Abstract of "Kharijites and the Absent Truth"

"The Truth, even if it disappears, it will not vanish, and even if it gets distorted, but its features will not cease; one of the ways of life.

And underneath the rubble, the splinters of the Jewels of Truth shine when they are highlighted.

And this is after it has been destroyed by the vicissitudes of time and the hands of frivolity.

And these splinters remain waiting for one, who will recover them and combine between their scattered pieces; so that, one day, their clear shine will return back to them.

There will remain the duty of correct-faithed Muslim is to endeavor after the Truth and then to adhere to the Truth wherever he finds it because Indeed, in that, firstly and lastly, is the pleasure of the Lord of the Worlds." By Sheikh Nasser Suleiman Al-Sabi'ei

Al-Khawarij wal-Haqiqa Al-Gha'eba (Kharijites and the Absent Truth) is an important referral book that contains important information and scientific discussions about Kharijites.  

The book is a study by Dr. Nasser Suleiman Al-Sabi'ei. It was a part of the author’s Master's dissertation. The book is in Arabic; however, the following is an abstract from the book.

ABSTRACT

          The title of this thesis is “Hadeeth’s Related to Kharijites-Collections (takhreej) and Study”. This thesis is divided into an introduction, two parts and a conclusion.

-         Introduction is about choosing the subject and its importance.

-         The first part is entitled “Rise of Kharijites and specifying their legislations and sects.

          This part included an analysis for sources, references, a preface and two chapters.

          Analysis of sources included analysis for important sources related to the historical part of the thesis whether it is Ibadieh, Sunnah and She’at by indicating the name of the book, author, its importance to this study and its inclination, negative and positive points in the book. The study also covered some recent references in this subject.

          The preface is a summary of historical incidents before Seffeen battle.

Chapter one of this part is entitled (Al-Nahrawan People) “Al-Ahl Al-Nahrawan” which is divided into four sections.

·          Section One: The historical sequence of their support to Al-Nahrawan people, by viewing incidents in brief as of Seffeen battle and what happened of raising the Quran to retreat to Haraura’ then to Al-Nahrawan, till the end of eliminating most of Al-Nahrawan people there.

·          Section Two: Escorts (Sahaba) of Al-Nahrawan people, where I tried to limit who was proved to have been an escort or who was mentioned among escorts of (Al-Nahrawan people) “Ahl Al-Nahrawan”.

·          Section Three: Reasons of Al-Nahrawan people to leave Imam Ali (May God honor him), where I thoroughly discussed the debate which occurred at Harawra’ between Abdullah bin Abbas and the opponents of arbitration, and the discussions that occurred later among scholars in this regard.

·          Section Four: Check the genuineness of what has been attributed to Al-Nahrawan people of penance (Takfeer) and killing, where the study verified the killing of Khabbab bin Al-Arat by Al-Nahrawan people and dealing with their opponents. This section also dealt with the penance that expels out of the sect (mellat) which is allegedly attributed to Al-Nahrawan people as one of the judgements that they used with their opponents, and the validity of this attribution.

The Second chapter of this part is entitled Al-Khawarej (Kharijites) divided into four sections.

·          Section One: Beginning of the term Kharijites “Al-Khawarej”. Where I tried to tackle the term and specify when it started and became a term of fixed usher.

·          Section Two: Entitled “The Meaning of Kharijites, where I analyzed this term lexically and idiomatically including the dimensions of this term.

·          Section Three: I discussed the opinions of Kharijites, whether those agreed upon by all Kharijites or by some of them exclusively than others.

·          Section Four: I discussed the four main sects of Kharijites, and stated the relevance between each of them and Kharijites. Those sects are Azareqah, Najdat, Sufrieh and Ibadieh.

Part Two: “Hadith’s reported by Kharijites and Study”. Divided into a preface and eight chapters. Each chapter studied a Hadith and divided into three sections. The first section discusses the interpretation of Hadith, the second discusses Asaneed (sources) and the third discusses Matn (text).

Those Hadith’s are:

1^st.  Hadith of Morouq (Apostasy) and the text in some wordings: “People will come out that you will dishonor praying, fasting and working with them. They read Quran, but does not exceed their throats. They pass through religion as the arrow passes through the target”.

2^nd. Hadith of Mokhaddaj or thil Yudayyah or thil Thudayyah: which is addition in some methods of Hadith of Apostasy that include the description of Mokhaddaj, in the wordings: “Their sign is a black man, one of his brachiums is like a fist that jerks, they come out in a period of people’s weakness”.

3^rd. Hadith of Shaytan Al-Radha (Satan of Radha): the wordings in some methods as reported by Sa’ad bin Abi Waqqas: The prophet (may peace be upon him) mentioned him and said: Satan of Radha is the mountain’s shepherd or horses’ shepherd that a man of bajeelah called Al-Ashhab or Ibn Al-Ashhab drags him down, and he is a sign among oppressive people.

