—may Allah be pleased with him—and said:
“Do you disbelieve in a Lord in whom Uthmān believed?”
He then explained to him what demonstrated the falsity of that statement. Accordingly, if Ammār did say this on the basis of an interpretation, he retracted it when Alī—may Allah be pleased with him—made clear to him that it was (1) a false statement.
Further evidence that the Companions did not declare the Khawārij unbelievers is that they used to pray behind them. Abd Allah ibn Umar—may Allah be pleased with him—and other Companions (2) used to pray (3) behind Najdah al-Harūrī. They would also relate reports to them, issue legal opinions to them, and speak to them as one Muslim speaks to another. Thus, Abd Allah ibn Abbās answered Najdah al-Harūrī when he wrote to him asking about several matters. This report is in al-Bukhārī (4). Likewise, he answered Nāfi ibn al-Azraq concerning well-known questions (5), and Nāfi would debate him on various points by citing the Quran, just as two Muslims debate one another.
Muslims have consistently followed this course, never treating them as apostates like those whom
(1) Manuscripts rā, hā, bā, nūn, and mīm read: “when it became clear to him that it was.”
(2) The phrase “among the Companions” is omitted from manuscripts nūn, mīm, and alif.
(3) Manuscripts hā and bā read: “They used to pray.”
(4) Muslim records in his Sahīh, 3/1444–45, Book of Jihad and Military Expeditions, chapter “Women Who Take Part in Military Expeditions Are Given a Discretionary Allotment,” on the authority of Yazīd ibn Hurmuz, that Najdah wrote to Ibn Abbās asking him about five matters. Ibn Abbās said: “Were it not that I might conceal knowledge, I would not have written to him…” The hadith was also recorded by Imam Ahmad in his Musnad, al-Maārif edition, nos. 1967, 2235, 685, 2812, and 2943. Ahmad Shākir—may Allah have mercy on him—stated that the hadith is found in the works of Abū Dāwūd, al-Nasā’ī, al-Bayhaqī, al-Tirmidhī, and al-Shawkānī. I could not locate the hadith in al-Bukhārī.
(5) Sezgin states in two places—m [0–9], vol. [0–9], p. [0–9] 30 m [0–9], vol. [0–9], p. [0–9]—that Najdah ibn Āmir al-Harūrī, who died in 69 AH, wrote to Abd Allah ibn Abbās and asked him about various legal questions. Sezgin notes that this incident is mentioned in al-Ansāb by al-Balādhurī, 1/715, and Lisān al-Mīzān by Ibn Hajar, 6/148, and that part of this correspondence has reached us in al-Mudawwana, 3/6. Nāfi ibn al-Azraq likewise wrote to Ibn Abbās asking him about several matters; see al-Ilal by Ibn Abī Hātim al-Rāzī, 1/307.