ibn Ibād(1). Their doctrines and history are well known in works on sectarian doctrines, hadith, and history. They existed during the time of the Companions and the Followers, debating and fighting them. The Companions unanimously agreed that fighting them was obligatory. Despite this, they did not pronounce them unbelievers, nor did Ali ibn Abī Tālib—may Allah be pleased with him—do so.
As for those who went to extremes regarding Ali—may Allah be pleased with him—the Companions and all other Muslims unanimously held them to be unbelievers. Ali ibn Abī Tālib himself pronounced them unbelievers and burned them with fire. Any such extremist who can be apprehended is put to death. By contrast, Ali did not fight them(2)—the Khawārij—until they killed a Muslim, raided people’s property, and seized it. Ali and the other Companions applied the ruling governing apostates to the former, whereas they did not apply(3) the ruling governing apostates to the latter.
(1) The Ibādis were followers of Abd Allāh ibn Ibād al-Muqā'isī al-Murrī al-Tamīmī, of Banū Murra ibn Ubayd ibn Muqā'is. Historians differ concerning his life and the date of his death. He was a contemporary of Muāwiya, lived until the latter part of the reign of Abd al-Malik ibn Marwān, and most likely died in 86 AH. The Ibādis held that their opponents among the People of the Qibla were unbelievers but not polytheists, and that the territory of their Muslim opponents was *dār al-tawhīd* (the abode of monotheism), except for the ruler’s military camp, which was *dār al-baghy* (the abode of rebellion). They unanimously agreed that anyone who committed a major sin had committed *kufr al-ni'ma* (the unbelief of ingratitude), not *kufr al-milla* (unbelief that excludes one from the faith). They divided into the Hafsiyya, Hārithiyya, and Yazīdiyya. For Abd Allāh ibn Ibād and the Ibādis, see: *Lisān al-Mīzān*, 3:248; *al-A'lām*, 4:184–186; *Maqālāt al-Islāmiyyīn*, 1:170–176; *al-Milal wa-al-Nihal*, 1:121–122; *al-Farq bayna al-Firaq*, pp. 61–65; *al-Tabsīr fī al-Dīn*, pp. 34–35; *al-Fisal fī al-Milal wa-al-Nihal*, 5:51; al-Maqrīzī’s *al-Khitat*, 2:355; Alī Yahyā Muammar, *al-Ibādiyya fī Mawkib al-Tārīkh*, Maktabat Wahba, 1384 AH/1964 CE; and Motylinski’s entry on the Ibādis in the *Encyclopaedia of Islam*.
(2) MSS N and M read: “kill them.”
(3) MSS H, Y, and R read: “he did not apply [the ruling].”