may Allah bless him and grant him peace, in authentic, widely transmitted hadiths—indeed, mass-transmitted ones—in which he said of them:

“Any one of you would consider his prayer insignificant compared with theirs, his fasting 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. Wherever you encounter them, kill them, for killing them brings a reward with Allah on the Day of Resurrection. Their distinguishing sign is that among them is a man with malformed hands and a quivering fleshy growth bearing a few hairs.”

These are the people who showed hostility towards ‘Alī and those who supported him. They considered it lawful to kill him and declared him an unbeliever. One of their leaders, “ ‘Abd al-Rahmān ibn Muljim al-Murādī,” killed him. When these enemies of ‘Alī—the renegade Kharijites—claimed that ‘Uthmān, ‘Alī ibn Abī Tālib, and those with them were unbelievers and apostates, the Muslims’ arguments against them included the mass-transmitted evidence of the Companions’ faith, together with what is established in the Book and the authentic Sunnah concerning Allah Most High’s praise and commendation of them, His pleasure with them, His declaration that they are among the people of Paradise, and other such texts. Whoever does not accept these proofs cannot establish the faith of ‘Alī ibn Abī Tālib and others like him.

For if this enemy of ‘Alī were to tell a Rāfidī that ‘Alī was an unbeliever, or a sinful wrongdoer; that he fought for dominion, seeking leadership rather than serving the religion; that at the Battle of the Camel, Siffīn, and Harūrā’, he killed thousands upon thousands of “members of the faith” from the community of Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace; and that after the Prophet’s death, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, he neither fought an unbeliever nor conquered a city, but instead fought those who face the qiblah—and were to make other such claims, fabricated by those enemies who hated ‘Alī, may Allah be pleased with him—