THE STAGE OF DEFENCE (DIFA):

Defence becomes the obligatory duty in the absence of manifestation (zuhur).10 When under attack, or suspecting a sudden attack, the Muslims must elect a leader to lead them in fighting their enemy. Such a leader is called Imam al-difa, Imam of defence. He must be a learned man of high military capability.11 He has the same full authority as the Imam of zuhur until the end of the war.12 At the end of the war his Imamate dissolves automatically, so the Muslims would have no difficulty in removing him from his office. The Muslims must then elect their new Imam as required by the resultant state, either of ‘manifestation’ or ‘secrecy’.13 The first Imaam of defence given in Ibadhi sources is Abdullah b. Wahb al-Rasibi who was elected before the battle of al-Nahrawan.14 The other Imams of defence of North Africa included Abu Hatim al-Malzuzi, who tried to revive the Imamate of ‘manifestation’ which was established by Abu al-Khattab Abd al-Ala b. al-Samh al-Ma’afiri,15 and Abu Khazr Yaghla b. Zaltaf, who tried to revive the Rustamid Imamate and fought the Fatimids for this purpose.16

Defence, (difa), can be regarded as a general revolution against the unjust rule of tyrants or external enemies. If the general revolution fails to achieve its aim and is suppressed, the Ibadhi community enters a new stage known as the stage of secrecy, (kitman).

Both secrecy (kitman) and the sacrifice of one’s life, (shira), can operate at the same time; for shira is not more than a voluntary action of sacrificing one’s life; taken by a group of not less than forty men who sacrifice their lives in the way of God in order to encourage the rest of their community to change the unjust rule of the enemies of God.17

SHIRA, THE SACRIFICE OF ONE’S LIFE:

The Arabic word shira means buying and selling. This term is used in Ibadhi writings for the action of sacrificing one’s life in the cause of God to attain Paradise. Shurat (pl.) are “those who have sold their souls for the cause of God.”18 The term al-shira is derived from the following verses of the Qur’an:

“God has bought from the believers their selves and their possessions against the gift of Paradise; they fight in the way of God; they kill, and are killed; that is a promise binding upon God in the Torah, and the Gospel, and the Koran; and who fulfil his covenant truer than God? So rejoice in the bargain you have made Him……,”19 and, “So let them fight in the way of God who sell the present life for the world to come, and whosoever fights in the way of God and