مجالس آل محمد (ع)

I came across this statement on wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaidiyyah

""The Zaidi has a unique theological perspective on deities in which the 99 names of Allah as followed by other Muslims correspond to 99 separate deities in the Zaidi Sect.""

Is this true? I know wikipedia is not a reliable source of information but I thought I would ask anyway. Is there maybe some Zaidi concept which has confused the author of the statement? Was there or is there a certain Zaidi group that believes that?

Assalamu Alaykum,

I think you are referring to the Mutazili view versus the Ashari/Maturidi view on the Sifat(attributes) of Allah.
While Sunnis (Asharis and Maturidis) say that Allah's sifat are eternal, they are not Allah, yet not other than Allah.
In short the Mu'tazila (and Zaydiyah?) would say that if something is not Allah, and Eternal, then this makes it seperate from Allah. Therefore the different sifat would constitute seperate dieties.

Someone may correct me if i am wrong.

Salaams!

Sorry for the delay in responding.

The concept of "99 deities" is alien to Zaydism. Definitely this wikipedia entry was written by a non-Zaydi...maybe even an enemy of Zaydism!

The Names (or Attributes) of Allah do not exist in a vacuum! Allah's Attributes are either Essential or Optional. Both categories of Attributes have eternally existed however, Allah chooses whether to act upon the Optional ones or not. It is also noteworthy that the Optional Attributes all have an opposite amongst the Attributes. For example, Allah is both the Giver and Withholder. He is not obligated to do either, rather He chooses between the two based upon His Essential Attribute, Wisdom.

As far as I know, the Zaydi's differ from the Mu'tazilites at this point.

And Allah knows best.