بسم الله الرحمٰن الرحيم، وصلوات الله وسلامه على أشرف المرسلين
In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
The Khawarij (a.k.a. “Kharijites” – literally, “those who leave”) are the only deviant sect in Islam that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ specifically warned about in detail. I don’t want to get too deep into their ideology here but I’d recommend seeing this very detailed video by Imran Mansur which explains the Khawarij, who they are, and how ISIS are from among them.
I want to talk about one specific incident regarding the Khawarij which is related in Imam Tabari’s Tareekh al-Tabari. This is the original Arabic (source):
رجلا… كان بقرية يقال لها : جوبر… فأتت الخوارج قريته، فأخذوه وأخذوا ابنته، فقدموا ابنته فقتلوها… وأنها كانت تقول لهم: يا أهل الإسلام، إن أبي مصاب فلا تقتلوه، وأما أنا فإنما أنا جارية، والله ما أتيت فاحشة قط، ولا آذيت جارة لي، ولا تطلعت ولا تشرفت قط، فقدموها ليقتلوها، فأخذت تنادي: ما ذنبي؟ ما ذنبي؟ ثم سقطت مغشيا عليها، أو ميتة، ثم قطعوها بأسيافهم
My translation:
There was a man in a village called Jobar. The Khawarij took over his village, and they took him and his daughter [as prisoners]. They brought his daughter to kill her, and she said to them: “O People of Islam! My father is an old man, so do not kill him. As for me, I’m just a young girl. I swear to Allah, I never committed any immoral act, and I never harmed anyone.” But they brought her forward to kill her anyway, so she started crying out: “What’s my sin? What’s my sin?” Then they killed her and cut her body up into small pieces.
I was reminded of this incident by some of the crazy news headlines going around these days – the attack on the cafe in Sydney, the attack on a school in Peshawar which killed almost 150 children, and numerous other incidents around the world.
I originally heard about the above anecdote in this video:
Sorry about the music; I didn’t upload the video. If you want a version of the speech without music in the background, try this one. The relevant part starts at 1 minute 46 seconds.
Salaam
~ Yousuf
16 December 2014
yousuf.blog 