The second view maintains that all of them were in the right.

The third view states that only one of the two parties was correct, though it does not identify which one.

The fourth view is to refrain altogether from passing judgment on what transpired between them, while recognizing that ʿAlī and his supporters were the side closer to the truth.

The overwhelming majority of scholars draw a clear line between the renegade Khārijites and the combatants at the Battles of the Camel and Ṣiffīn, as well as others whom they classify as mistaken yet sincere rebels. This is the position held by most specialists in hadith and jurisprudence, and it is affirmed in the explicit statements of the majority of the four Imams and their followers.