Who are the Sabians?
interesting ............. . .
The Sabians are refered to in the Quran at three places, the other two being:
2:62 Those who believe (in the Qur’an), and those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians and the Sabians,- any who believe in Allah and the Last Day, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve.
and
22:17 Those who believe (in the Qur’an), those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Sabians, Christians, Magians (al Majoos), and Polytheists,- Allah will judge between them on the Day of Judgment: for Allah is witness of all things.
They are an ancient tribe which supposedly lived in Lower Iraq. There is a small group of people still present in iraq who are identified by some historians to be remnants of the Sabians mentioned in the Quran. They have a scripture written in some diaclect of Aremaic and cos-exist with their Muslim neighbours. They share some of beliefs of the Zoroastrians.
The name of their scripture is Ginza.
The Magians mentioned in the second ayah are not mentioned elsewhere. They are perhaps the same people refered to as the “wise men of the East” in the Gospels. They worship fire as an emblem of God and consider it as the purest element.
I found an interesting research done on Sabians on the website:
"The word Sabian (Sabaean)
The whole debate on who the Sabians are is caused because of the following verses from the Qu’ran, the Holy Book of Islam:
“Those who believe, and the Jews, and the Christians, and the Sabeans, whoever believes in God and the Last Day and does good, they shall have their reward from their Lord, and there is no fear for them, nor shall they grieve.” (87)
“Those who believe and the Jews and the Sabaeans [Sabians] and this Christians— whoever believes in God and the last day anddoes good they shall have no fear, nor shall they grieve.” (88)
“Those who believe and those how are the Jews and the Sabeans and the Christians and the Magians [Zoroastrians] and those who set up gods (with God)-- God will decide between them on the day of resurrection for God is a Witness over all things.” (89)
But just what does the word Sabians mean and where does it come from. There are two specific uses for the word. They are:
- The sabium is the plural of sabi. There are two roots associated with this word.
A. The first root is saba’a meaning “to change, to come out, to convert, to return” (90) According to medieval scholars the Arabs used this verb for the stars when they came out and night—also for a camel when it returned—but it is more commonly used for someone who has changed religions. Two examples are: when someone became a Muslim —saba’s fulanun “ so and so changed his religion” (91) and sabana sabana “ we have changed our religion, converted” (92) used by the people of Ben Jazimah when Kalid ibn al-Walid.
B. The word saba means to “incline, to turn over”. (93) The Arabs use this verb for when a man has left his religion and is inclined to another.
- The word sabi was used to describe Mohammed during his time in Mecca. Islamic scholars give the explanation for this word simply as “one who has changed his religion” so thus the prophet was called sabi. On the other hand those Muslim scholars who lived during the early Islamic period and knew of Mohammed make a specific connection between the word sabi for the prophet and his teaching. According to these early writers the teaching of the prophet is connected with the beliefs of the Sabians who live in Iraq with a monotheistic belief system. (94)
‘Abd al-Rahman ‘ibn ‘Zayd (d.798 AD) wrote:
“The polytheists used to say of the prophet and his companions ‘these are the Sabians’ comparing them to them, because the Sabians who live Jaziartal-Mawsil (today known as Iraq) would say ‘there is no God but God’.” (95)
Rabi’ah ‘ibn ‘Ubbad (who lived at the same time as Mohammed) wrote:
“I saw the prophet when I was a pagan. He was saying to the people, ‘if you want to save yourselves, accept that there is no God but Allah’ At this moment I noticed a man behind him saying ‘he is a sabi.’ When I asked somebody who he was he told me he was ‘Abu Lahab, his uncle.” (96)
Both ‘Ibn Jurayi (d. 767) and ‘Ata ‘ibn Abi Rabah (d.732) wrote:
"I saw the prophet when I was a pagan. He was saying to the people, ‘if you want to save yourselves, accept that there is no God but Allah’ At this moment I noticed a man behind him saying ‘he is a sabi.’ When I asked somebody who he was he told me he was ‘Abu Lahab, his uncle’ Of the relationship between the Sabians who lived in Sawad (in Iraq ) and Mohammed it is mention that the polytheists of Mecca were heard to say of Mohammed “he has become a Sabian.” (97)
‘Ibn Jurayi (who lived in the 8th century) wrote:
" He (Mohammed) is a Sabian" (98)
‘Abd al-Rahman ‘ibn Zayd (d798 AD) wrote:
The prophet and his companions are referred to as “these are the Sabians” comparing Mohammed to the Sabians (99)"
** I recommend you check the link for the complete research**