Counter Terrorism Operation: Notes/Extra Info: Origins of ... · Counter Terrorism Operation: Notes/Extra Info: Origins of Splinter Factions/Anarchists in Islam: Kharijites

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Counter Terrorism Operation:

Notes/Extra Info:

Origins of Splinter Factions/Anarchists in

Islam:

Kharijites.


Historical Origins

• Kharijites:

• Represented a splinter faction/satanic group during the Prophetic era.

• Always are a source of political conflict.

• Always operate in the name of religious motivation.

• Hadith:

• “…they will kill the Muslims but leave alone the idolaters. If I were present in

their time, I would kill them as the tribe of Aad were killed”. (Bukhari, Abu

Saeed al Khudri).

• In a hadith narrated by Abdullah Ibn Abbas: “There will be much slaughter and

killing in his time, and in that conflict they will make Muslims’ property lawful

for themselves and for trade amongst themselves. They will make the killing

of Muslims lawful.”

• Writers’ Note: “Here, ‘in his time’ refers to Abdul Wahhab’s times and ‘they’

refer to those people who embraced and followed his doctrines. Clearly Abdul

Wahhab and his followers fulfil the prophecies.


Sunni vs. Kharijite Hermeneutical Disputes since Early Period.

• Case Study: Anecdotes of Ahmed Raza Khan (p.79-86)

• The Kharijites rejected the appointment of judges to arbitrate during the

Battle of Siffin, the real reason was political, i.e. that they did not want this

disruptive encounter to end/desired more violence, but the argument they

offered was theological, i.e. that only God could decide the affair.

• Ibn Abbas requested permission from Ali to confront the Kharijites who were

10,000 in number.

• They argued citing verse “Judgement is from none but God” (Chapter of

Yusuf, v.40), and Ibn Abbas replied with a more nuanced and contextualised

understanding, citing verse “And if you fear a dispute between husband and

wife, then appoint an arbiter from the side of the man and the woman to solve

the problem.”(Chapter of Women, v.35)

• Ahmed Raza Khan’s notes:

• “Remember that this is the same format of argument used by the present day

Wahabis. They turn a blind eye to the differences between bestowed and

personally acquired knowledge and also reject the legality of seeking

assistance from anyone besides God (i.e. Saints). It is an Islamic belief that

Allah has bestowed his elite servants with this science of knowledge and

powers. This knowledge and power is purely bestowed and not personal. But

the Wahabi rejects this in totality and says that such beliefs are polytheism”.


Pretentious Religiosity: The Hallmark of Kharijism.

• These early schismatics, described by the Prophet as “dogs of Hellfire” are

distinguished by their idiocy, lack of sophistication, and obsession with

rituals/outward demonstration of religiosity. Islamic thought was built on

intellectual sophistication and urban culture, but Wahabi/Kharijite thought is

the adopted religion of desert dwellers/bedouins and angry converts who

were foreign to the Arabian peninsula and the Prophetic movement.

• Case Study cont’d: No negotiation with terrorists, no matter how religious.

• “Imam Hasan and Husan and other eminent spiritual personalities hesitated

because this group spent the entire night in worship and recited the Quran

during the day. They protested, “How could we raise our swords on people

who are immersed in worship?”

• Meanwhile the Prophet had already informed Ali about this sect. He said

“These people will revolt against Islam and they will be very staunch in their

external duties of prayer and fasting. They will leave the faith just as an

arrow leaves the bow for its target never to return again. They will recite the

Quran but it will not proceed below their throats.”

• Continuation of the anecdote:

• “Eventually the Muslim army was compelled to execute the command of Ali.

Hence the battle commmenced. In the course of the war, the leader was

informed that the enemy had retreated to the banks of a river. On hearing

this, Ali said that not even ten of them will cross the river and all will be killed

on the side of the riverbank. It is reported that every single one of the 5000

were killed before crossing the river.

• Since the army of the Amir was impressed by the piety/religiosity of the

enemy, he had to clear their minds and hearts of their misconception. To do

this, he ordered his army to search the corpses of the enemy and find one

called Dhul Thadiyya (One with a small breast: due to strange protrusion on

his hand).

