Kharijites

Kharijites (Arabic Khawārij خوارج, literally "Those who Went Out"^[1]) is a general term embracing various Muslims who, while initially supporting the caliphate of the fourth and final "Rightly Guided" caliph Ali ibn Abi Talib, later rejected him. They first emerged in the late 7^th century AD, concentrated in today's southern Iraq, and are distinct from the Sunnis and Shiites.
Whereas the Shiites believed that the imamate (leadership) was the sole right of the house of Ali, the Kharijites insisted that any pious and able Muslim could be a leader of the Muslim community. And whereas the Sunnis believed that the imam's impiousness did not, by itself, justify sedition, the Kharijites insisted on the right to revolt against any ruler who deviated from the example of the Prophet Muhammad and the first two caliphs, Abu Bakr and Umar. From this essentially political position, the Kharijites developed a variety of theological and legal doctrines that further set them apart from both Sunni and Shiite Muslims.
Kharijites were also known historically as the Shurat, meaning "those who have sold their souls to God", which, unlike the term "Kharijite", was one that many Kharijites used to describe themselves. The only surviving group, the Ibāḍī of Oman, Zanzibar and North Africa, reject the "Kharijite" appellation and refer to themselves as ahl al-'adl wal istiqama ("people of justice and uprightness"). One of the early Kharijite groups was the Harūriyya; it was notable for many reasons, among which was its ruling on the permissibility of women Imāms and that a Harūrī was the assassin of ‘Alī.
The origin of Kharijism lies in the first Islamic civil war: a struggle for political supremacy over the Muslim community in the years following the death of Muhammad. The third caliph, Uthman ibn Affan, was killed by mutineers in AD 656, and a struggle for succession ensued between Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, and Muāwiyah, governor of Damascus and cousin of Uthman. According to John Esposito, they were the first radical dissenters in Islam who combined "a rigorous puritanism and religious fundamentalism with an exclusivist egalitarianism."^[2]
In 658, Alī's forces met Muāwiyah's at the Battle of Siffin. Initially, the battle went against Muāwiyah. On the brink of defeat, Muāwiyah directed his army to hoist Qur'āns on their lances.^[3] This initiated discord among some of those who were in Alī's army. Muāwiyah wanted to put the dispute between the two sides to arbitration in accordance with the Quran. A group of Alī's army mutinied, demanding that Alī agree to Muāwiyah's proposal. As a result, Alī reluctantly presented his own representative for arbitration. The mutineers, however, put forward Abu Musa al-Ash'ari against Alī's wishes. Muāwiyah put forward Amr Ibn Al-As. Abu Musa al-Ash'ari was convinced by Amr to pronounce Alī's removal as caliph even though Ali's caliphate was not meant to be the issue of concern in the arbitration. The mutineers saw the turn of events as a fundamental betrayal of principle, especially since they had initiated it; a large group of them (traditionally believed to be 12,000, mainly from Banu Hanifah and Banu Tamim tribes)^{[citation needed]}repudiated Alī. Citing the verse, "No rule but God's," an indication that a caliph is not a representative of God, this group turned on both Alī and Muāwiya, opposing Muāwiya's rebellion against one they considered to be the rightful caliph, and opposing ˤAlī's subjecting his legitimate authority to arbitration. They became known as Kharijites: Arabic plural khawārij, singular Khārijī, derived from the verb kharaja "come out, leave the fold."
ˤAlī quickly divided his troops and ordered them to catch the dissenters before they could reach major cities and disperse among the population.^{[citation needed]} Ali's cousin, Abdullah ibn Abbas, managed to persuade a number of Kharijites to return to Alī.^{[citation needed]} ˤAlī defeated the remaining rebels in the Battle of Nahrawan in 658 but some Kharijites survived and, in 661, ultimately assassinated Alī. They are said to have organized simultaneous attempts against Muāwiya and Amr as well, as the three men were in their view the main sources of strife within the Muslim community, but were only successful in assassinating Ali.