of those attributes bare any likeness or comparison”.

Major Mistakes

People who fells into error with Names and Attributes of Allah (swt) made mistakes in following, Muslim must avoid falling into such mistakes:

Comparison تشبيه : 

Tashbeeh تشبيه means comparing the Attributes of Allah (swt) to His creation. E.g. like Christians compared Christ as God, or Jews compared Uzair to Allah, or Polytheists compare their idols to Allah. Or those who compare Allah’s face to Human face, or Sufis who say Qutbs are controlling universe (like Allah (swt))

1. تـمثيـل - Do not humanize Names & Attributes of Allah (swt): we must not make comparison to attributes of Allah (swt) to that of human. One must remember that Allah (swt) gave human being limited knowledge and characteristics. In order to send us His Message, he communicated to us in a language that we speak and understand. Thus, He (swt) used the words that could make relevance to human, and cautioned us to make similarities. He said:  لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٌ وَهُوَ السَّمِيعُ البَصِيرُ .There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the All-Hearer, the All-Seer . Imam Ali (ra) said that Allah (swt) is nothing that we can imagine. Thus, we should not make any similarities to His attributes to that of humans. We know that Allah (swt) said “He is All-Hearer”, thus we know He hears, how? We really don’t know
2. Do not give Allah’s Name or Attribute to created beings: All Divine attributes of Allah (swt) are unique to Him. Thus, they should not be associated to any of His creation

   Shiites gave their “Imam” divine attributes, e.g. “absolute infallibility”, “knowledge of past”, “future and unseen”, “ability to change destiny”, control over atom of creation” etc.

   Some of the Sufis created false of their own, e.g. وحدة الوجود (Wahdat-ul-Wajood - unity of universe), حلول واتحاد (Halool-w-Itihaad - materialization and unity), or فنأ (Annihilation), كشف (Khashf - Unveiling), أولياء (Awliya, whom Allah distinguishes by handling his affairs and permitting him to witness His Divine deeds and attributes) like قطب - Qutb (The Pole), Abdal, Ghaus etc.

   Giving such attributes to Human, is making Shirk (partnership) with Allah (swt), and its strictly prohibited

3. Not giving Absolute Names of Allah (swt) to created being: For instance, giving some one name الله  “Allah” or  الرحمان “Ar-Rahman”. This should be proceeded by “Abd” (means slave), i.e. عبد الله  Abdullah or  عبدالرحمان Abdur-Rahman. Similarly, giving names like عبدالرسول Abdur-Rasool, or  عبدالحسن Abdul Hassan, or عبدالنبي Abdun-Nabi and referring them as slaves of other than Allah is also a form of Shirk.

Distortion تحريـف: 

Means changing or altering the meaning. Such as in version “Allah spoke directly to Moses”, they altered the meaning to say Moses spoke to Allah, in order to negate Allah’s attribute of talking. (4:164) 

Negation تعطيل: 

Means denying or negating Allah’s Devine attributes. Such as those who negate Allah’s attribute that He created universe. Or denying Allah created Human’s in perfect form and say that they were monkeys evolved as Humans. 

False Taweel تأويل: 

in the sense of making false interpretation of Allah’s Attribute. The Mutazilah Sect fell into this and created hidden interpretation of Allah’s Attributes.

1. Do not make Taweel (تأويل) of Names & Attributes of Allah (swt): means to respect the names of Allah (swt) and do not change their meaning or create an interpretation of it. For instance if the Allah (swt) said: وَغَضِبَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَعَنَهُمْ   then He means “and the Anger of Allah is upon them, and He has cursed them”. Some people change this meaning to say that غَضِبَ اللَّهُ does not means punishment of Allah because anger is the sign of weakness of humans, thus such attribute can not be associated with Allah (swt). This is wrong. We must maintain and respect the meaning as given by Allah (swt), and we must not make any other interpretation from our personal opinions. 

Where is Allah subhana-hu wa ta’ala?

