He also clarified that they were neither unbelievers nor hypocrites, and in this he was adhering to the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger ﷺ, for Allah has called them brothers and still regarded them as believers even while they were fighting and committing aggression, as He says: “And if two groups of the believers fight each other…” (Qur’an 49:9).¹

It is authentically recorded in the Ṣaḥīḥ collections that the Prophet ﷺ said, “A band of renegades will break away at a time of dissension among the Muslims; they will be killed by the faction that is closest to the truth.”²

That renegade band were the people of Ḥarūrāʾ, whom the Commander of the Believers ʿAli ibn Abi Ṭālib and his companions fought and killed after they defected from Islam, rose up against him, declared him and the rest of the Muslims disbelievers, and made their blood and property lawful.

Moreover, it is mass-transmitted from the Prophet ﷺ that he described them and commanded that they be fought. He said, “One of you would consider his own prayer insignificant compared with their prayer, his fasting insignificant compared with their fasting, and his recitation insignificant compared with their recitation. They recite the Quran but it does not pass beyond their throats. They dash out of Islam as an arrow dashes through its prey. If those who kill them knew the reward that has been promised them on the tongue of Muhammad ﷺ, they would hold back from the deed.”³