Firqa and Iftiraq in Islam

This chapter demonstrates that the classical literature on firqas does not necessarily depict them as social entities, but mostly as groups of scholars with opinions on doctrine. By this definition, Sunnis constituted neither a firqa (sect in the Weberian sense) nor a ta’ifa: Sunnism began as a jurisprudents’ Islam articulated in opposition to what its proponents considered the deviations of a particular historical period. Nor was Sunnism an original, authentic Islam from which all other firqas diverged. This chapter also notes that the term milla referred to all Muslims— expressing a shared set of core beliefs and practices—and that a strong cultural antipathy developed towards disunity, which was identified with decline and fragmentation. This chapter finally emphasizes the anti-sectarian character of Arab secularism.