According to the Quran and narrations from the Prophet (pbuh), and by the consensus (ijmaa) of the salaf (early generations) of this ummah that Allah is above His heavens on His Throne, and that He is the Exalted, Most High. Allah (swt) said: 

هُوَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ فِي سِتَّةِ أَيَّامٍ ثُمَّ اسْتَوَى عَلَى الْعَرْشِ

57:4 It is He who created the heavens and earth in six days and then established Himself above the Throne.

There are many other similar verses: al-Sajdah 32:4, Yoonus 10:3, Faatir 35:10, 57:4 etc, that points to the same fact that Allah (swt) is the most high, and there is nothing above Him.

سَبِّحِ اسْمَ رَبِّكَ الْأَعْلَى

87:1 Glorify the name of thy Guardian-Lord Most High,

A HADITH:

The Prophet (pbuh) asked the woman when he wanted to check her faith: “Where is Allah?”. She pointed up and said: “In heavens”. The Prophet replied: “who am I?”. She said: “You are His Messenger”. The Prophet said: “set her free, as she is a believer”.

At the same time, Allah (swt) told us that He is knowledgeable about everything that we do and that happens in universe.

وَهُوَ مَعَكُمْ أَيْنَ مَا كُنتُمْ وَاللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ بَصِيرٌ

57:4 He is with you where so ever ye may be. And Allah sees well all that ye do.

And Allah (swt) said that He created us and He knows everything we do, event what we think:

وَلَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الْإِنسَانَ وَنَعْلَمُ مَا تُوَسْوِسُ بِهِ نَفْسُهُ وَنَحْنُ أَقْرَبُ إِلَيْهِ مِنْ حَبْلِ الْوَرِيدِ

50:16 And We have already created man and know what his soul whispers to him, and We are closer to him than [his] jugular vein

These verses are explaining that Allah (swt) is near to us in His knowledge and watches over everything we do, or think. This does not mean that Allah (swt) is physically with us, or mixes with or dwells with us; rather, He is knowledgeable about our activities, and even though He is above His throne nothing escapes His knowledge, and nothing is Hidden from Him, and He is surrounding everything with His knowledge. This meaning is very apparent in verses:

يَعْلَمُ مَا بَيْنَ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَمَا خَلْفَهُمْ وَلاَ يُحِيطُونَ بِشَيْءٍ مِّنْ عِلْمِهِ إِلاَّ بِمَا شَاء

2:255 … He knows what is [presently] before them and what will be after them, and they encompass not a thing of His knowledge except for what He wills…

إِنَّ اللّهَ لاَ يَخْفَىَ عَلَيْهِ شَيْءٌ فِي الأَرْضِ وَلاَ فِي السَّمَاء

3:5 Indeed, from Allah nothing is hidden in the earth nor in the heaven

Is Allah everywhere (physically)? 

Some of the Sufis claim that Allah (swt) is with us (in his physical form) and He goes around with us where ever we move. They base it on verses like: وَهُوَ مَعَكُمْ أَيْنَ مَا كُنتُمْ وَاللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ بَصِيرٌ - 57:4“… and He is with you wherever you are. And Allah, of what you do, is Seeing”. However, this “with you wherever you are” means that He Knows what we do, not He is physically with us, as this is incomprehensible to happen.

This type of understanding led them to heretical theory of “Unity of Universe” وحدت الوجود that states that Allah (swt) and Universe is one being. Such theories were circulated by Jalaluddin Rumi and later matured by Mohiedeen Ibn Arabi. These theories are mainly based on old Greek and Persian conception of God.

Some of the Sufis surfaces another theory of “Materialization and Unity” with God, referred to as حلول واتحاد. They believe that Allah (swt) physically materializes into everything. People like Abu Yazeed al-Bastami and al-Hallaj use to claim saying: I am Allah, and Allah is in the womb of woman. نعوذوبالله من ذالك

Another Sufi theory is “Aannihilation” فنأ في الله. It say a person annihilate the self while still physically alive. A person who entered this state is said to have no existence outside of and unity with Allah. Fanaa is equivalent to the concept of nirvana in Buddhism or moksha in Hinduism which also aims for annihilation of the self.

سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى عَمَّا يَصِفُونَ- Exalted is He and high above what they describe. These kinds of theories are pure Shirk and falsehood. Allah (swt) is above all such non-sense. Allah (swt) does not unite with its creation in physical form, neither the creation extinct inside Allah (swt).

This is falsehood to believe that Allah (swt) physically unites with His creation, while it is well known that Allah (swt) is established on his Throne, as He said الرَّحْمَـٰنُ عَلَى الْعَرْشِ اسْتَوَىٰ - The Most Beneficent (Allah) Istawa (rose over) the (Mighty) Throne (in a manner that suits His Majesty). [20:5].

1. Establishment (on the Thrown) الإسـتواء: Allah (swt) established Himself on the Thrown, as He said:
   
   • In 7 places of the Quran it is said that Allah is established on Throne, Al-A’araf 54, Younus 3, Al-Ra’ad 2, Al-Rahman 5, Al-Furqan 59, Al-Sajda 4, Al-Hadeed 4.
     1. ثُمَّ اسْتَوَىٰ عَلَى الْعَرْشِ - 7:54 and then He Istawa (rose over) the Throne [Al-A’araf]
     2. ثُمَّ اسْتَوَىٰ عَلَى الْعَرْشِ -  10:3 and then He Istawa (rose over) the Throne [Younus]
     3. ثُمَّ اسْتَوَىٰ عَلَى الْعَرْشِ -  13:2 and then He Istawa (rose over) the Throne [Al-Ra’ad]
     4. الرَّحْمَـٰنُ عَلَى الْعَرْشِ اسْتَوَىٰ - 20:5 The Most Beneficent (Allah) Istawa (rose over) the (Mighty) Throne[Al-Rahman]
     5. ثُمَّ اسْتَوَىٰ عَلَى الْعَرْشِ -  25:59 and then He Istawa (rose over) the Throne [Al-Furqan]
     6. ثُمَّ اسْتَوَىٰ عَلَى الْعَرْشِ -  32:4 and then He Istawa (rose over) the Throne [Al-Sajda]
     7. ثُمَّ اسْتَوَىٰ عَلَى الْعَرْشِ -  57:4  and then He Istawa (rose over) the Throne [Al-Hadeed]
   • Imam Malik said: (الاستواء معلوم والكيف مجهول والسؤال عنه بدعة) - Establishing one’s self is understood, and the How is unknown, and believing in it is mandatory, and questioning it is Bidaa.
2. Allah (swt) is everywhere through His knowledge, He has knowledge of every thing. Allah (swt) has knowledge of past, present, future and al-ghaib¹.
   • Allah (swt) said: يَعْلَمُ مَا يَلِجُ فِي الْأَرْضِ وَمَا يَخْرُجُ مِنْهَا وَمَا يَنزِلُ مِنَ السَّمَاء وَمَا يَعْرُجُ فِيهَا  - 34:2 “He knows what penetrates into the earth and what emerges from it and what descends from the heaven and what ascends therein”. 
   • And He said: لِتَعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ قَدْ أَحَاطَ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عِلْمًا – 65:12 “That you may know that Allah is able to do all things, and that Allah knows all things”.
3. It is clear from following that Allah (swt) is above heavens:
   • Ascendance:  العـلـو Al-Ulu² : Allah (swt) said:
     • إِذْ قَالَ اللَّـهُ يَا عِيسَىٰ إِنِّي مُتَوَفِّيكَ وَرَافِعُكَ إِلَيَّ - 3:55  “Behold Allah Said: Oh Jesus, I will take you and raise you to Myself”.
     • إِلَيْهِ يَصْعَدُ الْكَلِمُ الطَّيِّبُ وَالْعَمَلُ الصَّالِحُ يَرْفَعُهُ - 35:10 “To Him mount up all words of purity and to Him He exalts all deeds of righteousness” Fatir 10.
     • أَأَمِنتُم مَّن فِي السَّمَاءِ أَن يَخْسِفَ بِكُمُ الْأَرْضَ فَإِذَا هِيَ تَمُورُ  - 67:16 “Do you feel secure that He who is up in heavens that He might make you swallowed by the earth when it shakes?” Al-Mulk 16.  
     • The Hadith of Imam Ahmad 7565 “He asked her (The slave that her master wanted to free her): Where is Allah: she pointed her finger up to the sky,بإصبعها  السباية  قال أين الله؟ فأشارت إلى السماء And then he asked her: who Am I? she pointed to the sky and then to the Prophet  . The Prophet Said:  “Free her, she is a Believer” أعتقها فهي مؤمنة
   • Coming:  المجيئ  
     • وَجَاءَ رَبُّكَ وَالْمَلَكُ صَفًّا صَفًّ  - 89:22 And your Lord comes with the angels in rows,
   • Descendance النزول:
     • In Hadith Al-Bukhari 6940 that Allah (swt) descends to the Lower Heavens. ينزل ربنا تبارك وتعالى كل ليلة إلى السماء الدنيا حين يبقى ثلث الليل الآخر فيقول: من يدعوني فأستجيب له من يسألني فأعطيه من يستغفرني فأغفر له.
4. And “Allah is with you”, means that He is there on your side to support you:
   • Accompaniment المعية : 
     • وَقَالَ اللَّـهُ إِنِّي مَعَكُمْ  - “and he is with you” Al-Maida 5:12. 
     • إِذْ يُوحِي رَبُّكَ إِلَى الْمَلَائِكَةِ أَنِّي مَعَكُمْ – “(Remember) when your Lord inspired the angels, "Verily, I am with you,” Al-Anfal 8:12. 
     • Meaning Allah is on your side with you. This is the Accompaniment of Allah in His knowledge, not that Allah is physically there in person  as Iman Ahmad explained (against what some of the Sufis say).

