443. The Sabians. 

Verses (2:62, 5:69, 22:17) of the Quran talk of a group of people known as Sabians.

Some say they followed the Zabur as their scripture. But no evidence is found to support this claim.

Whereas still others claim they belonged to a group who worshipped fire. This is totally wrong, because in the above verses it is being mentioned the Sabians will be rewarded for their good deeds. And the statement ‘good deeds of those who worship fire will not be accepted by God’ goes against those who claim Sabians are fire worshippers.

While analyzing the hadiths it is found the Sabians are those who, on their accord chose to follow the path of the true God before the advent of any messenger of God amidst them. And there is evidence in the hadiths to prove Sabians are those who understood the great God and worshiped Him without creating an equal to Him. 

When Prophet Muhammad spread the message of monotheism, he people who did not accept him named him a Sabie, the plural of which is Sabian.

When Prophet Muhammad sent his comrades to fetch water to drink, they came across a woman carrying water a took her to the prophet who asked the comrades whether they are taking her to the person known as Sabie. The comrades replied ‘yes’ this is a part of a long hadith.

(Book: Bukhari 344.) 

Had this word referred to people with wrong ideology the comrades would have refuted the women, but accepted her calling the prophet by that name.

Abu-Dar (RA) on hearing prophet Muhammad and Islam come to Makkah, meets Prophet secretly an accepts Islam. Later he goes to the idol worshippers and declares ‘There is no God except Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of God’. Immediately the idol worshippers of Makkah gathered around him and attacked saying ‘attack this Sabie’. Bukhari:3522. 

It can be understood, the name given to a person those days who accepts Islam is ‘Sabie’.

Similarly, when a group lost the battle with Muslims, they came forward to accept Islam and surrendered by saying ‘ We have now become Sabians’ and not as required by them by saying ‘We have embraced Islam’     But Khaled Ibn Waleed who led the war refused to accept that kind of a surrender and continued the war. Prophet Muhammad later, on coming to know of this reprimanded Khalid Bin Waleed. (Bukhari:4339, 7189) 

From this incident it can be understood Prophet Muhammad did not dislike being called as a Sabie and those were steadfast in the idealogy of monotheism were called as ‘Sabians’. 

These people refused to worship idols even before the advent of Prophet Muhammad as the messenger of God. Though they worshipped the true God, they were unaware of the ways to do it until the arrival of the messengers of God. These people known as Sabians led a life of morality, and discipline. 

Even today there may be some communities where the messages by prophets have not reached, for these people, the knowledge granted by the Almighty is sufficient enough to guide them to life as Sabians.