their being singled out for mention did not mean that the ruling applied exclusively to them; rather, those being addressed at that time needed them to be identified specifically. This applies where his wording does not encompass them. As for these Rāfidah, if they are not worse than the Khawārij explicitly mentioned in the texts, they are no less evil. Those Khawārij declared only ‘Uthmān, ‘Alī, and their respective followers to be disbelievers—not those who refrained from fighting or died before those events. The Rāfidah, however, declared Abū Bakr, ‘Umar, ‘Uthmān, the general body of the Muhājirūn and Ansār, and those who followed them in righteousness to be disbelievers—those with whom Allah is pleased and who are pleased with Him. They also declared the vast majority of Muhammad’s community, both earlier and later generations, to be disbelievers, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.

They thus declare anyone a disbeliever who considers Abū Bakr, ‘Umar, and the Muhājirūn and Ansār to have been upright, invokes Allah’s pleasure upon them as Allah Himself is pleased with them, or seeks forgiveness for them as Allah commanded. For this reason, they declare the leading figures of the faith to be disbelievers:

Such figures include Sa‘īd ibn al-Musayyib, Abū Muslim al-Khawlānī, Uways al-Qaranī, ‘Atā’ ibn Abī Rabāh, and Ibrāhīm al-Nakha‘ī; likewise Mālik, al-Awzā‘ī, Abū Hanīfah, Hammād ibn Zayd, Hammād ibn Salamah, al-Thawrī, al-Shāfi‘ī, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Fudayl ibn ‘Iyād, Abū Sulaymān al-Dārānī, Ma‘rūf al-Karkhī, al-Junayd ibn Muhammad, Sahl ibn ‘Abd Allāh al-Tustarī, and others. They regard it as lawful to shed the blood of those outside their group and call the latter’s school “the school of the majority,” as do the philosophers and others like them,