• They say:

“These are the very people who (1) passed judgment concerning the lives and property of Muslims by other than what Allah revealed.”

They cite his words:

“Do not revert to disbelief after me * (2), striking one another’s necks.” (3)

They say:

“Those who (4) struck one another’s necks reverted to disbelief after him.”

This and similar claims are among the arguments of the Kharijites. Although this argument is undoubtedly false, the arguments of the Rafidites are even more false. The Kharijites are more rational, more truthful, and more inclined to follow the truth than the Rafidites. They are truthful and do not lie; they are people of religious commitment both outwardly and inwardly. Yet they are misguided and ignorant renegades: they passed out of Islam just as an arrow passes clean through its prey. As for the Rafidites, ignorance, caprice, and lying predominate among them. Many of their leaders and common adherents are heretics and religious deviants who have no concern for either knowledge or religion. Rather:

“They follow nothing but conjecture and what their souls desire, though guidance has already come to them from their Lord.”

[Sūrat al-Najm: 33]