Hakīm ibn Jābir, who said:

When ʿAlī killed the people of Nahrawān, they asked him, “Were they polytheists?”

He replied, “They had fled from polytheism.”

He was asked, “Were they hypocrites?”

He replied, “The hypocrites remember Allah only a little.”

He was asked, “Then what were they?”

He replied, “They were a people who waged war against us, so we waged war against them; they fought us, so we fought them.”” *) (1).

I say: The first hadith (2) and this hadith explicitly establish that ʿAlī made this statement about the Harūrite Kharijites—the people of Nahrawān—concerning whom numerous authentic hadiths have been transmitted from the Prophet—may Allah’s blessings and peace be upon him—condemning them and commanding that they be fought. They declared ʿUthmān, ʿAlī, and those who supported them to be disbelievers. In their view, anyone who was not with them was a disbeliever, and his land was an abode of disbelief; for they regarded only their own territory as the abode of Islam.

Al-Ashʿarī and others said:

“The Kharijites unanimously declared ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib—may Allah be pleased with him—a disbeliever (3).”

Despite this, ʿAlī fought them only after they initiated hostilities against him by killing ʿAbd Allāh ibn Khabbāb. ʿAlī demanded that they surrender his killer, but they replied, “Every one of us killed him.” They also raided people’s livestock (4).

Hence, he said of them, “They were a people who fought us, so we fought them; they waged war against us, so we waged war against them.” He also said, “They were a people who rebelled against us, so we fought them.”

The Companions and the scholars after them unanimously agreed that these people must be fought, for they are rebels against all Muslims except those who share their doctrine. They initiate hostilities against Muslims, and their evil cannot be repelled except by fighting them. They were therefore more harmful to the Muslims than highway robbers, for the latter seek only wealth; (* if