The Kharijites and their Successors
By
Tauheed Qadiri
In order to know the good
among the people, one must first examine the history of heresy in Islam. Only
by understanding false teachings and their supporters will we appreciate the
importance of the people of
good (Ahl ul-khayr).
The heresy of the Departers [Kharajites] was the
first group of people who deviated from the pure and sublime faith of Islam.
The first and worst of those who departed from the Sunni path was the Kharijī known as the Dhul-Khuwaisarah.
The Companion Abu Sa`īd al-Khudrī
(r) related, “Once Sayyidina `Alī (r) sent some
gold ore wrapped in dyed leather from Yemen to the Prophet of Allah (s), and he
divided it among four people: Zaid al-Khalīl,
al-Aqra ibn Hābis,
Unaiyna ibn Hisn and Alqamah
ibn Ulāthah.
A person among the
Companions remarked that they had a better claim to the wealth than these
people. When this remark reached the Prophet (s), He said, “Will you not trust
me whom the One above the heavens has trusted? Information comes to me from the
heavens morning and evening.”
Then a man with sunken
eyes, high check bones, protruding forehead, thick beard and a shaven head,
stood up and said, “Muhammad! Fear Allah!” The Prophet (s) turned to him and replied,
“Woe be to you, am I not the person who fears Allah (s.w)
the most?” The man than walked away and Khālid
ibn al-Walīd (r) jumped up and said, “Perhaps
one who observes prayer says with his tongue what is not in his heart.” The
Prophet (s) said, “I was not commanded to pierce the hearts or the people or
slit open their bellies.”
He (s) glanced at the man who
was walking away and said, “There will arise a people
from among the progeny of this man who will recite the Qur'an but it will not
go beyond their throats. They will pass through the religion as an arrow passes
through its target.”
Khālid ibn al-Walīd (r) asked the Prophet (s), “O Prophet of Allah
(s) this man has all the [athar] effects of sunnah,
his eyes are red due to crying, his face has two scars of tears on his checks,
his feet are swollen due to standing the whole night in [tahajjud]
night vigil, he has a thick beard …” The Prophet (s) replied, “The meaning of this Verse [qul in'kuntu tuhib'būna allāh fat'tabiunī]
say if you love Allah follow me.” He asked, “How O Prophet of Allah (s)?' He
(s) replied, 'Be kind like me, be compassionate, love
the poor and the destitute, be gentle, care and love your brothers and be
protective.’”
The cursed man was called
Dhul-Khuwaisarah at-Tamīmī
and he is considered the first of the Kharijī to
arise in Islam. The root of his sickness was that he preferred his own opinion
above that of the Prophet (s). If he had waited to hear what the Prophet (s)
had to say, he would have realized that no opinion can be given precedence over
that of The Prophet (s), and it was his individual's tribe men who later rose
in arms against the fourth Khalipha Sayyidina `Alī ibn Abi Talib (r).
Muhammad ibn Sad reported
from his teachers that three Kharijites--Abdur-Rahman
ibn Muljam, al-Burak ibn Abdilaah
and and Amr ibn Bakr at-Tamīmī--gathered
in Makkah and pledged to kill Sayyidina `Alī (r)
on a Friday morning on the seventeenth day of Ramadhan,
the three envious conspirators went to the main masjid of Kufa just before the
break of dawn, there they took their position in the narrow passage leading to
the prayer hall. A little later, Hadrat `Alī (r) the Beloved of Sayyiduna
Muhammad (s) and the “Door of Knowledge” came to the masjid, when
it was still dark and their was no one else in the masjid. Ibn Muljam struck Sayyidina `Alī
(r) a vicious blow on the forehead which penetrated to his blessed brain.
Sayyidina `Alī (r) cried out to the people not
to let him escape and they caught him.
[NOTE:
Abdurrahman Ibnu Muljam,
the assassin of Imam `Alī, was the most
important muhaddith (narrator of Hadith) in his
generation of Tabi'een.]
When Umm Kulthūm screamed at him, “O enemy of Allah! [yā `aduwullh],
you have killed the Amīril Mu'minīn
wrongly,” the cursed one replied, “Then cry!” He then went on to say , “I poisoned the my sword, so if he survives me, I pray
that Allah (swt) banishes him and destroys him.”
After Sayyidina `Alī (r) was martyred, Ibn Muljam
was brought out to be executed. It was observed that the
skin of his forehead was brown from the effects of constant prostration in
prayer.
When Sayyidina Imam Hassan ibn `Alī (r) wanted
to make a peace settlement with Mu`awiyah, a Kharijite by the name of al-Jarrah
ibn Sinān revolted against him. Al-Jarrah said to him, “You have committed shirk as
your father did,” then stabbed him in his upper thigh.
The Kharijites
continued to raise confusion within and against the Muslim state, massacring
innocent Muslim men, women and children during both the Ummayad and Abbassid dynasties. Later on they were all but eradicated
by the Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jama`ah.
Muhammad ibn `Abdul Wahhāb at-Tamīmī
of Najd, a descendant of Dhul-Khuwaisarah, revived
the Kharijite sect, some of whom call themselves
Wahabis and others who call themselves Salafis. He spread their evil thought
amongst the Bedouins of Najd, encouraging them to revolt against the Ottoman
caliphate, with the help of the British, just as their forebears had revolted
against the early caliphs.