Ghulūww and the Ghulāt in Early Imāmī Shī„ism: A Brief Survey of

Beliefs and Doctrines

The term ghulūww is commonly translated as “extremism” or “exaggeration” and denotes certain
religious and doctrinal views which could be classed as exceeding the bounds of „proper‟ belief
with those holding these extreme views being called ghulāt (sing. ghāli) or “exaggerators”. The
ghulāt tended to be associated with certain beliefs deemed „deviant‟ or „heretical‟ enough so that
they were, in some cases, viewed as falling beyond the pale of Muslim orthodoxy and Islam.1

These extreme views would usually be attached to, and in some cases imposed upon, certain
individuals, usually members of the family of the Prophet, namely his descendants, the Shī„i Imāms,
beginning with „Alī ibn. Abī ālib.2 Thus, it is important to understand the development of the
ghulāt as one spanning across a broad multitude of interpretations and movements within the Shī„i
branch of Islam as a whole as opposed to an evolutionary movement alongside and independent of
the major Shī„i groups such as the Imāmiyya, the Ismā„īlīyya, and the Zaydīyya. This paper will
however focus specifically on the Imāmīs, by which we mean the Ithna„āsharīyya or „Twelver‟
Shī„i community.

Whilst valuable studies on the ghulāt and their beliefs have indeed been undertaken by individuals
such as Moosa,3 Hodgson,4 Friedlaender,5 and more recently Tucker,6 the purpose of this paper will
be to synthesise the current studies in order to illustrate the evolutionary nature of the concept,
whilst also surveying certain doctrines associated with the ghulāt. We will firstly, examine the

1
Colin P. Turner, “The „Tradition of Mufaḍḍal‟ and the Doctrine of the Rajʿa: Evidence of
„Ghuluww‟ in the Eschatology of Twelver Shiʿism?”, Iran, Vol. 44 (2006): 181.
2
Marshall G. Hodgson, “How Did the Early Shi„a Become Sectarian”, Journal of the American
Oriental Society, Vol. 75, No. 1 (1955): 1-13. Hodgson puts forward the view that ghulūww doctrines
and beliefs surrounding the figure of „Alī were an essential part of shaping the identity of Imāmī
Shī„ism, as a way of defining orthodoxy as contrasted to the heterodoxies of the early Shī„i ghulāt.
3
Matti Moosa, Extremist Shiites: The Ghulat Sects (Syracuse N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1988).
4
Hodgson, “Early Shi„a”, 1-13; “Ghulāt”, Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd Edition), Vol. 2, No. 38-40
(1965): 1093-1095.
5
Israel Friedlaender, “The Heterodoxies of the Shiites in the Presentation of Ibn Hazm”, Journal of
the American Oriental Society, Vol. 28 (1907): 1-80.
6
William F. Tucker, Mahdis and Millenarians: Shiite Extremists in Early Muslim Iraq (New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2008).

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historical development of ghulūww and the ghulāt, with reference to the traditionists, showing how
the ghulūww/non- ghulūww paradigm was not static or fixed but an evolutionary model, and how
this distinction was a retrospective one, over-simplifying what, in the period of early Imāmī
Shī„ism,7 was a concept that was evidently not so clear-cut and neatly defined as the
heresiographers would have us believe. This however looks beyond the fact that there was a definite
movement to consolidating „orthodoxy‟ and this will also be addressed.

Secondly, we will summarise, with reference to certain concepts, doctrines which have fallen under
the ghulūww label in the past. Scholars such as Moezzi quote extensively from early, hitherto
sparingly utilised Imāmī Shī„i hadith (pl. aḥadith, statements attributed to the Prophet Muhammad
and Shī„i Imāms) collections in order to illustrate how these ideas were in fact circulating amongst
those Imāmī scholars who were widely held as reputable individuals, possibly representing
„orthodox‟ Imāmī Shī„ism.8 Finally, one can contend that, having surveyed the early period of
Imāmī Shī„ism, the contemporary understanding of ghulūww is a de-contextualised one; proving it
as one which has been retrospectively imposed upon a society which lived in an entirely different
socio-historical framework and context. These ideas, as argued by certain authors like Moezzi,
could be seen as forming the fabric of a Shī„ism which he describes as „non-rational esoteric‟ in
contrast to a later, and now prevalent form of „theo-logico legal rational‟ Shī„ism.9 This will move
some way towards establishing that the distinction between concepts which were ghulūww and
those which were not is a later development.10

