The Nusayris, Sunni, and Twelver
Shiites
Outwardly, the Nusayris, like the rest of the Ghulat, seem to be an Ithna Ashari (Twelver) sect; Shi’ah who believe
in the divine authority of twelve Imams. Like the Twelvers, the Nusayris believe that Ali and his descendants, the
Imams, are the only legitimate heirs and successors to the Prophet of Islam in governing the Muslim community.
They maintain that the Imamah is divine office that only Ali (ra), whom the Rasul appointed as his successor,
should occupy. However, the Nusayris and other Ghulat differ from the moderate Twelvers on many fundamental
issues, paramount among them the deification of Ali.
To the Ghulat, including the Nusayris, Ali is God, the very God of the Bible and the Qur’an, who created the
heavens and the earth. They maintain that this God manifested Himself in this world seven times, the last time as
Ali. The Nusayris also believe that He is manifested in sacramental wine, which they call Abd al–Nur (the servant
of light).
The Nusayris asserted that this God created Muhammad from the light of his essence and made him His Name,
and reflection of his essence. They also believe in a trinity of Ali, Muhammad, and Salman al-Farisi. And they
share with other Ghulat, especially the Ahl-i Haqq (or Ali Ilahis), belief in metempsychosis, or the transmigration
of souls. Finally, they believe that the five persons who constitute the family of the Rasul are deities. These
beliefs separate the Nusayris from moderate Shiites and demonstrate that their creed is a syncretism of the astral
pagan religious system of the Harranians, Christianity, and extreme Shi’ism.
We have shown in earlier chapters that the Nusayris does not share the Muslim emphasis on fulfilling Islamic
religious obligations, such as prayer and fasting in the month of Ramadan and pilgrimage to Makkah. They have
no mosques or mu’azzins, as the Muslims do, instead conduct their meeting in private homes, most often in the
homes of their shaykhs. Moreover, they consider Sunni Muslims to be their enemies and pray for their damnation.
Like the rest of the Ghulat, the Nusayris are very secretive about their religious practices and beliefs, refusing
absolutely to divulge them to strangers. This secretiveness has led outsiders to accuse them of nocturnal sexual
orgies.[1] But since no outsiders have ever been admitted to these nocturnal meetings, and since the reports of
sexual misconduct came from enemies of the Nusayris, they should be considered groundless calumnies meant
to besmirch the name of the Nusayris, who are hated by the Sunni as heretics.
The former Nusayri Sulayman al-Adani does state, however, that one branch of the Nusayris, the Kalazis, have a
custom that stands to support such rumours: when one Imam visits another, the host is expected to offer his wife
as a bed partner to his guest. Al-Adani says that the Kalazis believe anyone violating this practice will be
forbidden to enter paradise. They seem to base this practice on a figurative interpretation of Qur’an 33:49, which
states, “Prophet, we have made lawful to you the wives to whom you have granted dowries… and the other
women who gave themselves to you, and whom you wished to take in marriage.” Al-Adani goes on to say that
when he visited a shaykh from a village near Antioch; woman (whom he does not identify) entered his room at
night and lay down beside him, reminding him of his solemn and imperative duty.[2]
Closely related to the secrecy with which the Nusayris surround their religious beliefs and ceremonies are the use
of Taqiyyah (dissimulation) and of conventional signs which suggest a connection between freemasonry and
Nusayrism.
