The first two episodes of this series give an introduction to the series; while we start (with this episode) the discussion about the Islamic sects and movements with the Khawarij.
Following points should be noted about the famous Islamic movement called “Khawarij”.
1: Khawarij is one of the classical doctrines in Islam. The beginning of Khawarij was majorly caused by the rejection of arbitration between Ali bn Abi Taalib and Mu’aawiyah bn Abi Sufyaan in the battle of Siffiin and considering that all of the people who accepted the arbitration were infidels.
2: During the tenure of Uthman bn Affaan (radiya Allahu anhu), some governors assigned by the previous leader Umar bn Khattab (radiya Allahu anhu) were dropped by Uthman and replaced by his close family and people from his clan (Banu Umayyah). He assigned several of his families from Banu Umayyah to occupy several important positions in his governmental. This act of politics made rise of some unfavorable reaction for Uthman’s position as a Caliph.
3: Then there was a protest against the injustice of some governors of Uthman; the protesters moved from Egypt to Madeenah in which Uthman listened to their greviances and promised to effect a change. The protestors felt relieved and were returning to their abode. On their way home, some cabals from the Ummayad Dynasty (Uthman’s clan) frustrated the peace plan which turned the whole scenario bloody.
There were many Sahaabah who aligned with this perspective of social justice which is a cardinal principle of Islam, as entrenched in the Qur’an and Sunnah.
4: When the Caliph Uthman said he would see to the protesters grievances, the cabal felt threatened and wrote a letter to the governor of Egypt by forging the signature of the Caliph that the protesters be killed. As Allah willed, this letter was intercepted by the protesters who were leaving Medina to Egypt already. So they wrongly felt it was the Caliph who wrote the letter.
Consequently, they angrily returned to Medina thinking the letter was authorized by the Caliph; as they feared what may become of them when they returned to their respective provinces at the hand of their governors.
5: Unfortunately, the atmosphere became tensed. Until some foolish and unfortunate Bedouin Arabs (you know villagers and their rash attitudes) scaled through the barriers to kill the Caliph Uthman.
6: It is important to note that the protestors’ first coming was legitimate and their move was sanctioned by some great companions. The Caliph himself listened to them attentively.
But the second coming after intercepting the letter was due to a mix up and activities of these cabals so as to put the blame on the innocent justice seekers.
7: So, emphasis should be placed on those who perpetrated the hideous and heinous crime of forging the signature of the Caliph who cast a dark shadow of ignominy in the history of Islam. They sought to perpetrate their oppression against the Ummah using the name of the Caliph for their crime. Without identifying this reality, the scholars of tyranny will continue to give backing to tyranny and legitimacy to oppression.
See al-bidaayah wal Nihaayah of Ibn Kethir, Vol. 7 pg 189 (Beirut: Dar al-Fikr 1986) for this history.
8: After Uthman passed away, Ali bn Abi Taalib became the fourth caliph. His first major challenge came from Mu’aawiyah bn Abi Sufyaan (radiya Allahu anhu) who was the governor of Damascus. Mu’aawiyah was a nearest family member of the Caliph Uthman.
Mua’wiyah also did not admit Ali as the Caliph, as he even accused Ali made intervention in the murder of Uthman. Finally, Mu’aawiyah and his group rebelled against Ali; and there was a war between these two groups in Siffiin.
I have explained in detail the story and incidence of Siffiin in my book “Salafiyyah On A Grand Scale”. You can easily see Chapter Four of the book under the title “the awkward and civil unrest in the first generation”.
9: In this battle, Ali obtained victory, then Amr bn Aa’s (radiya Allahu anhu), the right hand man of Mu’aawiyah requested for peace by uphold of the Qur’an as a judge between them. The Ali group accepted the offer by holding arbitration.
10: This arbitration was not approved by many soldiers of the Ali group because it favored the Mu’aawiyah’s group. The group that was seclucioned and went out of Ali line was then known as the Khawarij group, namely people who exit. They didn’t name themselves Khawarij.
The dispute settlement between Ali and Mu’awiyah in an arbitration was considered by these set of people (Khawarij) as the contradiction of Islam doctrine and they argued that Amru bn Aa’s, Mu’aawiyah, Ali, Abu Muusa al-Ash’ari (who stand for the Ali’s group in the arbitration) had become kuffar which makes their blood halal to be splitted. Therefore they decided to kill those four leaders.
