Muslims or seizing their property, undertaking jihad in Allah’s cause, levying the jizya on Jews and Christians, and so forth. By the consensus of the Muslims, these people must be fought, just as Abū Bakr al-Siddīq fought those who withheld zakat. Indeed, these people are worse than them in several respects. Likewise, the Companions, alongside the Commander of the Faithful, ʿAlī—may Allah be pleased with him—fought the Khawārij at the command of Allah’s Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, who described them as follows:

“You will regard your own prayers as insignificant beside theirs, and your fasting beside theirs. They recite the Quran, but it does not pass beyond their throats. They pass out of Islam as an arrow passes through its quarry. Wherever you encounter them, kill them, for whoever kills them will have a reward with Allah on the Day of Resurrection.”

He also said:

“If those who fight them knew what Muhammad has promised them, they would leave off other deeds.”

And he said:

“They are the worst of all creatures and all creation, the worst slain beneath the canopy of heaven. The best slain are those whom they kill.”

Despite their abundant fasting, prayer, and recitation, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, commanded that they be fought. The Commander of the Faithful, ʿAlī, and the other Companions with him fought them. No one disagreed over fighting them, as they disagreed over fighting the people of Basra and Syria, for they were fighting the Muslims.

These people are worse than those in more than one respect, even if they do not share their beliefs, for among them are those whose view of the Muslims agrees with that of the Khawārij. These, then, are three categories. Among them is a fourth category, worse than these: people who have renounced the laws of