upper arms is like a woman’s breast or a piece of flesh. They will emerge at a time of division among the people.’”

Abū Sa‘īd said: “I testify that I heard this hadith from Allah’s Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and I testify that Alī ibn Abī Tālib fought them while I was with him. He ordered a search for that man, who was brought to him, and I saw that he matched the description given by Allah’s Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.”

Among the gravest grounds on which the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, condemned these Khārijites, who pass out of the religion, was that they kill the people of Islam and leave the idolaters alone. He also mentioned that they would emerge at a time of division among the people. Yet even these Khārijites did not assist the disbelievers in fighting the Muslims, whereas the Rāfidah assist the disbelievers in fighting the Muslims. They were not content merely to refrain from fighting the disbelievers alongside the Muslims; they went so far as to fight the Muslims alongside the disbelievers. Thus, their departure from the religion was far, far greater than that of those who passed out of it.

The Muslims have unanimously agreed that the Khārijites, the Rāfidah and others like them must be fought if they break away from the Muslim community, just as Alī, may Allah be pleased with him, fought them. What, then, if they also adopt provisions from the laws of the polytheists—kanā’isā—and Genghis Khan, king of the polytheists, that are among the gravest contradictions of the religion of Islam?

Anyone who defects to them, whether a military commander or otherwise, is subject to the same ruling as they are. The extent of their apostasy from the laws of Islam corresponds to the extent to which each has renounced those laws. And if the early generations