Who are the Ibāḍīs of Oman, and are they part of Ahl al-Sunnah?

The Ibāḍiyyah, found mainly in Oman with communities in Zanzibar, Libya's Nafūsa mountains, and Algeria's Mzāb valley, are traced by Sunni and Western historians to the early Muḥakkima who broke away from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, while the Ibāḍīs themselves reject the label 'Khawārij' and trace their school to Jābir ibn Zayd, a student of Ibn ʿAbbās. They are by far the most moderate strand of that current: they rejected the extremism of groups like the Azāriqa and do not sanction shedding the blood of Muslims who differ with them. They are nonetheless not Ahl al-Sunnah in creed: they say the Qur'an is created, they deny that the believers will see Allah with their eyes in the Hereafter, and they hold that a Muslim who dies upon a major sin without repenting abides in the Fire forever. Ahl al-Sunnah affirm the vision of Allah — 'Faces that Day will be radiant, looking at their Lord' (Qur'an 75:22–23), and 'You will certainly see your Lord as you see this moon' (Bukhārī 554) — and affirm that sinful believers will eventually be brought out of the Fire (Bukhārī 44). They are dealt with as Muslims of the qiblah who have erred in creed, not as disbelievers; their doctrinal errors are answered with evidence, without takfīr of individuals.

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