The Ruling on Declaring the Khawarij Disbelievers
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
(peace be upon him) asks: Are the Khawarij disbelievers or not? And may Allah reward you with good. Are the Khawarij disbelievers or are they not disbelievers?
Answer:
The majority of scholars hold that they are not disbelievers. Because they erred, intending the truth, but they made a mistake. They are among the most intense people in worship and fear of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), but they exercised independent legal reasoning and erred. Therefore, their action is considered open sinfulness in belief, and they are not declared disbelievers.
When the Commander of the Faithful, 'Ali ibn Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him), was asked about the Khawarij, even though he was fighting them, they said: Are they disbelievers, O Commander of the Faithful? He said: They are further from disbelief. Meaning, what drove them to this was their fear of disbelief. What drove them to fighting was their fear of disbelief, and they considered what is not disbelief to be disbelief due to the intensity of their fear of disbelief. So he was astonished at their ignorance and did not declare them disbelievers. And there are scholars who declare them disbelievers based on the apparent meaning of the hadiths: "They emerge from the religion as an arrow emerges from a quiver."
(peace be upon him) asks: Are the Khawarij disbelievers or not? And may Allah reward you with good. Are the Khawarij disbelievers or are they not disbelievers?
Answer:
The majority of scholars hold that they are not disbelievers. Because they erred, intending the truth, but they made a mistake. They are among the most intense people in worship and fear of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), but they exercised independent legal reasoning and erred. Therefore, their action is considered open sinfulness in belief, and they are not declared disbelievers.
When the Commander of the Faithful, 'Ali ibn Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him), was asked about the Khawarij, even though he was fighting them, they said: Are they disbelievers, O Commander of the Faithful? He said: They are further from disbelief. Meaning, what drove them to this was their fear of disbelief. What drove them to fighting was their fear of disbelief, and they considered what is not disbelief to be disbelief due to the intensity of their fear of disbelief. So he was astonished at their ignorance and did not declare them disbelievers. And there are scholars who declare them disbelievers based on the apparent meaning of the hadiths: "They emerge from the religion as an arrow emerges from a quiver."
Source
حكم تكفير الخوارج — alfawzan.live
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.