The Traits and the Characteristics of the Khawārij
On the basis of the Prophetic tradition and the activities of the Khārijites, the Salafī scholars have detailed their traits and characteristics, which are summarised below:
They display fake piety (wara’). A type of piety that led them to major innovations and deviation. Shaikh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah (d.728Ḥ) said, “This (display of overt) piety can lead a person to major innovations, for the (overt) piety (displayed) by the Khārijites, Rāfiḍites (Shi’ites) and Mu’taẓilites is of this type. They avoided oppression and from what they believed to be oppression from mixing with the oppressors as they claimed until they abandoned the major obligations such as performing the Jumū'ah (Friday) prayer and congregational prayers (with the Muslims), and Hajj and Jiḥād (alongside the rulers) and giving advice to the Muslims and showing mercy to them. The people of this type of piety were shown rejection by the leading Imāms, such as the Four Imāms, and this condition (of overt, fake piety) began to be mentioned amongst the (issues) within the doctrine of Ahl as-Sunnah wal-Jamā’ah. An illustration of their fake piety is that when they took the Prophet’s companion, ‘Abdullāh Ibn Khabbāb, captive and led him to his eventual slaughter, they passed by some date-palm trees owned by a Christian and one of them took a date and ate it. So they said to him, “You have (unlawfully) taken the date which belongs to the people of the covenant.” Another killed a pig that belonged to a Christian and they ordered him to pay compensation. Whilst observing these actions, ‘Abdullāh said to them, “Shall I not tell you who is a greater right upon you than this?” They asked, “Who?” and he replied, “Me, I have not abandoned a prayer nor have abandoned this nor that (form of worship).” However, they killed him. So they showed overt piety and fear of Allaah in taking a date unlawfully and killing a pig which was the property of a Christian, however, it was a fake type of piety, because they paid no regard to human life, that of the Prophet’s companion, whom they slaughtered by the banks of a river until his blood flowed into it.
They abandon the main body of the Muslims. Shaikh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah said, “The foundation of the misguidance of these (Khārijites) is their belief regarding the leaders of guidance and the body of the Muslims that they have departed from justice and are misguided.”
They consider themselves to be more righteous and superior to the people of knowledge. Shaikh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah said, “The first of those who went astray in this regard are the renegade Khārijites when they judged that they (alone) are holding fast to the Book of Allaah and His (Prophet’s) Sunnah.” Considering that the Khārijites have no genuine scholars amongst them, it is clear that they consider themselves more learned and superior to the scholars.
Treating what is not a sin to be a sin. Shaikh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah said, “They have two well-known traits by which they departed from the main body of the Muslims and their rulers. The first of them is their departure from the Sunnah and making what is not a sin to be a sin or what is not a good deed to be a good deed.”
They declare Muslims disbelievers on account of sins and subsequently legalise their murder. Shaikh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah said, “(The second of their well-known traits is) that they declare Muslims to be disbelievers on account of sins and evils and built upon this takfīr (excommunication), they make lawful the shedding of the blood of the Muslims and taking their wealth and claim that the land of Islām is a land of war and that the land inhabited by them (alone) is a land of faith.”
They follow ambiguous passages of the Qur’ān. Shaikh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah said, “Likewise, (Imām) Aḥmad would explain (correctly) the ambiguous verses and aḥadith which the deviants would utilise from amongst the Khārijites and others.”
Their raising the sword of violence and slaughter with the pretext of enjoining good and forbidding evil. Imām Ibn al-Qayyim (d.751Ḥ) said, “The Khārijites appeared fighting against the rulers, revolting against them with the sword with the pretext of enjoining good and forbidding evil.”
Considering something to be from the Religion when it is alien to the Religion. Shaikh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah said, “For the people of religiosity amongst those who desire the attainment of what they consider to be religion but they err from two angles. The first is that what they consider to be religion is not religion, such as the view of the Khārijites [1] and other than them from the people of desires. For they believe and (form) opinion which is erroneous and innovation and then fight the people over it. Rather, they declare their opponents to be disbelievers. Thus, they err in their view and in fighting those who oppose them or in declaring them disbelievers and cursing them. This is the condition of the generality of the people of desires.