The Taqiyyah is a strategy by which a person is permitted to conceal, lie about, and deny his true religious
beliefs, and even to profess the beliefs of his adversaries, in order to escape persecution or save his life. The
practice of Taqiyyah, which dates back to the earliest period of Islam and was once used by many different
Muslim sects, has come to be exclusively connected with the Shi’ah. The reason is that the Shi’ah, more than
any other sect in Islam, uphold this practice. Indeed, ancient and contemporary Muslim writers consider the
Ghulat (the Nusayris included) to be subversive elements whose objectives is to destroy Islam and Arabism. Ibn
Hazm accuses the Persians of deliberately creating the different Ghulat sects in order to destroy Islam. He states
that when the Muslim Arabs occupied Persia and converted the Persians to Islam, the Persians lost their state
and power to the Arabs, whom they considered inferior to themselves. As a result of this calamitous loss, the
Persians became vindictive and went on to fight against Islam. Some of them, who had embraced Islam
hypocritically, began to lure the Shi’i by pretending that, like them, they loved the family of the Rasul and decried
the injustice done to Ali by his enemies, who had denied his exclusive right to the Imamah. In this manner, says
Ibn Hazm, the Persians were able to inculcate the Shi’ah with heretical teachings and eventually lure them out of
the domain of Islam.[3] This same idea is expressed by contemporary Sunni Muslim writers, who refer to the anti-
Arab and anti-Islamic attitude of the Persian converts to Islam as Shu’ubiyyah, meaning the movement which
denigrates that privileged religious and cultural position of the Muslim Arabs. These writers affirm that the
Shu’ubiyyah’s objective is to destroy both Islam and the Arab entity.[4]
Taqiyyah was allegedly sanctioned by the Imams, especially Ja’far al-Sadiq, who reportedly said, “the Taqiyyah is
of my religion and that of my forefathers; he who has no Taqiyyah has no religion.” Al-Sadiq also asserted on
another occasion, “The believer shall be raised to the highest spiritual state by four qualities: faithfulness,
truthfulness, decorum, and Taqiyyah.”[5] To the Shi’ah, Taqiyyah is the religion of God, and protection is His
sword, without which He could not be worshipped. God could not be better worshipped than by Taqiyyah; thus, it
is an essential part of their religion, and neglecting it is the same as neglecting prayer.[6]
To the Nusayris, the Taqiyyah is a very serious matter. They are admonished to keep their religious beliefs and
practices absolutely secret from outsiders. We have already pointed out that, according to Kitab Ta’lim al-Diyanah
al-Nusayriyyah, the Nusayris are not supposed to reveal the secrets of their religion except to their brethren. We
have also shown that the neophyte makes a solemn oath not to betray the secret of his religion; else he will be
punished by death. Indeed, in Kitab al-Haft al-Sharif, the Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq constantly tells his interlocutor to
keep secret the “mysteries of God,” and the “knowledge of God, which God has kept secret from His Angels.”[7]
When they are in the company of members of other sects, especially Sunni Muslims, the Nusayris profess similar
views in order to escape embarrassment or harassment. They swear to the Sunni that, like them, they fast and
pray. Then enter a mosque or masjid with Sunnis and pretend to be praying. They genuflect and prostrate
themselves and seem to be reciting prayer, when in reality they are cursing the first three rightly guided khulafa’,
Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman. They justify such behaviour by the metaphor; they are the body, and the other
sects are clothing, and whatever clothing man may put on will not harm him. In fact, they seem to believe that
anyone who does not dissemble in this manner is a fool. However, it is very serious matter for a Nusayri to
abandon his religion or reveal its secrets. According to al-Khasibi, “Whosoever betrays our testimony is forbidden
our garden.”[8]
The Nusayris seem to interpret the Islamic Jihad as a form of Taqiyyah, concealing their faith from non-Nusayris,
even if such concealment exposes them to grave danger.[9] Obviously, the reason for such strict emphasis on the
Taqiyyah is the historical religious conflict between the Nusayris and orthodox Muslims, who consider the
Nusayris to be infidels.
Like the rest of the Ghulat and Batini (esoteric) sects, the Nusayris form a secret society and are classified as
such by some Western writers like Heckethorn and Springett.[10] Springett, a Freemason, attempts to establish a
connection between the ancient esoteric sects of the East, especially the Nusayris of Syria and the freemasonic
movement.[11] He seems to base this idea on the conventional signs the Nusayris use to recognise one another.
Sprigett’s attempt to connect Freemasonry with the Nusayris is not novel. He derives his idea from the accounts
of Rev. Samuel Lyde and from Salisbury’s translation of al-Adani’s Kitab al-Bakhurah, which he has copied. Other
Western writers have alluded to the conventional signs used by the Nusayris, without specifying these signs. F.
Walpole, who visited Syria in the first half of the nineteenth century, states that the Ansayri (Nusayris) have signs
and questions by which they salute and examine each other as a means of recognizing one another. Walpole
says that these signs are little used and known only to a few Nusayris, however, and he does not indicate their
nature.[12] Victor Langlois also states that the Nusayris have conventional signs by which they recognise each
other, but, like Walpole, he does not describe these signs.[13] It was left to Sulayman al-Adani, a Nusayri convert
to Christianity, to provide specific examples of these conventional signs. He states that when a stranger (looking
for a relative) comes among his fellow believers, the Nusayris, he inquirers, “I have a relative, do you know him?”
They ask, “What is his name?” He says, “Husayn.” They follow up, saying, “Ibn Hamdan.” He answers, “al-
Khasibi.” Thus, through question and answer, the stranger is recognised as a Nusayri by the naming of Husayn
ibn Hamdan al-Khasibi, the great apostle of Nusayrism. The second conventional sign of recognition is similar.
