Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

There were two primary reasons which had paved the way for the Berbers to
accept the Khārijī propaganda:
Firstly, the suppression they were encountering from the Umayyad Empire and
the oppression they were suffering from some of its governors. 1 This was in spite
of their recent Islam and their ignorance regarding its tenets. Hence the more
appropriate approach toward them should have been winning their hearts by
being good to them and dealing with them with kindness.
In this environment they became exposed to the propaganda of the Khawārij
which entailed the importance of justice without any distinction between Arab
and Non-Arab, and that the Khilāfah is not necessarily confined to the Quraysh;
rather any person who is most fearing of Allah E is deserving of it even if
he be an Abyssinian slave. These ideas touched these weak hearts and influenced
them very heavily.
Secondly, they observed how passionately the Khawārij were immersed in
worship and how greatly disinclined they were from this world and how firmly
grounded they were in the Dīn. This gave them the impression that the Dīn of
the Khawārij is the actual Dīn, not the oppression and suppression they were
suffering at the hands of their rulers.
Hence in the years to follow the dogma of the Khawārij spread profusely in the
west 2 and it gained a lot of prominence and strength.
In order to get an idea of the extent to which their influence had reached it is
enough to note that in some of their battles they had reached four hundred
thousand. 3 Likewise, the battles that had ensued between them and the Arabs
1 Ibid. 4/241; al-Istiqṣā li Akhbār Duwal al-Maghrib al-Aqṣā 1/162.
2 Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ 18/429; al-ʿIbar fī Akhbār Man Ghabar 1/219; al-Istiqṣā li Akhbār Duwal al-Maghrib
al-Aqṣā 1/186.
3 Al-Badʾ wa al-Tārīkh 6/87; al-Muntaẓam 8/166; Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ 15/156.
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