The Dialectic of Orthodoxy and Heresy in Early Islam

This article discusses the concepts of orthodoxy and heresy in Islam. It focuses on orthodoxy in Islam, and how orthodoxy played an important role in defining heresy. Although no universal concept of orthodoxy exists in Islam, whenever any particular religious creed got dominant position and enjoyed the support of the ruling elite, then dissenters were considered heretic as they were against the orthodoxy of that particular religious faction. In Islam, heresy is related to the social and political challenges to the ruling elite and the dominant religious elite by dissenters, and there exists a symbiotic relationship between the orthodoxy of the day and the ruling elite.