Al-Bukhārī further recorded the same report through Sufyān ibn Saʿīd al-Thawrī, who narrated it from his father.¹ Muslim likewise transmitted it through Hannād, Abū al-Aḥwaṣ Sallām ibn Sulaym, Saʿīd ibn Masrūq, and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Nuʿm, from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī.²
Muslim relates in his Ṣaḥīḥ—on the authority of Dāwūd ibn Abī Hind, al-Qāsim ibn al-Faḍl, and Qatādah, from Abū Naḍrah, from Abū Saʿīd—that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
“A faction will break away at a time of division among the Muslims; it will be slain by the party that is closer to the truth.”³
He also transmits the same ḥadīth through Abū Isḥāq al-Thawrī, Ḥabīb ibn Abī Thābit, al-Ḍaḥḥāk al-Mashriqī, from Abū Saʿīd, as a marfūʿ report.⁴
Muslim further narrates—through Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah, Ibn Mushir, al-Shaybānī, and Bashīr ibn ʿAmr—who said: “I asked Sahl ibn Ḥunayf whether he had heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ mention these Khārijites. He replied, ‘I heard him,’ and he pointed with his hand toward the East—another version says toward Iraq—saying:
‘A people will emerge who recite the Qur’an with their tongues yet it will not go beyond their collar-bones. They will dart out of the religion as an arrow passes straight through its prey; their heads will be shaved.’”⁵
Muslim also reports—through Ḥumayd ibn Hilāl, ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ṣāmit, from Abū Dharr—a similar narration in which he said:
“Their distinguishing mark is the shaving of the head; they are the worst of people and the most wretched of creation.”⁶
Muḥammad ibn Kathīr al-Miṣṣīṣī transmitted the same—through al-Awzāʿī, from Qatādah, from Anas ibn Mālik—as a marfūʿ ḥadīth, stating:
“Their identifying trait is the shaving of the head; they are the worst of people and the most vile of creation.”⁷
Both Ṣaḥīḥs contain a narration—on the authority of al-Aʿmash, Khaythamah, Suwayd ibn Ghafalah, from ʿAlī—in which he said: “I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say:
‘Toward the end of time a people will emerge—young in years, foolish in judgment. They will quote the words of the best of creation, yet faith will not go beyond their throats. Wherever you encounter them, kill them, for killing them carries a reward for the one who does so until the Day of Resurrection.’”⁸