Likewise, Muslim relates in his Ṣaḥīḥ—through Abū Qays Ziyād ibn Ribāḥ, from Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him)—that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
“Whoever abandons obedience and severs himself from the Community, then dies, dies the death of the Age of Ignorance. Whoever fights beneath a banner of blind partisanship—becoming enraged for tribal loyalty, summoning others to it, or supporting it—and is killed, his death is a death of the Age of Ignorance. And whoever rises up against my nation, striking the virtuous among them and the wicked alike, sparing no believer and keeping no faith with one to whom he has pledged a covenant, he is not of me and I am not of him.”
In this ḥadith the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) enumerated the three categories for which the jurists set down the chapter on fighting those who face the qiblah: the rebels (al-bughāt), the aggressors, and those motivated by tribal bigotry.
(1) All the manuscripts and the printed edition read “Ibn Rabah,” and a few biographical works follow this. Most sources, however—including Sahih Muslim—have the form “Ibn Riyah” (with the letter ya). The narrator is Ziyad b. Abi Riyah, Abu Qays, a Madani—some say Basri—traditionist; other authorities give him the kunya Abu Rabah. He was a reliable third-tier hadith scholar. See: Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib al-Tahdhib 3:366–367, no. 672.
(2) The blessing formula radiya Allahu ʿanhu (“may Allah be pleased with him”) is missing from manuscripts C and D.
(3) The printed edition reads ʿamyaʾ (“blind”), but the correct wording, as found in Sahih Muslim, is al-ʿummiyya. The term denotes a “blind” or unclear matter whose true nature is not evident, as the author will explain on the next page. See the marginalia on Sahih Muslim 3:1476.
(4) Manuscripts A and T—and Sahih Muslim—read wa qatalahu (“and he killed him”), whereas B, C, and D have fa qatalahu (“so he killed him”).
(5) The printed edition has: “was killed with the killing of pre-Islamic ignorance.”
(6) Manuscripts B, C, D and the printed edition read li dhi ʿahdiha (“with one under its covenant”), whereas Sahih Muslim, corroborated by A and T, has the wording I have adopted.
(7) See Sahih Muslim, Book of Governance, chapter “The duty to remain with the Muslim community when turmoil appears,” 3:1476–1477, hadith no. 1848, transmitted through several chains whose wordings differ slightly.
(8) The printed edition erroneously reads al-bighaʾ.