11: In the next growth, Khawarij which started as political movement metamorphosed and become the most extreme group which
fanatically seek to re-built the initial simpleness of Islam.
You could see the Khawarij evolution is based on their false premise of Takfir (considering Muslims and sinners as unbelievers) and not based on justice and equity or issue of protest.
While Guluw (extremism/fanaticism) in the defence of Umayyad drove some scholars and people to become Nasibi, Murji-ah, etc; Guluw in vilification of Mu’aawiyah drove others to become Khawarij.
I discussed in detail also, the origin of Guluw and emergence of some sects, in my book “Salafiyyah On A Grand Scale” Chapter Fourteen.
12: Initiated with disappointment to such arbitration, the Khawarij clan was then developed to become an extreme and exclusive clan. As their legitimation basis, they created theology doctrines based on Qur’an verses as the formal guidance. At the beginning, they blasphemed Mu’awiyah and Ali and those who involved in the arbitration, with the accusation as unbelievers.
13: Then, Khawarij doctrines were grown, not only infideling the
people involved in the arbitration. In the field of politics, Khawarij also considered that a caliph should be obliged to be elected from among any independent Muslims. A caliph was not required only from a Quraisy tribe, even a Habshi slave might be elected as a caliph. If the election had run perfectly, a caliph became the leader of the people.
They also hold the view that a caliph must fully subject to the will of Allah (in accordance to their own understanding). If the caliph did not comply with all Allah’s regulations, then, he might be obliged to be fired. He will be declared kaafir and his blood become halal. A reason they do not see any ruler/leader as a Muslim, because they do not seperate between sins and kufr. That is why those with the Khawarij traits in today’s world see democrats as Kuffaar – quoting the verse that “whoever does not judge with the Qur’an is a kaafir”. Some in today’s world might not have declared the leaders/politicians as kuffar directly, but indirectly their blood is permissible to be shed according to them.
14: At the time of Abdul Malik bn Marwan, they began to mix the doctrine with theological discussion. Khawarij started to discuss on ‘faith’, that deed is a part of faith. Faith is
not only the intention (i’tiqad) with heart, but totally with heart, oral and action. Therefore subsequently the Khawarij was separated into several clans.
As we are experiencing today, every breakaway keeps breaking away just like the Khawarij who regarded other Muslims as misguided, yet they never stop breaking into factions.
15: A famous hadith of the Prophet about Dhul-Khuwaysiroh At-Tamimi (who said to the Prophet to be Just in his share of spoils of war) is said by many to be the emergence of the Khawarij; most especially the hadith which says: “There will be some people coming out from him (At-Tamimi) who recite the Quran, yet it does not pass their throat. It does not enter their hearts and they do not do it with faith as there is none in their hearts. They kill Muslims and leave out the pagans. They go out of Islam like an arrow goes out of a bow, if I meet them (i.e. if I live in their time), I will fight them like the people of Aad.”
However, the opinion of the scholars discussed above cannot fully be relied upon to make those attitudes of At-Tamimi as at the beginning of the appearance of Khawarij, his attitude was an objective in nature which can often happen. Besides that, At-Tamimi did not lead any group of people nor was he encouraged by anyone to behave inappropriately except for his personal and psychological greed. However, it can be argued that the desire to disobey and go out (from the jamaa’ah) had existed from the time of the Prophet. Hence, the emergence returns to what we have discussed above right from the time of Uthman’s caliphacy.
16: As regard the numbers of denomination of (sub-section) of
Khawarij, there are not covenant among the scholars.
Some reported they separated to become fourteen (14) denominations, while some counted up them to eighteen (18).
The first denomination among them was the Muhaakimah. Those who have the principle that “no law except the law of Allah – anyone who judges with a law aside the law of Allah is a kaafir”. Then the Azariqah, as the follower of Nafi’ bn Al-Azraq. They were among the others that issued fatwa that all Muslims who do not
follow the Khawarij ideology were included in the infidels (Kuffar), including those who commit major sins.