Ghulūww: An Evolutionary Concept

7
For earliest uses of the term Imāmiyya, see E. Kohlberg, “From Imāmiyya to Ithnā-„ashariyya”,
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Vol. 39, No. 3 (1976): 521, note 2.
8
Andrew Newman, The Formative Period of Twelver Shi‘ism: Hadith as Discourse Between Qum
and Baghdad (Surrey: Curzon Press, 2000): xviii; Newman commends Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi,
tr. David Streight, The Divine Guide in Early Shi‘ism: The Sources of Esotericism in Islam (Albany:
State University of New York Press, 1994) for his “meticulous work with early Arabic primary-
sources, including the very earliest collections of Twelver traditions, in particular, al-Barqī‟s Ma āsin,
al- affār‟s Ba ā‟ir al-Darajāt, and al-Kulaynī‟s al-Kāfī, to argue his point” (emphasis added).
9
Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi, The Spirituality of Shi’i Islam (London and New York: I.B. Tauris in
association with The Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2011): 105-107; 120.
10
See Moezzi, Shi’i Islam, 107, 120; 185, note 55; 220, note 96.

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As noted above, the ghulāt are commonly associated with ideas deemed as heretical or deviant, with
beliefs centring on such concepts as excessive veneration of and even deification of the Imams,
associating them with God himself or believing that they existed as part of the divine godhead. The
attribution of divinity to certain individuals is known as ḥulūl (descent of the divine spirit into
human form, or divine incarnation), whilst other doctrines include tashbīh (anthropomorphism
regarding God) and tanāsukh (metempsychosis) to name but a few. It is apparent that even many
traditionally „orthodox‟ – if one can use that term appropriately in the first instance given that
orthodoxy was still being defined11 – Shī„i scholars in the early period of Islam were susceptible to
holding beliefs which could now, following an evolution of these concepts and the concretization of
Imāmī Shī„i orthodoxy, be classified as ghulūww. Thus, it is probable that these ghulūww ideas
were circulating in the Imāmī majority circles and consequently, one would be hard pressed to come
across an early Imāmī scholar who could claim to have been completely free from holding certain
ghulūww ideas.

Wadād al-Qāḍī, categorises the development of ghulūww as a three stage process and proposes to
show the development of what constituted ghulūww in different periods and who was responsible
for defining the concept and forming the criteria12. It is argued that there occurred an evolution in
the concept in three stages during the first three centuries of Islam. In the first century ghulūww was
defined in regards to the Saba’iyya and the later Kaysāniyya. In the second, as Shī„i orthodoxy
began to crystallise, the ghulāt were judged so by the Shī„is themselves who had now begun a
process of consolidating their identity, beliefs and doctrines. Finally, in the third century of Islam,
the Sunnis largely banded the term ghulūww towards any individuals who exceeded bounds in
religion according how they themselves had defined orthodoxy and as a result “Shī„ites who were
only fanatics, or outspoken were sometimes considered Ghulāt”.13
Newman analyses the development and evolution of traditions over time showing how the
compilations by individuals such as al-Barqī (d. ca. 894), al- affār al-Qummī (d.902-903), and al-
Kulaynī (d.941), were tailored to suit specific needs of the time given the socio-political context and

11
Given the evolution of the Shi‟i community themselves, it is clear that „orthodoxy‟ was not
cemented until much later in the community‟s development. See Kohlberg, “From Imāmiyya”, 521-
534.
12
Wadād al-Qāḍī, “The Development of the Term Ghulāt in Muslim Literature with Special
Reference to the Kaysāniyya”, in Etan Kohlberg, ed. The Formation of the Classical World: Volume
33: Shī‘ism (Wiltshire: The Cromwell Press, 2003): 169-193; in Akten des VII. Kongresses für
Arabistik und Islamwissenschaft (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1976): 295–319.
13
al-Qāḍī, “Development of the Term Ghulāt”, 189-190; in Akten (1976): 315-316.

