Ali Ibn Abi Talib - Volume 2 of 2

254 'Ali's attitude towards the Khan'jtes and Shia
Ibn al-Jawzi said, commenting on this hadith.. '"The first of the
Kharijites, and the worst of them, was Dhul-Khuway~irah at-
Tameemi. According to one version, he said to the Prophet (@), 'Be
fair,' and the Prophet (g) repbed: 'Woe to you! Who will be fair if I
am not fair?'13 This was the first Kharijite to rebel in Islam. His
problem was that he was content with his own opinion, but if he had
thought carefnlly, he would have realised that no opinion could
supersede that of the Messenger of Allah (g). The followers of this
man are those who fought 'Ali ibn Abi T2lib (&)."14
Among those who suggested that Dhul-Khuway~irah was the
first of the Kharijites were Abu Muhammad ibn ~ azm'~ and ash-
Shahras&i, in his hook al-Milal wan-~iha1.l~ Some scholars think
that the Kharijites originated at the time of the rebellion against
'Uthmin (&), when they stirred up the fitnah that led to his being
killed wrongfully and unlawfully; the unrest that they stirred up was
called 'the fmt fitnah'.17 The commentator on at-Tahhciwiyyah said:
"The Kharijites and the Shia emerged during the first fitnah."18 Ibn
Katheer labelled as Khxijites the thugs who rebelled against and
killed 'Uthm2n (&), and he said when discussing them after their
slaying of 'Uthmk (&): "The Kharijites came and seized the wealth
of the public treasury, in which there was a great deal of ~ealth."'~
The most correct opinion about the origins of the Kharijites,
despite the strong connections between Dhul-Khuway~irah and the
thugs who rebelled against 'Uthmk (&) on the one hand, and the
Kharijites who rebelled against 'Ali(4)
because of the arbitration
on the other, is that this terminology - in the most accurate sense of
the word -can only be applied to those who rebelled because of the
arbitration. They were an organised group who formed a sect with its
own political inclinations and views, and the group had a clear
ideological and intellectual impact, which was not the case in the
previous incidents?'