His followers slandered Abu Bakr and ‘Umar, rejecting them with the words “We reject you,” whence they took their name. They claim that the imamate (imāmah) is a prescribed pillar of religion and that the imams are infallible (ma‘sūm); they further assert that most of the Companions went astray by abandoning adherence after the Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, and espouse other corrupt doctrines. Muslim scholars have taken on the task of refuting these views—most notably Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyya in his Minhāj al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah and Shaykh Muḥammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhāb in his al-Radd ‘alā al-Rāfiḍah. For more on them and a listing of their sects, see: Maqālāt al-Islāmiyyīn by al-Ash‘arī, vol. 1, p. 89 ff.; al-Firaq bayna al-Firaq by al-Baghdādī, p. 21; al-Bidāya wa al-Nihāya by Ibn Kathīr, vol. 9, p. 371; al-Radd ‘alā al-Rāfiḍah by Abū Ḥāmid al-Maqdisī (ed. ‘Abd al-Wahhāb Khalīl al-Raḥmān), pp. 65–72. (1) The Harūrīyya: a name given to the Kharijites from the place called Harūra near Kūfa. They withdrew there from ʿAlī’s army, may Allah be pleased with him, refusing to live in his city, and thus acquired the name. ʿAlī then sent Ibn ʿAbbās to debate them; most returned to the main body of Muslims, but some remained under the leadership of ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Kawāʾ al-Yashkurī and Shabath ibn Rabīʿ. See al-Firaq bayna al-Firaq by al-Baghdādī (ed. Muḥammad Muḥyī al-Dīn ‘Abd al-Ḥamīd), pp. 72–73 (note 2, p. 72); al-Tabṣīr fī al-Dīn by al-Asfarāʾīnī (ed. Kamāl Yūsuf al-Ḥūt), p. 46; al-Bidāya wa al-Nihāya by Ibn Kathīr, vol. 7, p. 304. (2) See Qur’an, Sūrah an-Nisāʾ (4:59).