any of their offspring, and he ordered his herald to proclaim (1) throughout his army: “No one fleeing from them was to be pursued (2), none of their wounded was to be finished off, and none of their property was to be taken as spoils.” Had he regarded them as apostates, he would have finished off their wounded and pursued those who fled (3).

This was among the things for which the Khawārij reproached him. They said to him, “If they were believers, it was not lawful to fight them; and if they were unbelievers, why did you declare their property and women inviolable?” He therefore sent Ibn ʿAbbās—may Allah be pleased with them both—to debate them. He said to them, “ʿĀʾishah was among them. If you say, ‘She is not our mother,’ you have disbelieved (4) in Allah’s Book; and if you say, ‘She is our mother,’ while deeming intercourse with her lawful (5), you have disbelieved in Allah’s Book” (6).

Likewise, he would say of the opposing forces at the Battle of the Camel, “They are our brothers (7) who rebelled against us; the sword purified them.”

It has also been reported that he—may Allah be pleased with him—performed the funeral prayer over those slain from both sides. Some reports to that effect will be cited later, Allah willing.

And if those people were apostates, and al-Hasan relinquished (8) authority over the Muslims,