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Who are the Khawarij? And why were they named by this name, what are their characteristics, and how did the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, deal with them?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The Khawarij are extremist deviant sects. The term applies to anyone who rebels against the rightful Imam or against the rulings of religion. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, described them as "passing through Islam as an arrow passes through its target." Among the descriptions of them is that they are "a people who speak well but act poorly, they recite the Qur'an but it does not go beyond their collarbones, they pass through the religion as an arrow passes through its target, they do not return until the arrow returns to its nock, they are the worst of creation and creatures." The Khawarij believe in declaring Ali ibn Abi Talib and his arbitration as disbelievers, declaring the perpetrator of a major sin as a disbeliever, the eternal damnation of perpetrators of major sins in Hellfire, that the imamate is permissible for those outside of Quraish, and they do not believe in the torment of the grave. Among their epithets are: Al-Haruriyyah, Al-Shurat, Al-Mariqah, and Al-Muhakkamah.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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