• The Amir gave a description and said “If you find him dead, then you have

killed the most evil man on Earth.” His corpse was found and his hand indeed

was shaped like a breast of a woman. The army was relieved and thanked

their leader for cleansing the Earth of this filth.


The Kharijites: A Repetitive Pest.

• After finding the body, the Amir addressed his soldiers and said, “Do you

think that this cursed sect and their following are totally cleansed? Certainly

not! Some of them are still in the womb of their mothers and others are still in

the sperm of their fathers. When one of these groups is exterminated, another

will rise with mischief [Arabic: fitna] and this will continue until the last group

emerges with the cursed dajjal [Arabic: False Messiah]”. (p.81)

• The fact that the Kharijites re-emerged during the 18th

century within the

form of Wahhabism is attested to by a scholar of that period, Ibn Abidin, in his

legal compendium, radd ul mukhtar. • “The name of Khawarij is applied to those who part ways with the Muslims

and declare them as disbelievers, as took place in our time with the followers

of Ibn Abdal Wahhab who came out of Najd and attacked the Two Noble

Sanctuaries” (Ibn Abidin, Radd, v.3: 309; Chapter on Dealing with Rebels).

• Kharijites always believed themselves to be on truth.

• During the Umayyad period, Kharijites would periodically emerge and try to

raise rebellion against the government. They would kill all who disagreed with

their views.


Various Prophecies Associated with Kharijism

• The Appelation of Najdi:

• THE PROPHET SAID, "THERE (IN NAJD) IS THE PLACE OF EARTHQUAKES AND

AFFLICTIONS AND FROM THERE COMES OUT THE SIDE OF THE HEAD OF SATAN." (AL-

BUKHARI) .

• ALLAH'S APOSTLE SAID, "THERE WILL APPEAR SOME PEOPLE AMONG YOU WHOSE

PRAYER WILL MAKE YOU LOOK DOWN UPON YOURS, AND WHOSE FASTING WILL MAKE

YOU LOOK DOWN UPON YOURS, BUT THEY WILL RECITE THE QUR'AN WHICH WILL NOT

EXCEED THEIR THROATS (THEY WILL NOT ACT ON IT) AND THEY WILL GO OUT OF

ISLAM AS AN ARROW GOES OUT THROUGH THE GAME WHEREUPON THE ARCHER

WOULD EXAMINE THE ARROWHEAD BUT SEE NOTHING, AND LOOK AT THE

UNFEATHERED ARROW BUT SEE NOTHING, AND LOOK AT THE ARROW FEATHERS BUT

SEE NOTHING, AND FINALLY HE SUSUSPECTS TO FIND SOMETHING IN THE LOWER

PART OF THE ARROW." (AL-BUKHARI)

• Ali once narrated: "I swear by Allah that, to fall from the sky to the Earth is

very simple for me, but to utter one false word in reference to the Prophet is

a very difficult and impossible task for me."

• Ali then narrated as follows. 'I heard Prophet as saying that as the Day of

Judgement approaches there will appear a group of youths with a low mental

capacity and understanding, apparently they will talk good but their faith will

not go beyond their throat and they will leave the true religion like an arrow

leaves the bow. Wherever you find them, you should make war with

them. (Bukhari, p. 1024)


