Before we enter into the event of the Great Discord, we must pause over a group that we will meet in the late era of "Uthman ibn Affan", may God be pleased with him, and that will stay with us throughout history up to this very day.. and we must know their definition, their traits and their deeds.

This group always attacks the ruler.. any ruler upon whom the people agree and whose rule they accept, and it incites the people against him.. and its opposition to the ruler in most cases consists of spreading rumours and magnifying small mistakes in the eyes of the public, and casting hatred into their hearts.. and this ends in what they had plotted for.. that they raise arms against him and against the state.

This group is ramified, and from it branch groups and sects.. each one speaks in the name of Islam.. and each one criticizes the other and points to itself as the saved sect, the one that will enter Paradise and no other. This group declares Muslims to be unbelievers.. and says a thing and its opposite.. and they might ask the ruler for something, and he actually carries it out.. then they attack him because of it.. they forbid the lawful and permit the unlawful, and in their fighting they have no covenant, no trust and no obligation.. meaning they attack ordinary civilians, they kill elders and women and children without any problem.. you make a peace or a truce with them and they break it without batting an eyelid.

They offer nothing but takfir, terror, terrorism and extremism.

Have you guessed the name of this group?

The name of this group is "the Kharijites".

And the truth, according to the Imam "Abu al-Fath Taj al-Din" al-Ash'ari, the author of "al-Milal wa al-Nihal", is that the Kharijites did not appear in the late era of "Uthman".. but this was the first time that the Muslims observed them clearly and explicitly and they gathered in this manner.. the Imam said plainly: everyone who rebels against the ruler upon whom the generality of the people have agreed is one of the Kharijites.. and many jurists agreed with him on this definition, among them "Ibn Hazm al-Zahiri".

The state of the Prophet "Solomon" came with many details in the Holy Bible and the Holy Quran.. but historically it created a problem for historians because it left behind no monuments.. it was completely erased.. and consequently some of them denied its existence and his existence altogether.. but others went on to compare this state, which was between Egypt and the Levant, with other states and other kings.. and they put before us the possibilities that "Solomon" entered history under a name other than the name mentioned in the holy books.

Meaning that he was a king and a state that truly existed, but history transmitted his news to us under another name.. the Holy Bible contains slight hints that point to this.

We return to the Kharijites. The Holy Quran in particular gives us indications of factions of devils who rebelled against the rule of "Solomon son of David", peace be upon them both, and their punishment was direct and swift.. "And whoever of them deviates from Our command, We will make him taste the punishment of the Blaze." In many accounts, these jinn who rebelled against him seized his throne for a period, but most of them are from the Isra'iliyyat.. and the position of the jurists on the Isra'iliyyat is that we "neither deny nor affirm".

And then we find in the Musnad of Imam Ahmad, in the tenth volume on pages 52 and 53, a noble hadith about the Kharijites, before they gathered in the late era of "Uthman" by some time.

The story of the hadith is that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, was sitting with his Companions, when "Abu Bakr al-Siddiq", may God be pleased with them, came in and told him joyfully that he had passed by such and such a valley.. and seen a man of good appearance, praying with humility in the utmost piety.

But the Prophet's response, peace and blessings be upon him, was a surprise to his Companions, because he immediately ordered "Abu Bakr":

"Go to him and kill him."

Without hesitation al-Siddiq sets off and goes to this man, and finds him as he is, praying in humility.. hesitation and confusion take hold of him.. so he returns once again to his companion saying in shame: "O Messenger of God, I saw him praying with humility, so I hated to kill him."

So the Prophet gives our master "Omar" the same terrible order.. "Omar" goes at once, and finds the man in his prayer, and the same thing that struck "Abu Bakr" strikes him and he returns in shame saying the same excuse and offering the same justification in the very same words.. so the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, sends our master "Ali".

"Ali ibn Abi Talib" goes to kill the man, but he returns a little later denying it: "O Messenger of God, I did not see him".. the man had left.

The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, here explains to them what had been hidden from them.. this man prays a prayer that has no meaning.. and reads the Quran without acting upon it to the extent of a mustard seed.. his relationship with religion is the relationship of "an arrow that passes through the game".. meaning like a strong arrow that launches and hits some body, and passes through it to the other side and into the ground.. what will cling to the arrow from the body? A few drops of blood at most.. and it will come out of the body just as it entered.

These people are exactly like that.. they enter religion and exit from it without knowing anything about it or learning anything.. and without acting upon it at all.. their relationship with it is mere appearances.

And this is one of the first accounts in the description of the Kharijites.. there are different versions of the hadith, some of which mention that the Prophet told his Companions that day that if they had killed this man.. the race of the Kharijites would have ceased to exist.. and no two men after him would have differed.

The Kharijites do a very nice thing.. they encourage you in secret to rebel against the imam or the ruler.. and when you rebel against the imam they sit for a while to see which way the scale will tip.. and they have no objection at all, if you rise up against the ruler, to telling you, "There is no shame.. that is not right.. he is the imam, man, after all"..! If they find you winning after they have played you like an idiot.. they come down to the field and dominate the scene and win the spoils.

The Kharijites never rebel against an occupier.. and never stand against an occupying army.. they do not rebel against the Ottoman occupation nor the English nor anything of that sort.. no.. they make truces with it and benefit from it.. and they might even declare those who rebel against it in pursuit of independence from the people of the land to be unbelievers.. history is full of accounts of their spying and their betrayal in this regard.

Their opposition, as we said, is always through terrorism and weapons.. meaning they do not merely criticize or oppose.. they will impose their view by force.. and if you oppose them they will simply and smoothly declare you an unbeliever.. and kill you as a matter of course if the opportunity arises.

The Kharijites tell you, for example, "We want a school.. build a school".. you build a school and they rebel against you because "isn't food supply more important than a school?" You set up a food depot and they tell you, "Health, you unbeliever.. where is the health care?" This is one of their famous traits.

Exactly as they did in the famous arbitration between our master "Ali" and "Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan", as we will see later.. after they accepted the arbitration.. and settled on it and a date was set for it.. thousands of them came out rejecting the arbitration and raising arms...!!

And the Kharijites are divided into groups and sects.. and they may curse one another and accuse one another of deviation and unbelief quite normally, and each group has its own guide or prince.. and they obey his command.

The "al-Sahih al-Musnad" mentions that the one of them who dies is not a martyr.. and that they are "the worst of those killed under the canopy of the sky".. the most evil of creatures under the dome of heaven.. and "the best of the killed are those they kill".. and the one they kill is among the finest of martyrs.

Some of the great jurists considered them unbelievers outside the faith from the outset, and that is because they declared the imams "Uthman" and "Ali" and the Lady "Aisha" the Mother of the Believers, peace be upon her, to be unbelievers, and their descendants raised arms against the generality of the people.. and some of them were wary of this.. and rejected it.. because in the past there were Companions among them.. so they preferred safety.. and refused to declare them unbelievers.. and they proceeded on this principle up to this very day.. even though the Kharijites in our age certainly have no Companions among them.

Can you, on the basis of what has preceded.. name for us a group from among the groups of the Kharijites in the modern age in your country in the comments?

As for the relationship of the Kharijites to the Great Discord and what it led to, that is a long talk, and we will speak about it later.

And the talk has a remainder.

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Previous posts:

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1 - http://bit.ly/2Rm5tBs

2 - http://bit.ly/2RACrOV

3 - http://bit.ly/2NeseJs