Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah 40738 — Reports on the Khawarij

Abu Maryam said: Shabath bin Rib'i and Ibn al-Kawwa' went from Kufah to Harura'. Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) ordered the people to come out with their weapons. The people came to the mosque until the mosque was filled with people. Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "You have done very badly by entering the mosque with weapons. All of you gather in the open ground of Murad and stay there until my order reaches you." Abu Maryam said: So we went to the open ground and stayed there for part of the day. Then news reached us that those people were going back. (2) Abu Maryam said: I went towards them to see them. I made my way through their ranks until I reached Shabath bin Rib'i and Ibn al-Kawwa', who were standing leaning against their mounts. With them were the messengers of Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him), who were adjuring them by Allah and saying: "We seek refuge for you with Allah from your hastening to tribulation this year for fear of next year." A man of the Khawarij went to one of the messengers of Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) and killed his mount. That man dismounted, reciting 'Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un (We belong to Allah and to Him we return)', took his saddle and set off. Those two were saying: "We want nothing from them but open confrontation," while they were adjuring them by Allah. (3) All of them stayed for a while and then went off to Kufah, as if it were the day of Adha or the day of Fitr. Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) had been telling us before this that a people would go out of Islam; they would leave it as an arrow passes out of its target. Their sign is that there will be among them a man with a withered hand. The narrator said: I heard this from Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) many times. Nafi', the man with the withered hand, also heard this, until I saw that, from hearing it so much and disliking it, he even stopped eating his food. Nafi' was with us in the mosque; he used to pray in it by day and spend the night in it. I had given him a cap to wear. I met him the next day and asked him whether he had gone out with those people who went to Harura'. He said: "I set out intending to join them, but when I reached such-and-such a tribe, some boys met me and snatched my weapons. So I came back. A year later, the people of Nahrawan came out and Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) also went towards them, but I did not go with him." (4) My brother Abu Abdullah and his slave went out with Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him). Abu Abdullah told me that Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) went towards the Khawarij, and when he came level with them on the bank of Nahrawan, he sent a man to them to adjure them by Allah and call them to return. Various messengers kept coming and going, until the Kharijis killed the messenger of Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him). When Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) saw this situation, he fought them. When he had finished annihilating them all, he ordered his companions to look for the man with the withered hand. The people looked for him, and one man said: "We have not found him alive." Another man said: "He is not among them." Then a man came with the good news: "O Commander of the Believers, by Allah, we have found him lying under two slain men in a water channel." Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) ordered: "Cut off his withered hand and bring it to me." When the hand was brought, Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) raised it and said: "By Allah, I have not lied, nor have I been lied to."