this, he is among the hypocrites who will be in the lowest depths of the Fire. Whoever openly manifests this is more extreme in unbelief than other unbelievers. He may not be allowed to remain among the Muslims, whether through payment of the jizyah (poll tax) or under a covenant of protection. Their women may not lawfully be married, nor may the animals they slaughter be eaten, for they are among the worst apostates. If they constitute a group offering resistance, they must be fought as apostates are fought, just as Abū Bakr al-Siddīq and the Companions fought the followers of Musaylimah the Liar. If they live in Muslim villages, they are to be dispersed and settled among the Muslims after repentance, and required to observe the prescriptions of Islam binding upon Muslims.

This is not limited to the extremist Rāfidah. Rather, it extends to anyone who goes to extremes concerning a shaykh and claims that the shaykh provides him with sustenance, exempts him from prayer, or is superior to the Prophet; or that he has no need of the law of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and has a path to Allah other than the Prophet’s law; or that a shaykh may stand in relation to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, as al-Khidr did to Moses.

All such people are unbelievers who, by the consensus of the Muslims, must be fought, and any individual among them who is apprehended must be put to death. As for an individual from among the Khawārij or the Rāfidah who is apprehended, it is also reported that the two of them—I mean ʿUmar and ʿAlī—put such individuals to death. Although the jurists have differed over putting to death an individual