Their gross ignorance of the Religion and absence of scholars amongst them. This is manifest when Ibn ‘Abbās was sent to debate with them and repel their doubts. It became clear that amongst the twelve or so thousand of them, there was not a single companion of the Prophet (ṣallAllaahu ‘alayhi wa ṣallam). In their debate they demonstrate their ignorance of the Qur’ān and its interpretation. They do not have the ability to make istidlāl (infer and deduce from the texts) and they rely upon generalisations and absolutions. Imām ash-Shāṭibī (d.790Ḥ) said, “From following ambiguities is to take unqualified absolutions before looking at their qualifications and taking generalisations without reflecting as to whether they have specifications or not. Likewise, the opposite, to take a text which has been restricted and to generalise it. There are no scholars to be found with the Khārijite terrorists of al-Qā’idah, an-Nuṣrah and ISIS, and certainly those who feign knowledge amongst them did not take knowledge from the well-known and famous Salafī scholars of this era. Rather, they were nurtured upon the books of Sayyid Quṭb and Mawdūdī and the books of ideology (fik’r) and ḥarakah (political activism) that are circulated amongst the Quṭbiyyah, Surūriyyah, Ḥaddādiyyah — all factions of Takfīrīs who came from the direction of the the (so-called) Muslim Brotherhood.
They subject the Qur’ān and Sunnah to faulty analogies and interpretations. Imām Ibn al-Qayyim said, “Whoever subjected the Qur’ān and the Sunnah with a form of interpretation such as the use of analogy (qiyās) or ones taste (ḍawq) or intellect (’aql) or emotional state (ḥāl) then he has a resemblance of the Khārijites, the followers of Dhul-Khuwaiṣarah. Shaikh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah said, “The very first innovations such as the innovation of the Khārijites arose due to their evil understanding of the Qur’ān. They did not deliberately intend to oppose it, but they understood from it what it did not indicate.
Severity and exaggeration in worship. The Prophet (ṣallAllaahu ‘alayhi wa ṣallam) informed his companions, as occurs in a narration collected by al-Bukhārī, that, “A people will depart from you and you will belittle your prayer compared to their prayer and your fasting compared to their fasting.”
They split into groups, declare each other astray and make takfīr of each other. Shaikh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah said, “From the blameworthy characteristics of the people of innovation is that they make takfīr of each other.”
If they gained power, they would behave with the Muslims as the leaders of Persia and Rome. ‘Alī Ibn Abī Ṭālib said in a sermon to the Muslims prior to fighting the Khārijites, “Fear Allaah and fight those who contend with Allaah and attempt to extinguish the light of Allaah, fight the erroneous, misguided, oppressive criminals. Those who are not (truly) reciters of the Qur’ān, nor jurists in the Religion, nor scholars in interpretation, nor do they have any precedence in worthiness on this affair within Islām. By Allaah, if they were appointed with authority over you, they would have done with you deeds of Chosroes and Heraclius.“
When they gain strength they slaughter Muslims primarily and leave alone non-Muslims. Imām Ibn Ḥajar (d.852Ḥ) said, “When the Khārijites judge with disbelief those (Muslims) who oppose them, they make lawful the shedding of their blood whilst leaving alone the people of the covenant. They said, “We shall fulfil their covenant with them.” [2] And they abandon fighting the pagans and preoccupy themselves with fighting the Muslims. All of this is from the effects of the worship of ignoramuses whose hearts have not been expanded with the light of knowledge. They did not hold fast to any firm rope of knowledge. Sufficient is that their leader showed rejection against the Messenger of Allaah (ṣallAllaahu 'alayhi wa ṣallam) and accused him of oppression, we ask Allaah for safety. This observation is true today when we see that the vast majority of those killed by the ISIS Khārijite terrorists, once they gained power, are Muslims. Likewise, the overwhelming majority of those killed by terrorist attacks are Muslims.
They are the worst of those killed beneath the canopy of the sky. This is textually stated in the Prophetic tradition related by Ibn Mājah, “They are the most evil of those killed beneath the canopy of the sky.”
[1] The Religion of the Khārijites is revolting against the rulers in order to establish law and justice as they claim. This is alien to Islām. Islām never came with this and is the way of the Marxists, Socialists and Communists. Islām came with its opposite, which is to maintain civil order by having patience upon the ruler’s tyranny and injustice, and this is from the angle of bearing the least of two harms so as to avert a greater harm. To oppose this clear Sunnah, the Khārijites impute disbelief to the rulers to enable them to justify their activities, since it is easier to recruit others for this purpose when they are told that the rulers are apostates and enemies of Islām and the Muslims.
[2] As indicated elsewhere in his work, the Khārijites do not withhold from killing the people of the covenant either, even if they do not subject them to the same type of slaughter they unleash upon Muslims.
Ref: The Khawārij: Historical Roots of Modern-Day Extremism and Terrorism (so-called) Muslim Brotherhood, Ḥizb at-Taḥrīr, Al-Qā’idah, An-Nuṣrah, ISIS, et al. | The Traits and the Characteristics of the Khawārij.
