Al-Tirmidhī also relates from Abū Umāmah al-Bāhilī that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said concerning the Khawārij:

“They are the dogs of the inhabitants of the Fire.”

Abū Umāmah recited this verse:

“On the Day when some faces will turn white and some faces will turn black.”

Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal said: “The hadith concerning the Khawārij has been authentically transmitted through ten routes.” Muslim included these reports in his Sahīh, and al-Bukhārī included some of them. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Any one of you would consider his prayer insignificant compared with theirs, his fasting insignificant compared with theirs, and his recitation insignificant compared with theirs. They recite the Quran, but it does not go beyond their throats. They pass out of Islam as an arrow passes through its quarry.”

In another narration:

“They kill the people of Islam and leave the idolaters alone.”

The Khawārij were the first to declare Muslims disbelievers. They declare people disbelievers on account of sins, and they declare anyone who disagrees with their innovation a disbeliever, considering it lawful to shed his blood and seize his property. Such is the way of the people of innovation: they introduce an innovation and declare anyone who disagrees with it a disbeliever. The people of the Sunnah and the community, however, follow the Book and the Sunnah and obey Allah and His Messenger. Thus, they follow the truth and show mercy to creation.

The first innovations to arise in Islam were those of the Khawārij and the Shī‘ah. Both arose during the caliphate of the Commander of the Faithful, ‘Alī ibn Abī Tālib, and he punished both groups. As for the Khawārij, they fought against him, and he killed them. As for the Shī‘ah, he burned their extremists with fire and sought to have ‘Abd Allāh ibn Saba’ put to death, but he fled from him. He also ordered that anyone who considered him superior to Abū Bakr and ‘Umar be flogged.

It has been related from him through numerous routes that he said:

“The best of this community after its Prophet is Abū Bakr, then ‘Umar.”

Al-Bukhārī also related this from him in his Sahīh.