the latter part of the era of the Rightly Guided Caliphs, just as the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—had foretold when he said: “Whoever among you lives long after me will witness much discord, so adhere to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the Rightly Guided Caliphs” (1).

The very first innovations to appear were the Qadari doctrine concerning predestination, the Irjāʾ doctrine of postponement, together with the Shi‘ite and Kharijite deviations. When division erupted after the assassination of ʿUthmān, the Harūrī (Kharijite) innovation surfaced. Toward the end of the Companions’ lifetime the Qadariyyah emerged—during the closing years in which Ibn ʿUmar, Ibn ʿAbbās, Jābir and their peers were still alive—and the Murjiʾah arose soon thereafter.

The Jahmiyyah, for their part, appeared in the latter days of the Successors, after the death of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (d. 101 AH). Reports indicate that he warned of their coming. Jahm himself emerged in Khurasan during the caliphate of Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Malik.

These innovations therefore arose in the second Islamic century while some Companions were still present, and they censured their proponents. After that, the Muʿtazilite innovation surfaced; turmoil spread among the Muslims, opinions diverged, and many inclined toward novelties and personal whims. The innovations of certain forms of Sufism also appeared, along with the practice of erecting structures over graves.