compared with theirs, and his recitation compared with 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. If those who fight them knew what reward they have been promised through Muhammad, they would desist from further deeds.”

In another narration:
“If I live to encounter them, I will certainly kill them as ʿĀd were killed.”

In another narration:
“They are the worst of those slain beneath the sky; the best of those slain are those whom they kill.”

The first to fight them was the Commander of the Faithful, ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib, together with the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, who were with him. He fought them at Harūrā when they departed from the Sunnah and the Muslim community and deemed the blood and property of Muslims lawful. They had killed ʿAbd Allāh ibn Khabbāb and raided the Muslims’ livestock. The Commander of the Faithful, ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib, then stood and addressed the people, mentioning the hadith and recounting how they had killed people and seized property. He therefore deemed it lawful to fight them and rejoiced greatly at their being killed. Of all the public undertakings of his caliphate, none was greater in his estimation than fighting the Khawārij.

They declared the majority of Muslims to be unbelievers, even declaring ʿUthmān and ʿAlī unbelievers. They claimed to act according to the Quran but would not follow the Sunnah of the Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, which they thought contradicted the Quran—as do the other adherents of religious innovation, despite their abundant worship and scrupulous piety.

It has been authentically reported from ʿAlī in Sahīh al-Bukhārī and elsewhere, through some eighty chains, that he said:
“The best of this community after its Prophet are Abū Bakr, then ʿUmar.”

It is also authentically reported from him