Who were the Khawārij and when did they first appear?

The Khawārij were the first deviant sect in Islam: their forerunner appeared in the Prophet's own lifetime when Dhū al-Khuwayṣirah objected to his distribution of wealth and said "Be just," and the Prophet ﷺ foretold a people from his like who would pray and fast intensely and recite the Qurʾān without it passing their throats, and who would "desert Islam as an arrow passes through its game." They emerged as an organised movement during the caliphate of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib when a group rejected the arbitration after Ṣiffīn, declared ʿAlī and others disbelievers, and shed Muslim blood; ʿAlī first sent Ibn ʿAbbās to debate them and many returned, then fought the remainder at Nahrawān in 38 AH — acting on the Qurʾānic command to fight the transgressing party, in a verse that still calls both sides believers (Qurʾān 49:9). Their defining innovation is takfīr of Muslims for major sins and rebellion against the rulers of the Muslims, and Ahl al-Sunnah have always opposed this methodology. The Salaf differed over whether the Khawārij as a sect leave Islam entirely, with many treating them as misguided innovators who remain Muslims — and in every case takfīr of a specific individual is a ruling for qualified scholars, bound by its conditions, not a weapon for the layman.

Ask your own question → All questions