• 'ALI BIN ABI TALIB SENT A PIECE OF GOLD NOT YET TAKEN OUT OF ITS ORE, IN A TANNED

LEATHER CONTAINER TO ALLAH'S APOSTLE. ALLAH'S APOSTLE DISTRIBUTED THAT AMONGST

FOUR PERSONS: 'UYAINA BIN BADR, AQRA BIN HABIS, ZAID AL-KHAIL AND THE FOURTH WAS

EITHER ALQAMA OR AMIR BIN AT TUFAIL. ON THAT, ONE OF HIS COMPANIONS SAID, "WE ARE

MORE DESERVING OF THIS (GOLD) THAN THESE (PERSONS)." WHEN THAT NEWS REACHED THE

PROPHET, HE SAID, "DON'T YOU TRUST ME THOUGH I AM THE TRUTHWORTHY MAN OF THE ONE

IN THE HEAVENS, AND I RECEIVE THE NEWS OF HEAVEN (I.E. DIVINE INSPIRATION) BOTH IN THE

MORNING AND IN THE EVENING?" THERE GOT UP A MAN WITH SUNKEN EYES, RAISED CHEEK

BONES, RAISED FOREHEAD, A THICK BEARD, A SHAVEN HEAD AND A WAIST SHEET THAT WAS

TUCKED UP AND HE SAID, "O ALLAH'S APOSTLE! BE AFRAID OF ALLAH." THE PROPHET SAID,

"WOE TO YOU! AM I NOT OF ALL THE PEOPLE OF THE EARTH THE MOST ENTITLED TO FEAR

ALLAH?" THEN THAT MAN WENT AWAY. KHALID BIN AL-WAHD SAID, "O ALLAH'S APOSTLE!

SHALL I CHOP HIS NECK OFF?" THE PROPHET SAID, "NO, FOR HE MAY OFFER PRAYERS." KHALID

SAID, "NUMEROUS ARE THOSE WHO OFFER PRAYERS AND SAY BY THEIR TONGUES (I.E. MOUTHS)

WHAT IS NOT IN THEIR HEARTS." ALLAH'S APOSTLE SAID, "I HAVE NOT BEEN ORDERED (BY

ALLAH) TO SEARCH THE HEARTS OF THE PEOPLE OR CUT OPEN THEIR BELLIES." THEN THE

PROPHET LOOKED AT HIM (I.E. THAT MAN) WHILE THE LATTER WAS GOING AWAY AND SAID,

"FROM THE OFFSPRING OF THIS (MAN THERE WILL COME OUT (PEOPLE) WHO WILL RECITE THE

QUR'AN CONTINUOUSLY AND ELEGANTLY BUT IT WILL NOT EXCEED THEIR THROATS. (THEY

WILL NEITHER UNDERSTAND IT NOR ACT UPON IT). THEY WOULD GO OUT OF THE RELIGION (I.E.

ISLAM) AS AN ARROW GOES THROUGH A GAME'S BODY." I THINK HE ALSO SAID, "IF I SHOULD BE

PRESENT AT THEIR TIME I WOULD KILL THEM AS THE NATIONS OF THAMUD WERE KILLED." (AL-

BUKHARI)


SOME SIGNS:

• From Anecdotes of Ahmed Raza Khan, p.82:

• According to Prophecies regarding the Kharijites, it is learned:

• “If you compare your prayer with theirs, you will regard yours as insignificant and

insufficient. Likewise will be the situation of your fasting and righteous deeds”.

• They will recite the Quran but it will not go below their throats (not enter their hearts).

• Their words and speech will be sweet and appealing, and they will cite the Hadiths in

everything they say.

• They will leave the boundaries of faith just as an arrow leaves the bow for its target

(never to return).

• One of their signs is that most of them will have shaven heads.

• Their trousers are often raised high above the ankles.

• Commentary:

• “Look at the present day Wahhabis. The majority of them shave off their hair and lift

their pants high above their ankles, how true are the prophecies…”


Kharijites originated with disaffected converts.

• They were not originally Muslims, they were just frustrated bedouins who were

attempting to achieve some higher quality of life.

• Using the new dominant cultural trend of Arab Islam, Persian slaves attempted to revive

their own mini empire.

• Kharijites almost always emerge among the lower social strata.

• Most of the Kharijites/Shiites emerged from the mawali class:

• “Next below the Arabian Moslems came the Neo Muslims, who by force or persuasion

had professed Islam and were thereby admitted in theory but not in practice, to the

full rights of Islamic citizenship…

• Under the early Abbasids, the Egyptians, Persians and Arameans who had accepted

Islam began to outnumber the Muslims of Arabian origin… Reduced to the position of

clients (mawali), these neophyte Muslims formed the lowest stratum of Muslim

society, a status which they bitterly resented…

• This explains our finding them in many cases espousing such causes as the Shiite in

Iraq or the Kharijite in Persia.” (Hitti, p.232)

• Kharijism was always a vessel for socially frustrated bedouins:

• More examples of downtrodden members of society resorting to Kharijism: “The

Berbers, who after the Spanish conquest flooded the peninsula from Africa, where

many of them had embraced the Kharijite doctrine and espoused its cause against

both Umayyads and Alids, now constituted a most disturbing factor.

