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Vagabonds, Former Criminals, Ignorant Worshippers, and Pseudo-Scholars Constitute the Kharijite Hoardes and Leaders: A Recipe for Self-Destruction
Posted by Abu Iyaad on Wednesday, October, 19 2016 and filed under Analysis

The Khārijites who revolted against ʿUthmān (raḍiyallāhu ʿanhu) were comprised of the dregs of society, the ghawghāʾ (riff-raff) and ḥathālah (villains, junk, refuse, filth). [Refer to al-Ṭabarī in his Tārīkh (4/461), Ibn Athīr in al-Kāmil (9/101), Ibn Saʿd in al-Ṭabaqāt (3/71) and Ibn Taymiyyah in Minhāj al-Sunnah (6/297)]. They were motivated by grievances material in nature. The Khārijites who revolted against ʿAlī (raḍiyallāhu ʿanhu) were ignorant worshippers, reciters of the Qurʾān whose ignorance and pseudo-scholarship prevented them from grasping its meanings and caused them to perish.

In light of this it can be noted that Khārijite movements are generally comprised of vagabonds, ruffians, the materially-inclined (including criminals and thugs), ignorant worshippers and pseudo-scholars who are taken as spiritual guides. It is inevitable therefore that they will spiral downwards into chaos because the very nature of their unsupported doctrine and the absence of genuine scholarship amongst them means that when faced with newly-arising situations and circumstances requiring legislative rulings, their personal interpretations and judgments, unguided by genuine scholarship and resting on unfounded, extremist doctrines will cause them to differ, split and turn against each other, such that they become preoccupied in that. This diminishes whatever strength they may have had and leads to them being defeated and “cut off” each time they appear as a fighting force. This is what happened to the earlier Khārijites, and the same thing is happening today with al-Qaeda, al-Nuṣrah and ISIS.

Indeed as the Tābiʿī Qatādah (118H) said:

By Allāh if they were upon guidance, Allāh would have made it manifest and granted it support and success. But they were upon falsehood, Allāh falsified it and repelled it. So they, as you can see, every time a faction of them emerges, Allāh invalidates their proof, falsifies their fables, and makes their blood to flow. [Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī, Dar Iḥyā al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1421H, 3/209]

And Wahb bin Munabbih (110H) said to a man he was advising regarding the Khārijites:

Do you not see O Dhā Khawlān that I reached the early part of Islām and by Allāh, never were the Khārijites a united body save that Allāh split them up into their worst condition. Never did one of them proclaim his saying save that Allāh [caused] his neck to be struck. Never has the ummah united behind a man among the Khārijites. If Allāh had granted the Khārijites authority [in implementing their ideology], the Earth would be corrupted, the paths would be cut off and Ḥajj to the Sacred House would be prevented. In that case, Islām would have returned to pre-Islāmic ignorance until the people would seek aid in the peaks of mountains, as they used to do in pre-Islāmic ignorance. Thereafter, more than ten or twenty men would stand, every one of them claiming the khilāfah. And each one of them would have more than 10,000 with him, fighting each other and bearing witness against each other with disbelief. Such that a man would become fearful for his soul, religion, blood, family and wealth, not knowing where to turn or whom he should be with. [Refer to ʿAbd al-Salām al-Burjis’s Munāṣaḥat al-Imām Wahb bin Munabbih li Rajul Mutaʾaththar min al-Khawārij (1423H) pp. 23-24]

The Khārijite ideology [takfīrī-jihādism] by its nature implodes as they start making takfīr of each other, and then in turn, jihād against each other. So whilst they unleash horrendous evil for a period, the Prophetic traditions provide consolation and are clear that each time they appear they will be “cut off”.

Abu ʿIyāḍ @abuiyaadsp
19 Muharram 1438 / 20 October 2016