Encyclopedia of Islam

Khawarij

  

431  J

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Ali and Muawiya’s right to rule. Based on their 

decision to separate from the community of Mus-

lims, this seceding faction came to be known as 

the Khawarij or, literally in Arabic, “those who 

go out.” The Khawarij’s initial opposition to Ali 

and Muawiya quickly developed into a more far-

reaching protest against Muslim leadership in 

general and the corruption of Muslim society, and 

this protest took a very violent form. According 

to the Khawarij, those deviating from (Khariji) 

Islam became grave sinners whose Muslim status 

and life were forfeit. The Khawarij felt obliged to 

purge the community of sinners who jeopardized 

the spiritual good of the whole. The means of 

purifying the community became a subject of seri-

ous debate among Khawarij, leading to infighting 

and further sectarian splits. The most infamous 

subsect, the Azariqa, determined that the wives 

and children of grave sinners were subject to 

death. The most moderate subsect, the i

badiyya

,

condemned grave sinners as 

hypocrites

 but toler-

ated them within the community of Muslims. The 

Ibadiyya, then, were sectarian or heretical due to 

their beliefs, not their actions, which accounts for 

the fact that they are the only Khariji faction to 

survive until the present day.

While the diversity and radical independence 

of Khariji subsects prevents a clear articulation 

of their common beliefs and practices, they seem 

to have agreed on several key issues that distin-

guished them from Sunnis. First, they held a pur-

ist view of the 

caliph

 and the office he occupied: 

moral or religious infractions nullified a person’s 

right to rule. At the same time, however, the Kha-

warij affirmed the equality of all believing men, 

permitting anyone to rise to the position of caliph, 

unlike the Sunnis who restricted the office to 

members of the tribe of Muhammad, the q

Uraysh

.

Second, and related to the first, they rejected the 

idea that 

Faith

, not works, determined one’s right-

ful membership in the community of believers. 

As a result, the community became the locus of 

charisma and purity, and the training ground for 

potential leaders.

Khariji uprisings throughout the seventh and 

ninth centuries served as a constant reminder 

of the limits to Sunni authority and legitimacy, 

which in turn provoked Sunni thought and propa-

ganda, including discourse on the Khawarij. Some 

medieval Sunni sources portray the Khawarij as 

pious but well-intentioned Muslims whose moral 

zealotry compromised their ability to live peace-

fully within society; most maintain that Khariji 

piety and purity were a cover for more blatant 

political interests. By the year 1000 

c

.

e

., historical 

references to the Khawarij take on a generic mean-

ing of “rebels.” In modern Arab Muslim societies, 

the name Khawarij has been used to anathematize 

those who use religion to justify political violence, 

such as the assassins of Egyptian president Anwar 

al-s

adat

 (1918–81).

See also 

heresy

; 

kafir

; s

Unnism

; 

theology

.

Jeffrey T. Kenney