• They complained that their nationals carried the brunt of the fighting but were

nevertheless allotted the arid central plateau, whereas the Arabs appropriated for

themselves the most smiling provinces of Andalusia.” (Hitti, ‘History of the Arab

Race’, p.502)


Joint Shiite/Kharijite Origins.

• The Khawarij originally were part of Ali’s supporters/army, of those who took

part in Abdullah Ibn Saba’s movement.

• They had a pagan concept of leadership, they deified leaders, and they declared

Ali as a disbeliever for his truce with Muawiya, as they did not believe it was

possible for leaders to commit sins, i.e. that they were infallible.

In the Battle of Siffin, Ali acceded to Muawiyah’s suggestion to stop the fighting and

resort to negotiation. A large portion of Ali’s troops refused to concede to that

agreement, and they considered that Ali had breached a Quranic verse which states

that the decision is only for Allah (6:57) which the Kharijites interpreted to mean that

the outcome of a conflict can only be decided in battle by God and not in negotiations

by human beings

Decimated by Ali at Nahrawan

• The Khawarij, on their way through Nahrawan, discovered a man who was fleeing

from them, and having surrounded him, they said “Who art thou?” To which he replied

that he was Abdullah Ibn Khabbab ibn al Aratt. He was requested to recite to them a

tradition, and he cited a particular tradition which was meant to criticise those who

resorted to violent uprising, resulting in the Khawarij killing him and raiding his house

(Baghdadi, p.77). The tradition he cited was “There will be a civil war during which

he who sits will be better than he who stands, and he who stands than he who walks,

and he who walks better than he who runs, and whoever is able to be killed, let him

not be a slayer".


Sunni Identity: War Against Schismatics

• When news of them reached 'Ali he started against them with forty thousand

of his followers, accompanied by 'Adi ibn-Hatim al-Ta'I, who said: "When

people fall back and slink away, we come with banners of truth fluttering like

eagles, against the worst of Schismatics, who have gathered together to make

war on the God of men, the Lord of the East, against the erring and the blind

and the forsakers of true guidance, all of whom reject his word, and are

unrighteous. And among us is 'Ali, of excellent virtue, who leads us against

them openly with shining swords" (Farq baynal firaq, p.78).

• They fought desperately but were outnumbered by Ali’s followers and the

battle turned into a one-sided massacre.

• On this day, 8000 repented and the other 4000 remained in opposition to him.

They were headed by Abdallah Ibn Wahb al Rasibi and Hurkus ibn Zuhair al

Bajali. He fought the Khawarij with the soldiers who came with him from

Kufah, and as for the 8000 of the Khawarij who repented, they were told by

Ali to withdraw from him for one day. Most of the Khawarij were killed on that

day, nine escaped. They found the corpse of Dhul Thadya and hung him.

These were the First Muhakkimah.


Early Kharijites

More on the ‘First Muhakkimah’:

• Whereupon 'Ali attacked them with his army, and they appeared before him en masse.

But before fighting he said to them, "What makes you seek revenge from me?" They

answered, "We seek revenge from thee, first of all, because we fought for thee in the

Battle of the Camel, and when the Followers of the Camel were put to flight thou didst

permit us [to keep] what we had won [in the way] of booty from their soldiers, but

thou didst forbid our taking possession of their women and their children. Why didst

thou permit us their goods and exclude their women and children?" “Ali answered: "I

allowed their possessions to be seized only in exchange for what they had robbed

from the treasury in al-Basrah before I came to them. But as to the women and the

children, they were not fighting us. And therefore the regulations of Islam, made

within the territory of Islam should be applied to them. None of them had apostatized

from Islam, and it is not permitted to make slaves of those who are not unbelievers.