Ahle Sunnah vs other sects:

Ibn Taymiya explained³  the differences between Ahle Sunnah wal Jamaah⁴  and other sects with relation to believe in Attributes of Allah as revealed in His Precious Book. 

The Ahle Sunnah believe without distorting or denying and without asking how (تكيف  takyif) or shaping (تمثيل). Rather, they comprise the center of the groups of the Ummah, as the Ummah comprises the center of all nations.

1. With regard to the Attributes of Allah (swt), Ahle Sunnah comprise the center:
2. Between the denying Jahmiyah⁶  (جهاميه) and the people who shape and create likenesses (اهل التمثيل و المشهابـهة ahl at-tamthil al-mushabbihah ); and 
3. Between the Qadariyah⁷  (قادرية) and the Jabriyah⁸  (جبرية) with regards to the acts of Allah (swt)
4. Between Murjiyah⁹  (مرجيعة) and the Waidiyah¹⁰  (وعيدية) of Qadariayah and other without regard to Allah’s treat,
5. Between the Haruriyah¹¹  (حرورية) and the Mutazilah (معتزلة), and between Murjiah and the Jahmiyah with regards to the names of faith and religion,
6. Between Rawafid¹³  (روافض) and Khawarij¹⁴  (خوارج) with regard to the Prophet’s companions

Some Attributes of Allah (swt)

هُوَ اللَّهُ الَّذِي لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا هُوَ الْمَلِكُ الْقُدُّوسُ السَّلَامُ الْمُؤْمِنُ الْمُهَيْمِنُ الْعَزِيزُ الْجَبَّارُ الْمُتَكَبِّرُ سُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ عَمَّا يُشْرِكُونَ - هُوَ اللَّهُ الْخَالِقُ الْبَارِئُ الْمُصَوِّرُ لَهُ الْأَسْمَاء الْحُسْنَى يُسَبِّحُ لَهُ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَهُوَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ

59:23/24 He is Allah, other than whom there is no deity, the Sovereign, the Pure, the Perfection, the Bestower of Faith, the Overseer, the Exalted in Might, the Compeller, the Superior. Exalted is Allah above whatever they associate with Him. 59:24 He is Allah, the Creator, the Inventor, the Fashioner; to Him belong the best names. Whatever is in the heavens and earth is exalting Him. And He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise.