4^th.  Hadith of the worshipper whom the prophet ordered to kill. The wordings in some aspects according Anas bin Malek, said: during the era of the prophet there was a man whom we liked his worshipping and endeavor, we introduced him to the prophet, but he did not recognize him. Meanwhile, the man appeared. We said: This is the man, the prophet said: “you are telling about a man with a scorch of Satan”, then he came, stood among them, and did not greet them. The prophet asked: “By the name of God, the time you stood among them, didn’t you say that none here is better than yourself?” The man said: By God, yes, then he entered to pray. The prophet said: “who kills this man?” Abu Bakr said: me, then he entered and found him praying, and said: glory to God, I cannot kill a man praying and the prophet ordered us no to do so, then left. The prophet asked him: what did you do? Abu Bakr said: I couldn’t kill him and you prohibited us from killing a man praying. The prophet said: “Who kills this man?” Omar said: me, then he entered and found him in prostration, and said: Abu Bakr is better than me, and left. The prophet asked him: What? Omar said: I found him in prostration to God and I hated to kill him. The prophet said: “Who kills this man?” Ali said: me, and the prophet said: “If you catch him!”, then he entered and found him out. The prophet said: “If he was killed, none of my people would ever disagree”. Mousa bin Obaidah said: I heard Mohammed bin Ka’b saying: “He is the one killed by Ali; thul Thudayyah”.

5^th. Hadith of Imam Ali: “Ayesha bint Abi Bakr knew that Al-Nahrawan people are cursed by the tongue of Prophet Mohammed (May peace be upon him).

6^th. Hadith of Imam Ali: “I was ordered to fight the faithless, unjust and apostates”.

7^th. Hadith of “An apostate group comes out of two groups among my people, the closest to truth will kill the apostate.

8^th. Hadith of “Kharijites are the dogs of hell”.

The conclusion covered the results of the study as follows:

1.        Among Al-Nahrawan people or the opponents of arbitration, there are escorts of the prophet, the sources agree on three of them: Zaid bin Hisn Al-Ta’i, Harqous bin Zuhair Al-Sa’di and he is other than thil Khuwaierah, Al-Mukhaddaj and Al-Kherreet bin Rashed Al-Sami Al- Naji.

2.       What is correct about arbitration case with his opponents, and what has been attributed to ibn Abbas that he is their opponent at Haraura’, is not established.

3.       Al-Nahrawan people did not agree on killing Abdullah bin Khabbab but he was killed by one of those who joined them later, Mas’ar bin Fadki Al-Tamimi, and Al-Nahrawan people exiled him.

4.       Attributance of penance to Al-Nahrawan people is not proven, and if established, then it is meant disobedience as it was mentioned in Quran and the Prophetic Sunnah, and the reason for the second orientation is that giving the judgement of penance on opponents was used during Azareqa era, 64 Hijri.

5.       The term “Khawarej” Kharijites came after Azareqa during 64 Hijri, and arouse during 72 Hijri.

6.      The terminological meaning of Khawarej is limited for those who judge their opponents with polytheism or penance that expels out of the mellat which consequently led to the permission of killing; which means killing the opponents and dealing with them as polytheists.

7.       Mohakkema conclude the following opinions:

a.        Denial of arbitration.

b.       Permission to give imamate (leadership) to other than Quraishians.

c.        Permission to go against the unjust scholars.

d.       Judge those who go against ummah (people) as infidels, but as infidels of the grace of God till 64 Hijri, but later only Ibadieh committed with that.

8.       Killing of Imam Ali by Abdul Rahman bin Muljem was not set by Mohakkema.

9.       Sects that might be related to Kharijites are Azareqa, Najadat and Sufriah, but not Ibadiah, because the three sects adopted the judgement on opponents with polytheism that expels out of mellat, but Ibadiah deal with their opponents as any Moslems in all aspects.

10.   It has been established through Hadith’s that talk-direct or indirect- about Kharijites, that the Hadith of Morouq, has been confirmed by ten of the escorts.

11.     Hadith of Morouq can be applied on Kharijites who came after 64 Hijri, as it matches with their description, which appeared in “no worshipping with deviance” in some verses of the Holy Koran and Sharia texts pertaining to polytheism by directing them to ahlul Qibla, which leads to permission of killing them according to what was mentioned in some of the wordings of this Hadith: “they kill the people of Islam and let the people of idols”. This judgement also applies on whoever adopts an outside notion, earlier or recently.

12.    Hadith of Mokhaddaj cannot be true from the prophet, and is an addition.

13.    Hadith of Satan of Radha is munkar (rejected).

14.   Hadith of the worshipper is weak.

15.    Hadith of Imam Ali: “Ayesha bint Abi Bakr knew that Al-Nahrawan people are cursed by the prophet”, is weak.

16.   Hadith of Imam Ali: “I was ordered to fight the faithless, unjust and apostates”, is a composed Hadith.

17.    Hadith of “An apostate group comes out of two groups among my people, the closest to truth will kill the apostate” is true in some asaneed but did not mention specific people. It is not true with the addition.

18.   Hadith of “Kharijites are the dogs of hell” is not true to be related to the prophet, and is dedicated to Abi Umamah al-Baheli Sadi bin Ajlan.

Finally the thesis was concluded with an index of sources and references used in this study.

 Reference:

Al-Khawarij wal-Haqiqa Al-Gha'eba (Kharijites and the Absent Truth), by By Sheikh Nasser Suleiman Al-Sabi'ei, pg: 448-452.

And for those who are interested in reading the book. They could download it from this link.