and better than those who declare Alī above reproach while criticizing Uthmān, [such as the Zaydīs, for example](1).

It is therefore well known that the Companions, Successors, and others who fought him, cursed him, and condemned him were more knowledgeable and religious than those who profess loyalty to him while cursing Uthmān. Were Ahl al-Sunnah to abandon loyalty to Alī—may Allah be pleased with him—the affirmation of his faith, and the obligation of loyalty to him, no one among those loyal to him would be capable of standing against his enemies from among the Khawārij, the Umayyads, and the Marwānids, for these comprise many groups.

\ 510 It is well known that the worst of those who hate him are the Khawārij, who declared him an unbeliever, believed that he had apostatized from Islam(2), and deemed it lawful to kill him as an act of devotion to Allah Most High. Their poet, Imrān ibn Hittān, went so far as to say:

What a blow from a pious man, who sought by it ...
Only to attain the pleasure of the Lord of the Throne!
Whenever I remember him(3), I reckon him ...
The one whose scale is fullest before Allah among all creation.

The poet of Ahl al-Sunnah responded to him, saying:

What a blow from a wretched man, who sought by it ...
Only to incur perdition from the Lord of the Throne!
Whenever I remember him, I curse him ...
With a curse—and I curse Imrān(4) ibn Hittān.