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thus we can see a definite change in the types of traditions included in the hadith compilations from
one compiler to the next. For instance, Newman notes that the early aḥadith (sing. ḥadith)
compilations such as the Baṣā’ir of al- affār differed greatly from later compilations such as al-
Kulaynī‟s Kāfī highlighting the different agendas which these compilers may have had in their
respective time periods. Whilst the former was “a repository of traditions devoted primarily to
theological issues in which the Imams are endowed with extraordinary knowledge and abilities to
argue for the essentially esoteric nature of the faith”,14 the latter was recognisably quieter on this
front. In fact, Newman feels that “al-Kulaynī generally de-emphasised those traditions in Baṣā’ir
which underscored the more fanatic aspects of the Imams‟ knowledge and abilities, by reducing the
number of traditions on individual aspects of this knowledge and their powers by dispersing them
throughout various, unrelated chapters and volumes and thus diminishing their overall impact, or by
excising them altogether”.15

Thus, being under threat from various other Shī„i groups in both political and spiritual aspects,
Newman suggests that the Baṣā’ir’s traditions “addressed certain very specific needs of believers in
the city in the mid- to late third/ninth century”, and the distinctly more „miraculous‟ flavour of these
traditions, expressing the power and magnificence of the Imams in no uncertain terms, “could only
have encouraged Qummīs in their darkest moments”.16 But it was the al-Kulayni who, in his Kāfī,
which made the move towards a more subdued, worldly and „humanised‟ Shī„ism, by stripping
away the extraordinary and miraculous powers commonly attributed to the Imams in compilations
such as the Baṣā’ir, stating that “while al-Kāfī’s traditions did address many of the theological
points addressed in Baṣā’ir, al-Kulaynī did, nevertheless, systematically de-emphasise the more
extra-ordinary of those forms of knowledge and abilities claimed by the Imams in the earlier
collection‟s traditions”.17 Thus, the early corpus of Imāmī Shī„i ḥadith undoubtedly contained
esoterically-oriented traditions but as time evolved and orthodoxy was crystallising, the traditions
included in the corpus‟ had to change also. Consequently, one can propose that the shifting
discourse surrounding Shī„i identity had a major influence on the traditions that were later to
become the core traditions of Twelver orthodoxy.
14
Newman, The Formative Period, 67. See also 84, “Baṣā’ir’s traditions present a clear picture of the
Imams as possessing both extraordinary, if not miraculous knowledge and powers, and suggest that
such a picture was subscribed to in late third/ninth century Qum by a number of prominent
traditionists”.
15
Newman, The Formative Period, 98.
16
Newman, The Formative Period, 86.
17
Newman, The Formative Period, 113-114.

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What Constitutes Ghulūww: A Multiplicity of Ideas

We will see that certain ideas which found favour in early Shī„ism were apparently rooted in a wide
range of aḥadith supposedly narrated from the Imams themselves. Although there are numerous
doctrines and beliefs associated with the ghulāt, we will focus on just two; Firstly, the denial of the
death of certain individuals (waqf), instead interpreting their absence as self-imposed concealment
(ghayba) and their subsequent return (raj’a) as the eschatological saviour, the Maḥdi; Secondly, the
apparently divine nature of the Imams (ḥulūl) which will include a discussion on the Imams as the
maẓahir (loci of manifestation) of God‟s Divine Names and Attributes. Amongst scholars who
propagate Imāmī Shī„ism as being an esoteric creed, mention must be made of Mohammad Ali
Amir-Moezzi who can definitely be described as one of the foremost contemporary scholars to have
defined Shī„ism as an essentially other-worldly, metaphysical „system‟, with certain doctrines, the
very foundation of which are to be considered as esoteric. This esotericism, Moezzi expounds, is
inherent to Shī„ism‟s very nature and will necessarily therefore position the role of the Imam as an
ontological being as the focal point around which Shī„ism revolves.18

Waqf, Ghayba and Raj’a

These concepts, as noted above, experienced a complete shift from the first to the second century as
per al-Qāḍī‟s article, and although they became fundamental tenets of the mainstream Imāmiyya,
their origins were in fact rooted as ghulūww ideas which justifies addressing them here. The first
major group known to have been linked with these ideas were the Saba’iyya, the founder of whom
was a certain „Abd Allāh b. Saba‟. most probably in regards to „Alī ibn. Abī ālib, was a who is
often regarded as having openly deified „Alī, as well as denying his death (waqf) and spreading
ideas regarding his return (raj’a).19

18
Newman, The Formative Period, xvii.
19
For a more detailed study of the person known as Ibn Saba‟, refer to a recent work by Sean W.
Anthony, The Caliph and the Heretic: Ibn Saba’ and the Origins of Shī‘ism, (Leiden: Brill, 2011) in
which he addresses, both the identity of Ibn Saba‟, the doctrines associated this figure as well as the
myths and legends surrounding him and their impact on early Shī„ism; Also for an in depth study of
the concept of raj’a see Kohlberg, E. “Radjʿa”, Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Edited by: P.
Bearman;, Th. Bianquis; , C.E. Bosworth; , E. van Donzel; and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill, 2012. Brill
Online. University of Edinburgh. 24 March 2012,
http://www.brillonline.nl/subscriber/entry?entry=islam_COM-0898.