The Nusayris ask the stranger who is looking for a relative among them: “How many folds has the turban of your
uncle?” If he answers that it has sixteen folds, they receive him as one of them. In the third case, the Nusayris
ask the stranger, “If your uncle is thirsty, from where do you give him water to drink?” The correct answer is “From
the fountain of Ali the divine.” The fourth sign is also a question: “If your uncle relieved himself what will you give
him (to wipe himself with)?” The response should be, “The beard of Mu’awiyah.”[14] A fifth question asks: “If your
uncle were lost, how would you find him?” The answer is, “By al-Nisba,” which in this context could only mean
tracing the relationship of the uncle to the host of apostles of Nusayrism mentioned in chapter 4, al-
Nisba, of Kitab al-Majmu’.[15] The seventh sign takes the form of a riddle: “Four and two fours, three and two,
and twice these numbers — in your religion, what is the answer? “The answer is, “In al-Musafarah.”
The Musafarah (Journeying), forms the thirteenth chapter of Kitab al-Majmu’. It mentions disciples of al-Khasibi,
divided into three groups, each from a different country. If one considers the numbers of this puzzle, four and two
fours make twelve, and three and two make five, for a total of seventeen, which, added to twice that number,
yields a total of fifty-one.[16] If the stranger has guessed this number, he is further asked to state the groups into
which these are divided, where they are stationed, and what they do. If he states, in accordance with the Surah of
al-Musafarah, that the fifty-one stand at the gate of the city of Harran, and that seventeen of them are from Iraq,
seventeen from al-Sham (Syria), and seventeen are hidden or unknown, and that their duty is to receive justly
and render justly, he received as a genuine Nusayri.[17] It is in these signs that Springett tried to find a
connection between Freemasonry and Nusayrism. He states, “Here we have in all probability, the source of the
Masonic custom of ‘lettering, or halving’ passwords in perambulating the lodge during certain ceremonies.
[18] Lyde states that in their books the Nusayris use the double interlacing triangle, or seal of Solomon, also used
by Freemasons, but he provided no source.[19]
The relation between the modern Freemasonry and the ancient esoteric cults of the East requires more
investigation, which lies beyond the boundaries of this book. Suffice it to say that the connection between the
ancient cults of the Assassins, the Isma’ilis, and the Templars is more than accidental. Von Hammer indicates
many points of similarity among these groups, including the white mantle and red cross of the templers.[20] Lyde
states that the Nusayris dress in white and that they are fond of red jackets and red handkerchiefs. He further
states that there is a degree of Freemasonry called that of Templars. The Templars lived next to these secret
sects, including the Nusayris of Syria, and must have been influenced by their customs and tradition.[21] In
investing the sources of Masonic tradition and ritual, Springett affirms, one should look to Asia in general and to
Syria in particular.[22]
The Nusayris have been denounced by Sunni Muslims as infidels. Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 1328)
issued a juristic opinion condemning the Nusayris as infidels. He stated, “Those people who are called
Nusayriyyah, together with the Qaramitah, are greater infidels than the Jews and Christians; nay, they are greater
infidels than many polytheists, and their harm to the nation of Muhammad is greater than that of infidel Turks and
Franks. They appear to be ignorant Muslim lovers of Ahl al–Bayt (the family of the prophet), but in reality they do
not believe in God, His Messenger (Muhammad), or His book (the Qur’an). Nor do they believe in reward and
punishment, the Garden (Paradise) or Hell, or in any messenger who preceded Muhammad.”[23]
The Ghulat have also been condemned by twelve Shi’ah for their extreme beliefs. Among these Shi’ah we may
cite Ibn Babuwayh al-Qummi (d. 991) who, although he does not mention the Nusayris specifically, condemns all
Ghulat as “infidels and worse than the Jews, Christians, and polytheists.”[24]
Ibn Shahr Ashub (d. 1192) condemned the Nusayris as nihilists (Ibahiyya), saying, “Muhammad ibn Nusayr
revived ghulu (extremism) by claiming that the most High God is Ali. The band of Nusayris who followed him are
nihilists who relinquished Islamic worship and religious duties and permitted immoral and forbidden acts.”[25]
A modern writer, Abd al-Husayn Mahdi al-Askari, avers that the Nusayris should not be considered Shi’i as long
as “They renounce the Ithna Ashari Shi’ah’s and their beliefs.”[26] In recent times, however, some Sunni and
Ithna Ashari writers have tended to consider the Nusayris to be “true Muslims,” either because they were
persecuted or in conformity with the true spirit of Muslim Brotherhood. Al-Hajjaj Amin al-Husayni, the Grand Mufti
of Palestine (d. 1974), issued a juristic opinion in 1936 calling on Muslims to cooperate with the Nusayris. He
stated, “These Alwis (Nusayris) are Muslims, and it is the duty of all the Muslims to cooperate with them and stop
antagonizing each other for reasons of religion… because they (the Nusayris) are brothers who have common
roots and interests with the Muslims and, according to Islamic brotherhood, Muslims should love others what they
love for themselves.”[27]
Munir al-Sharif, who lived for many years among the Nusayris and visited their villages, especially in and around
Latakia, states that the Alawis (Nusayris) are a Muslim sect who continue to read the Qur’an with great respect,
and that their rituals are the same as those of the Muslims, although they “have no mosques and maintain some
of the ignorant extremist beliefs among them.”[28]
It is evident that although al-Sharif considers the Nusayris to be Muslims, he admits that they have no mosques
and that they harbour extremist religious beliefs; thus his statement confirms what has been said earlier, that the
Nusayris are Ghulat who lie outside the pale of orthodox Islam.