Moreover, if I had allowed you to take the women, which one of you would have taken

'A'ishah as his share? p.79 [Baghdadi]

The Reasons for the Kharijites’ Discontent:

• Ali did not let them take women and children as booty after the Battle of the Camel.

• Ali did not use the title ‘Amir ul Mu’minin’ to address himself in his correspondence

with Muawiya while the latter disputed his power. (79)

• His showing doubt to the two judges about the caliphate, saying, “If I am worthy of

the caliphate then confirm me in it” (79).

• His acceptance to take part in arbitration when the truth was on his side (p.80).

• On this day, 8000 repented and the other 4000 remained in opposition to him. They

were headed by Abdallah Ibn Wahb al Rasibi and Hurkus ibn Zuhair al Bajali. He

fought the Khawarij with the soldiers who came with him from Kufah, and as for the

8000 of the Khawarij who repented, they were told by Ali to withdraw from him for

one day. Most of the Khawarij were killed on that day, nine escaped. They found the

corpse of Dhul Thadya and hung him. These were the First Muhakkimah, and above

are their views.

Early Kharijites: The Azariqa

• The Azariqah: they are the followers of Nafi' ibn al-Azraq.

• “The Khawarij never had a sect which surpassed this in number, nor one that

exceeded it in power. In creed they agreed on many points, among which

were the following: 1. the opponents of the sect were polytheists. 2. The First

Muhakkimah had said that these Muslims were not polytheists, but still

apostates. This new sect also said that those who abstained from fighting with

them were polytheists.3. If a soldier appears claiming to be from their sect,

the truth should be proven by bringing forth a captive from the opposing side

who he be commanded to kill; if he kills this individual, his claim that he is

one of the sect is confirmed; if he refuses to kill the captive, he should be


considered a hypocrite and a heretic, and should be put to death. 4. This sect

permits the killing of their opponents' wives, as well as the killing of their

children. Moreover, they claim that the children of those who oppose them

are polytheists and will therefore be in hellfire forever. Nafi' and his followers

claimed that the home of their opponents, within the Moslem community, was

the home of unbelief; and that it is permissible in this home to kill children

and women. (p.84)

• The Azarikah, however, rejected the stoning of the adulterer, while

considering it permissible to deny a trust, the paying of which had been

commanded by Allah; the explanation they gave being, " If our opponents are

polytheists, then we do not need to give back a deposit made by them." Nor

do they apply the legal punishment to him who brings a false charge of

adultery against a pious man, although they do in the case of a man who

accuses pious women. They also cut off the hand of a thief, whether the

amount stolen be big or little, thus ignoring the law in regard to the minimum

amount of the stolen goods.The community has condemned them for this

innovation, which they introduced in connection with an unbelief in which the

First Muhakkimah shared. In this way one heresy led to another, just as anger

incites anger. Unbelievers are doomed to great torture. (85)

EARLY KHARIJITES: IBADIS

• Differ among themselves on many things, however, are agreed upon the

Imamate of Abdullah Ibn Ibad. They also believed in the same doctrine that

the Mutazilites held (manzila baynal manzilatayn) regarding the unbelievers of

their group, i.e. the Kharijites who disagreed with them, saying that they were

free from polytheism but still wanting of faith, also the other manzil was not

faith, but between faith and polytheism, they still held their enemies as

disbelievers. (p.105)

• The religion of the Kharijis had as its aim paradise.

• They did not think of victory on earth.

• They wished to save their souls by fighting the impious with a total lack of

consideration for themselves and others.

• The earliest Kharijite propositions attempted to place the believer in a direct

relationship to God. (Watt).

• Note: The above views are the main aspects of Kharijite spiritual thought that makes them desperate and radical. Sunni thought is different from this, and attempts to use Islamic norms as a means to live intelligently in this world. It is necessary for people to check themselves and make sure that they do not allow emotions to get the better of them, lest they might drift into Kharijite-like mentalities.

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Counter Terrorism Operation: Notes/Extra Info: Origins of ... · Counter Terrorism Operation: Notes/Extra Info: Origins of Splinter Factions/Anarchists in Islam: Kharijites