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This idea of a Messianic saviour who had not died but was merely hidden, to return at the end time
to herald in an new era of justice, ending the period of tyranny in which humanity was living, was
subsequently taken up by a later group which the heresiographers termed the Kaysāniyya, who
themselves believed in the „Mahdism‟ of a third son of „Alī, Mu ammad ibn. al- anafiyya (d.700).
Led, in his name by an individual known as al-Mukhtār (d.687), this group was of the view that al-
anafiyya, had not died but was merely hidden from the world in the Raḍwā mountains. His return
was imminently expected whereupon he would “emerge victorious... destroy the enemy, establish
the authority of true Islam and „fill the earth with justice and fairness‟”. 20 Halm concludes that it
was in the person of Mu ammad ibn. al- anafiyya “that Shi„ite expectations of the Mahdī first
assume any sort of impressive form... The model, evolved by the Kaysanites... of the „occultation‟
or „absence‟ (ghayba) and the expected return (raj’a) of the true Imam was later adopted by other
branches of the Shi„a”.21

The notions of waqf, ghayba and raj’a became more pronounced in the period following the death
of the eleventh Shī„i Imam, from which point on the twelfth Imam, given the title of al-Māḥdī was
said to have entered a period of „Lesser Occultation‟ (lasting approximately seventy years) during
which time he would only be accessible to his followers through intermediaries, later to be known
as the four Safīrs. The official line taken by later Imāmī scholars would be that during the lifetime
of the fourth Safīr, the Hidden Imam had advised him not to appoint a successor for the Imam
would at this point enter into a period known as the „Greater Occultation‟ where he would remain
hidden so long as God willed it. This view undeniably built upon the ideas of waqf, ghayba and
raj’a which had previously been considered ghulūww.

Al-Qāḍī notes, in conclusion to her paper, that in the first century “ghuluww meant belief in the
concealment of the Imam instead of his death, and the belief that he would return as the Mahdī at a
time before the Day of Judgement”, an idea which was “first adopted by the Saba‟iyya... considered
as the first sect to start ghuluww”. But during the second century, “so many innovations... took
place in Shī„ī circles, to the extent that the doctrine of ghayba and raj’a became a rather
commonplace, moderate doctrine”.22 As regards the acceptance of these ideas in mainstream

20
Heinz Halm, tr. Janet Watson and Marian Hill, Shi‘ism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991):
18.
21
Halm, Shi‘ism, 18.
22
al-Qāḍī, “The Development of the Term Ghulāt”, 189-190; in Akten (1976): 315-316.

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Twelver theology, one must appreciate the context in which Shī„ism developed 23 in these first two
centuries. Firstly, during the second century, as more Shī„i groups accepted and endorsed the ideas
of an Imam in hiding who would return to herald a new dawn, a failure to redefine ghulūww and
excommunication of all those movements who held to these ideas would have meant “stripping
Shī„ism of many of its adherents” and secondly, with an upsurge of even more radical ideas such as
divine incarnation, anthropomorphism, metempsychosis etc. the ideas of waqf, ghayba and raj‟a
were actually seen as sufficiently moderate so as to be incorporated into a category of views which
was somewhere in between ghulūww and non-ghulūww.24

Divine Nature

In Islam, the fundamental pillar of the faith for all Muslims is that of Tawḥīd, the Unity or Oneness
of God, denial of which renders individuals as falling outside the bounds of Islam. Idolatry is
strictly prohibited and is paradoxical to the very message of God‟s Oneness which the Prophet
Muhammad preached. Thus, any threat to this doctrine was considered a threat to Islam, having
deviated from the essential message. Certain groups could certainly be classed as having been guilty
of shirk – the act of association or partnering of objects or persons with the Divine Being, God. This
concept of associationism, within early Shī„ism itself encompassed numerous theories and beliefs
regarding persons being vested with powers of an almost divine nature such as having intimate
knowledge and secrets of the unseen etc.