Another writer, al-Shaykh Mahmud al-Salih, considers the Nusayris a true Shi’i Muslim sect and says that
everything written about them by orientalists or other writers is sheer fabrication.[29]
In 1956, Muhammad Rida Shams al-Din, a Shi’i living in Lebanon, was delegated by the highest Twelver Shi’i
authority in al-Najaf (Iraq) to go among the Nusayris and study their conditions and religious beliefs. Shams al-
Din visited the Nusayris and wrote an account in which he tried to portray the Nusayris as true Shi’i Muslims,
although he remarks with obvious regret that he found the Nusayris to be lax regarding Islamic religious duties
such as prayer and pilgrimage. He also notes that the Nusayris have no mosques, but excuses them on the
grounds of poverty and politics, by which he means that the Syrian government is against them.[30]
Several Nusayri writers have also written in defense of their people and religious beliefs. One of these is Arif al-
Sus, who tried to show that the Nusayris are Shi’i Muslims who believe in God and His apostles, and in
the Walayah (vicegerency) of Ali as the “brother’ and cousin of the Prophet. Al-Sus further states that the
Nusayris observe all the Muslim religious duties, such as prayer, pilgrimage to Makkah, and the offering of zakah.
[31]
Another Nusayri, Abd al-Rahman al-Khayyir, wrote several articles defending the Nusayris as true Muslims,
although he admits that many superstitions have crept into their beliefs because of their cultural decline and
manipulation by their shaykhs. However, al-Khayyir relates an incident which shows that as far back as the
beginning of the nineteenth century, the Nusayri had no mosque and did not perform the pilgrimage to Makkah.
He states that in 1838 a prominent Nusayri, Shaykh Abd al-Al, known as Hajj Mualla, went to Makkah to perform
the pilgrimage. On his way back from Syria (then under the rule of Muhammad Ali, viceroy of Egypt), Hajj Mualla
stopped in Egypt and obtained permission to build a mosque in this village.[32]
In 1938, the magazine al-Nahda published a special issue about the Nusayris in which some Nusayri authors
wrote articles in defence of their people as true Muslims. One of these writers, Ahmad Sulayman Ibrahim,
lamented the bad luck of his people. He says they were constantly persecuted, for no reason other than that “we
were and will ever be in relation to Islam as the roots are in relation to the trunk.”[33] In this same issue of al-
Nahda another writer, Muhammad Yasin, emphatically states that the Nusayris are Muslim Shi’i and seems
greatly surprised by those who say that they are not Muslims.[34]
In addition to these defences, Nusayri religious leaders issued several declarations to prove their innate
Islamism. Perhaps they were encouraged by the juristic opinion of the Grand Mufti al-Hajj Amin al-Husayni, which
affirmed they were true Muslims.
