Mention of the Rise of the Khawārij (secessionists)

Al-Ashʿath ibn Qays once passed by a gathering of Banū Tamīm and read the arbitration document aloud to them. ʿUrwa ibn Udhayna—so called after his mother; he is ʿUrwa ibn Jarīr of Banū Rabīʿa ibn Ḥanẓala, the brother of Abū Bilāl Mirdās ibn Jarīr—stood up and said, “Do you allow men to arbitrate in the religion of Allah?” He then struck the hind-quarters of al-Ashʿath’s mount with his sword. Al-Ashʿath and his tribesmen were enraged, whereupon al-Aḥnaf ibn Qays and a number of their leaders (1) came to apologize to al-Ashʿath ibn Qays for what had happened.

Al-Haytham ibn ʿAdī said, “The Khawārij maintain that the first man to make such a ruling was ʿAbd Allah ibn Wahb al-Rāsibī.”

I say: The correct view is the earlier report. Groups of Qurʾān-reciters from among ʿAli’s companions adopted that very slogan from this man (2) and declared, “No judgment except Allah’s!” From this they came to be known as al-Muḥakkimiyya. After the battle of Ṣiffīn the armies dispersed to their homelands. Muʿāwiya set out with his followers for Damascus, while ʿAli returned to Kūfa by way of Hīt. When he entered Kūfa (3) he overheard a man saying, “ʿAli went out and came back with nothing to show for it.”

ʿAli replied, “Those we have just left behind are better than these,” and he recited (4):

Your brother is the one who, when some sudden calamity (5)
From time befalls you, never ceases to pity your plight; (6)
He is not the brother who, when your affairs grow tangled (7)
Stands over you, blaming and reproaching.

He then continued on, invoking Allah until he entered the governor’s palace in Kūfa. Yet before he reached the city proper, nearly twelve thousand men separated from his army (8)—they were the Khawārij—and refused to dwell with him in the town. They encamped at a place called Ḥarūrāʾ and protested against matters they claimed he had committed. ʿAli, may Allah be pleased with him, sent ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbbās to debate with them; most of them returned, but a faction remained. ʿAli ibn Abī Ṭālib and his companions then fought that faction, as will be explained in detail shortly, if Allah wills.

The point here is that these Khawārij are the very group referred to in the rigorously authentic ḥadīth in which the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said