Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

3. Fighting the Khawārij
The reports of the Khawārij killing men, women, and children are quite popular,
so is their excommunication of their opponents and the violation of their lives
and wealth due to the slightest of doubts.
That is why the Ṣaḥābah M were unanimous regarding fighting them, 1
especially after having known the following order of Rasūl Allah H:
فأينما لقيتموهم فاقتلوهم،‏ فإن في قتلهم أجرا لمن قتلهم يوم القيامة
Kill them wherever you meet them, for there will be reward for the one
who kills them on the Day of Qiyāmah. 2
In fact, Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī I would say, in his old age when he hands would
shiver out of weakness:
لقتال الخوارج أحب إلي من قتال عدتهم من أهل الشرك
Fighting the Khawārij is more beloved to me than fighting the same
amount of polytheists. 3
As a result of these great efforts many people arose to fight them after their
deviance had become clear to them. Thus their defeat in the battle of Nahrawān
against Amīr al-Muʾminīn ʿAlī I is very well known. Even thereafter, i.e. after
the demise of ʿAlī I some Ṣaḥābah M still held a very stern position against
them; hence it is stated in the biography of Samurah ibn Jundub that:
1 Majmūʿ Fatāwā Shaikh al-Islām 20/394.
2 The ḥadīth of ʿAlī I which appears in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: Chapter regarding demanding repentance
from the renegades and opponents and fighting them; sub-chapter regarding fighting the Khawārij
after establishing evidence against them: ḥadīth no. 6531; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim: Chapter of Zakāh: sub-chapter
regarding the encouragement of killing the Khawārij: ḥadīth no. 1066.
3 Muṣannaf Ibn Abī Shaybah: Chapter regarding the battle of Jamal: sub-chapter regarding the
Khawārij: ḥadīth no. 37886.
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