In 1936, Nusayri religious men published a pamphlet in which they stated emphatically that the Nusayris were
Shi’i Muslims, and that any Nusayri who did not recognize Islam as his religion and the Qur’an as his holy book
would not be considered a Nusayri according to the Shari’ah (Islamic law).[35]
In 1938 Nusayri religious leaders issued a proclamation entitled, “Decidedly, religion with God is Islam.” In it, they
stated that their religion was Islam, according to the Ja’fari Theological School, named in honour of the Imam
Ja’far al-Sadiq. In June 1956, after twenty days of deliberation with the Nusayri religious men, the Mufti of Syria
agreed to license Nusayri religious men to teach their faith and allowed them to wear religious garb like other
Muslim religious men. But the most significant proclamation was that issued by Nusayri religious men at their
meeting in 1392/1972. In this proclamation they elaborated on their articles of their faith, their belief in God, the
office of Imamah, the Qur’an, the Sunnah, eschatology, and other doctrines. As a matter of fact, these Nusayri
religious men reiterated the Twelver Shi’i doctrines and affirmed that they held the same beliefs. The
proclamation was signed by eighty Nusayri religious men.[36]
The Nusayri identification with true Islam was further strengthened by President Hafiz al-Asad of Syria. In the
mid-1970s, after only a few years in power, al-Asad asked Syrian Sunni Muslim religious men to declare him a
true Muslim, which they did. He also persuaded Lebanese Shi’i religious men to declare the Nusayris true
Muslims.[37] Furthermore, the Nusayri-controlled Syrian government published a book to prove that the Nusayri
community was an inseparable part of the main body of Islam. This book was distributed on a grand scale by
various government agencies. It was followed by the publication of an edition of the Qur’an carrying a picture of
al-Asad on its front page, which the people called “al-Asad Qur’an.” In the meantime, al-Asad made a change in
the Syrian constitution, inserting a new article stating, “Islam shall be the religion of the head of the state.”[38]
One might ask why the Nusayris have this penchant for identifying themselves with Islam. If the Nusayris are true
Orthodox Muslims, why is there urgency to prove it? Our study of the history and religion of the Nusaris shows
they were not and still are not regarded by Sunnis and Twelver Shi’ah’s as true Muslims, despite the efforts of
some writers to exonerate them heterodoxy.
In the 1930s, under French mandate, the Nusayris stated they were not Muslims and declared the Sunnis their
enemies. Some of them, however, witnessing the rise of Arab nationalism and the liberation of Syria at the end of
World War II, attempted to identify themselves with Arab nationalism and true Islam to escape alienation and
persecution by the Sunni Muslims. Some of the more prominent Nusayris must have believed that identification
with true Islam would assure them of positions in the Syrian government and would expedite their rise to power.
When they finally achieved control of the government in 1971, when Hafiz al-Asad become the first Nusayri
president of Syria, the Nusayris were still considered heretics by the Sunni Muslim majority in Syria, as well as
opponents of both Arab nationalism and Islam.
In order to protect their position and power, the Nusayri rulers resorted to secularisation and socialism as a
means of diminishing the role of Islam and the position of the Sunni religious men in the state. These efforts
enraged the Sunni community, especially in the city of Hama, where riots broke out in the spring of 1973 because
the government had not included the article in the newly proposed constitution stating that Islam was the religion
of the state.[39]
The Sunni uprising motivated Hafiz al-Asad to declare himself a true Muslim and amend the constitution,
declaring Islam to be the state religion. Peter Gubser remarks rightly that al-Asad’s objective in identifying himself
with Islam was to broaden his base in the Syrian Society, rather than to lessen Nusayri consciousness or
distinctiveness.[40]
The measures taken by al-Asad failed to convince the Sunni majority of his true allegiance to Arab nationalism
and to Islam. The Nusayris continued to be considered a heterodox minority that had usurped power from Sunni
majority. Key positions in both the army and the civilian sector of the government were occupied by Nusayris,
while the few positions in the cabinet filled by Sunni were mere window dressing.
The bubble of tension, suspicion, and antagonism towards the Nusayri-controlled government finally burst in
March 1980; Sunni Muslims in the major cities and towns went on strike. Demonstrations against the government
began in Aleppo and then spread to other cities. The strikers demanded the end to sectarianism and sectarian
rule. Government’s answer was the use of force and dissolution of both labour and professional unions. For a
while the situation seemed to have calmed down, but riots broke out in 1982 in Hama, and al-Asad retaliated by
ordering the destruction of most of the city.[41]
In conclusion, based on their own writings and literature, the Nusayris (or Alawis, as they are known today), are a
heterodox sect, called Ghulat or extremists by Muslim Sunni and Twelver Shi’i. Their religion is a syncretism of
extreme Shi’i, pagan, and Christian beliefs, and they fall outside the pale of orthodox Islam. The very fact that
some them deify Mujib and Saji, the sons of Sulayman al-Murshid (who, because he declared himself God, was
executed by the Syrian authorities in 1946) is a demonstration that the Nusayris believe in the continuous
manifestation of the deity, a belief repulsive to orthodox Islam.[42]
