upon Alī, if he held that those disbelievers had no faith, to establish for himself and his followers an abode other than that of the people of apostasy and disbelief, and to separate himself from them just as the Muslims separated themselves from Musaylima the Liar and his followers.

The Prophet of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and his Companions were in a state of extreme weakness in Mecca. Nevertheless, they kept apart from the disbelievers and openly made that separation clear, so that the believer could be distinguished from the disbeliever. Likewise, those among them who emigrated to Abyssinia did so despite their weakness; they remained separate from the Christians and openly professed their religion in their presence.

Moreover, the lands of Islam are filled with Jews and Christians who openly profess their religion and live apart from the Muslims.

If, in the view of Alī and his household, everyone who doubts(1) Alī’s caliphate is a disbeliever, and no one is a believer in their view except someone who believes that Alī was the infallible imam after the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—while anyone who does not believe this is an apostate in the view of Alī and his household, then Alī would have been the first to alter the religion and would have failed to distinguish believers from disbelievers or apostates from Muslims.

Even granting that he was unable to fight them and bring them into obedience to him, he was not unable to separate himself from them. Nor was he more powerless than the Khawārij, who were merely a band (a small one)(2) from his army. The Khawārij established for themselves an abode apart from that of the community and separated themselves from them, just as(3) they declared them disbelievers, and regarded their own adherents(4) as the believers.