An example of the esoteric facet of Shī„ism is eloquently described by Moezzi who discusses the
concepts of both the Imam (capitalised „I‟) and the imam („i‟ in lower case), explaining that whilst
the former is utilised to reflect the ontological, cosmic, archetypal Imam, the latter relates to the
historical imam, manifestation of the first or the perceptible level – This clearly alludes to the dual
reality of the Imam. On the one hand the terrestrial and historical imam acts as al-insān al-kamīl
(the Perfect Man), a worldly necessity and intermediary between man and God, whilst on the other,
the celestial and ontological Imam acts as the maẓhar (locus of manifestation) for the manifested
Divine Names and Attributes of God, and thus fully partaking in that which - in keeping with

23
The changing contexts are reflected in the changing traditions included in the corpus of hadith as
noted in the section above in discussion of al- affār‟s Baṣā’ir and al-Kulaynī‟s Kāfī.
24
Of course the final development which cemented the place/role of ghayba and raj’a as an orthodox
position occurred in the third century, by which point there had now been a complete evolution of the
legitimacy of these concepts; thus, these ideas which may have been classed as „extreme‟ in the early
period actually became the focal point around which Imāmī Shī„ism now revolves.

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mainstream Islamic theology‟s concept of Tawḥīd - is usually attributed to God alone. It is in
regards to this duality that Moezzi labels the historical figures of the individual imams as Vehicles
and Organs of God through which He reveals Himself to humanity (the Deus Revelatus or „revealed
God‟) and in return, mankind is given access (through these Vehicles and Organs) to what is
knowable in God. Knowledge of the celestial Imam is thus likened to knowledge of God Himself.
This interpretation seemingly almost suggests the existence of two Gods; Allah, God of the
Heavens, unmanifested in his Essence (the Deus Absconditus), and His revealed and manifested
aspect, the God on Earth, the Imam.

A hadith attributed to the fifth Shī„i Imam al-Bāqir explains that “The world... cannot exist even for
a moment without the Imam who is the Hujja of God. If the Imam were to be taken away from the
earth even for an hour, the earth would swallow up its inhabitants just as the sea swallows its
people. „We [the Imams] are,‟ al-Baqir says, „the Hujja [proof] of God and His Gate. We are the
tongue as well as the face of God; we are the eyes of God [guarding] His creation and we are the
responsible guardians (wulat al-amir) of God on earth.‟ Al-Baqir adds that God is worshipped
through the Imams and it is through them that God is known and declared as One”.25

Thus, just as God proclaims his being as both Hidden and Manifest, the hidden aspect of God is the
ineffable, transcendent and unknowable God, that is His Essence (dhāt), his Manifest aspect is His
Names and Attributes which are manifested thus in the metaphysical and eternal Imam. The imam
himself as noted above has a dual role also, similar to the Hidden/Manifest reality which God
himself possesses. The historical imam‟s hidden aspect (namely his innermost reality which is
revealed only to those who are initiated by the imam) is equated with God‟s manifest aspect. At this
level – the manifested aspect of God and the hidden esoteric aspect of the Imam - both Imam and
God are One.26

Concluding Remarks

25
Arzina Lalani, Early Shi'i Thought: the Teachings of Imam Muhammad al-Baqir (New York: I.B.
Tauris, 2000): 83.
26
For this distinction and relationship between the imam, the Imam, and God, see Mohammad Ali
Amir-Moezzi, “Only the Man of God is Human: Theology and Mystical Anthropology According to
Early Imāmī Exegesis” in Etan Kohlberg, ed. The Formation of the Classical World: Volume 33:
Shī‘ism (Wiltshire: The Cromwell Press, 2003): 34-35; Amir-Moezzi, Shi’i Islam, 110-120.

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In this piece, an attempt has been made to briefly trace some aspects of this development through an
examination of the term ghulūww as well as the ideas and persons associated with them and in this
regards, al-Qāḍī must be commended for an attempt in tracing these developments. We can also
glean, that different periods and contexts have determined the way in which ghulūww was defined
by traditionists and as the socio-political context has changed, so too has the core of the corpus of
traditions, a fact which can be appreciated from Newman‟s comparative study of early hadith
discourse amongst early Shī„i compilers. In a brief paper such as this, of course no exhaustive
account can be given on such a broad topic but hopefully from this discussion we can appreciate
that the concept of ghulūww and an analysis of early ghulāt groups is vital in piecing together the
development of early Imāmī Shī„ism without which we cannot begin to understand fully why the
theology of „moderate‟ Twelver Shī„ism is in the form it is today.

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