هُوَ الْأَوَّلُ وَالْآخِرُ وَالظَّاهِرُ وَالْبَاطِنُ وَهُوَ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ

57:3 He is the First and the Last, the Ascendant and the Intimate, and He is, of all things, Knowing.

FOOTNOTE

1. Refer to Qadaa and Qadar - 
2. Minhaj Muwahideen, Dr Tariq AbdelHaleem
3. Al-Aqidah Al-Wasitiyah, Ibn Taymiya
4. People of Sunnah wal Jammah or the saved group (al-firaq an-najiyah) are those following the Prophet’s tradition both inwardly and outwardly with Prophet’s recommendations: “Hold on to my Sunnah that the Sunnah of Rightly Guided Caliphs after me. Hold on to it firmly. And beware of heretical innovations (bidaa) because each heretical innovation (bidaa) is a falsehood and each falsehood is a deviation from the right path” (Ahmed, Dawood, Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah). 
5. Jahmis are followers of Jahm ibn Safwan Abu Muhriz, a client of Banu Rasib. On one hand he agrees with Murjiah in teaching that belief (iman) is an affair of the heart (an no action is needed), with the Mutazilah in denying the anthropomorphic attributes of God. On other hand, he is one of strongest defender of Jabr. He denied eternity of Paradise and Hell. His followers are called Jahmiyah after him, but they later adopted the doctrine of Asharis.
6. Qadariyah (Qadaris) is a Muslim sect who believes that man produces his own actions, which meant that they make man (khaliq al-af’al) creator of actions, thus giving Allah a partner in creating. It essentially means that they believe that man can ‘do’ things even when Allah does not want it to happen which is denying large part of Quran.
7. Jabriyah (opposite thought of Qadariyah). They deny the freedom of the will, and on this point doesn’t differentiate between man and inanimate objects in nature. They believe man’s actions are subordinator to the compulsion (jabr) by God. The most prominent leader of this sect is Jahm Ibn Safwan.
8. Murjiyah is the name of one of early sects of Muslims, the extreme opponent of Khawarij sect. Khawarij said Muslim becomes a kafir by committing small sin. The Murjiyah on other hand said sin doesn’t faith (iman) no matter how big or small. And that faith (iman) is only matter of saying (accepting islam by saying it), however, no further action (or abstinence from it) is needed to remain Muslim. This led to far-reaching issues, both religious and political.
9. Al-Waidiyah believe that Allah logically must punish the disobedient as He must reward the obedient, therefore, according to them, if a person committed a major sin and died before repenting, Allah must not forgive him. This theory conflicts with both Quran and Sunnah.
10. Al-Haruriyah is branch of Khawarij sect.
11. Rawafid or Rafidah is one of the names given to the Shi’ah. Al-Ashari explains this denomination as those who rejected the caliphate of Abu Bakar and Umar.
12. Al-Khawarij sect appeared in early days of Islam at the time of Uthman and Ali. This started when a proposal was accepted by Ali and Muawiyah (during battle of Siffin 37H, 657AC) to settle differences with two arbitrators who would pronounce judgment according to Quran and Sunnah. Majority of Ali’s army accepted the proposal except fewfrom a group of warriors from Tamim tribe, who protested against setting up of a human tribunal above Divine Word. They left Ali army withdrawing to village of Harura (close to Kufah) with their leader Abdullah ibn Wahb ar-Rasibi. Ali later killed them all except few that survived and appeared later and recognized as al-Haruriyah or al-Muhkkimah.