The Murjites are an Islamic Sect. In the initial stages of the development of Islam, discussions were held at Basra and elsewhere on the nature of the community and the conditions of membership, and thus arose a new sect, the Murjites. The distinctive feature of this sect was that it formally and openly took the step that had almost been taken by those moderate Kharijites who "suspended judgement" on membership of the community. They asserted that the question whether those who had committed grave sins belonged to the "people of Paradise" or the "people of Hell" could not be answered by men but must be left to God`s decision on the Last Day. The practical effect of this was that ordinary criminals could be given the prescribed punishments without being expelled from the community. Politically it meant that an Umayyad ruler did not cease to be a member of the community because he did things which some Muslims thought sinful (but which were not clear crimes for which a fixed penalty was prescribed). Consequently revolt against the Umayyads was not lawful. Thus the Murjites were first and foremost a party which supported the Umayyads on religious grounds. Though they may not have had much enthusiasm for the Umayyads, they recognized the importance of law and order.
Despite this general attitude of support for the Umayyad government it may be that towards the end of the period some Murjites felt that it had become intolerable and ought to be opposed. At least a man called Ghay Lan from Damascus, usually called a Murjite, was executed by the Caliph Hisham. The reason for the execution is given as the holding of Qadarite views, and this probably means that Ghaylan had been engaging in subversive political activity. To hold that insurrection is right in certain circumstances is, of course, not incompatible with the general Murjite view that grave sins do not exclude from the community.
The Murjites did not simply contradict Kharijite views. They developed positively a conception of faith (Iman) as that which constitutes a man a member of the community, and in accordance with this they speak of the sphere in which they live as the `sphere of faith.` In their teaching no distinction was made between faith and Islam or external adhesion to the community, though sections of the Traditionist Movement (probably later) held that faith meant something more than being externally a Muslim. The Murjite conception of faith was held with various degrees of elaboration. One of the fullest definitions is that of Abu-Hanifa that faith consists in knowledge of God and public acknowledgement of him together with knowledge of the Messenger (Muhammad) and acknowledgement of what was revealed through him. The point at issue for Muslim theologians is what makes a man one of the community of "believers" (or faithful)- the word used is the participle, Muminun, corresponding to the Arabic word for faith, Iman. Emphasis is placed on the intellectual content, and works are omitted, since the aim is to avoid having to exclude a man from the community because he has sinned. This is not unlike the "orthodoxy" of the Byzantines, but it is not identical. What a man has to know and acknowledge is not only the being of God but also what was revealed to Muhammad; and this includes the whole Islamic way of life.
Thus the Murijite conception of Islam and the Islamic community is based certain beliefs about the nature of God and on the acceptance of a divinely instituted way of life. Thisis in essentials the conception of the main body of the Sunnites, and indeed of most Muslims ever since. However, the Murjites moved away from the path of the Sunnis when they declared that no Muslim would enter the hellfire, no matter what his sins. This is in contradiction to the traditional Sunni belief that some Muslims will enter the fire of hell temporarily. It is due to this reason that the Murjites are often classified as Ahlul Bidah or `People of Innovation` by the followers of traditional Sunnism.