17: It is among their ideal principles/constitutions that whoever does not follow their own laid down manhaj is a Kaafir; as those who commit major sins are regarded kuffar to them. Those who were idolaters are halal to be murdered; and they consider anyone who died upon a major sin to be a dweller of hell for eternity.
This, is clearly against the pristine teaching of Islam. As a sinner maybe forgiven and pardoned by Allah and no Muslim will forever dwell in hell till eternity.
18: Children who are outside of the Azariqah clan were also halal to be
murdered by them.
The terms used by this clan was no longer infidel, but the term of idolaters with a larger sin than an infidel.
They considered that only their clan was the true Islam, the other
were polytheism and must be obliged to be murdered.
What a terrorist ideology! That is why we must wage intellectual war against any group of Muslims that consider her own faction has the best only and others as heretics/misguided. This is how they start till when they have the power and means and become “Boko-haram” terrorists.
19: The third section of Khawarij, Al-Najdat, was the follower of Najdah ibn Amir al-Hanafi from Yamamah. The fourth, Al-Ajaridah, which was more flexible if compared to the other clan. The clan that was led by Abd al-Karim Ibn Ajrad, and etc…
20: Formally section of Khawarij and the denominatins were
no longer exist – only a minor part that located in Morroco, Zanzibar, Oman (the Ibadiyyah faction), and South Arabian – but their doctrines were still influence up to the date.
The influence appears from their movement patterns which are tend to be extreme, radical, and puritanistic. Notwithstanding, it still required in more depth research to mention whether there is the “red line” between Khawarij and the contemporary radicalism movement, but, at least there is “similarity” in several certain aspects.
21: Ibn Taymiyyah was in the strong opinion that the Khawarij were the first people ever who without hesitation called Muslims disbelievers for sinning. Alternatively, whoever is against their newly invented matters would be called disbelievers and claim their blood and properties legal for them to take. This is the condition of the people of innovation (who diverge from in the religion of Islam, which is not allowed). By bringing about any invention and forcing people to accept and practice it, they will also be labelled disbelievers. However, ordinary Muslims follow their scholars who understand and practice Quran and Hadith in the correct way.
Those who start by only vilifying and declaring upright Muslims as heretics and innovators (because they do not subscribe to their extrimist opinions called manhaj salaf) will one day still get to the stage of Takfir whereby they consider Muslims as non – Muslims.
22: The Khawarij pretend to be so committed to the practice of the Prophet, yet they ignore most of it, because most of their deeds do not align with the practice.
There are many Hadiths which condemn the Khawarij and describe their characteristics, yet they pretend not to be that way while they have ignored those Hadiths.
23: Fragmentation is another characteristic of the Khawarij.
Due to the extreme nature of their ideology, they see their path as the only right one. Therefore, any individual or group that differentiates from their point of view will be condemned as disbelievers or hypocrites. This leads to fragmenting, and those who think their views are right will step away and consequently call the original group disbelievers. This has been a reoccurring pattern throughout the history of Islam. It explains why whenever there was a suitable situation for Khawarij to appear, they worked under one group, but when they do not agree with each other, they leave, establish their own group claiming that it is the righteous one.
Thus, nowadays there are various names of organizations claiming that they are fighting for the sake of Islam, but in reality, all of them are mere Khawarij using different inherited names.
24: When referring to the fragmentation of the Khawarij, it can be seen from the history and modern time that new extremist groups were born out of the ideas of the original ones.
For example, those individuals who were fighting for Al-Qaedah before 2006 in Iraq left the group and established ISIL, in which the former one denounces the activities of the latter.
25: Nowadays, the petrifying actions of the contemporary extremist groups like Madkhalis, Boko Haram, ISIL, and other unknown groups that call themselves to be linked with Al-Qaedah, their strict application and practice of Islam, and their obtaining wealth through illegal means, shedding blood in the name of religion, considering upright Muslims as heretics are mere repetition of the actions of classic Khawarij.
This is a good indication that the ideology of the classic Khawarij still has both a direct and indirect influence on modern Khawarij groups. This will continue as long as the causes for their existence remain, in particular, ignorance about religion. Future research calls for studies to be carried out on all the contemporary extremist groups in order to reveal more on their hidden history, make comparisons with classic Khawarij, and generate public awareness about contemporary Khawarij ideologies. I have written Salafiyyah On A Grand Scale.