THE KARRAMIYYA
ON THE KARRAMIYYAmstheme>
As for the Karramiyya, their name and origin can be traced to a man called ‘Abdu’llah ibn Karram. They professed the doctrine that faith is a matter of verbal affirmation, not an affair of the heart. They maintained that the hypocrites [munafiqun] were in actual fact believers [mu’minun].
Another peculiarity of their teaching is the assertion that the ability to act [istita’a] precedes the action [fi’l], in spite of the fact that the existence of the former occurs simultaneously with the latter. This is in contradiction to the doctrine of the People of the Sunna, according to whom the ability to act is unconditionally simultaneous with the action, and does not precede it.
The names of the authors who compiled their textbooks are as follows: Abu’l-Husain as-Salihi, Ibn ar-Rawandi, Muhammad ibn Shabib, and al-Husain ibn Muhammad an-Najjar.
The majority of the people who adhere to their doctrine are to be found in the East and in the administrative districts of the province of Khurasan.
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