Addressing the Kharijites Amir al-Mu’minin said:
A storm may overtake you while there may be none to awaken you (for reforms). Shall I be a witness to my becoming heretic after the acceptance of faith and fighting in the company of the Prophet (P.B.U.H. and His Household) ?! A In that case I shall be misguided and I shall not be on the right path. (Holy Qur’an, 6:56). So you should return to your evil places, and get back on the traces of your heels. Beware! Certainly, after me, you will meet overwhelming disgrace, sharp swords and traditions that will be adopted by the oppressors as a norm towards you.1
Sayyid ar-Radhi says the following: In the words A wala baqiyah minkum abirun used by Amir al-Mu’minin the A abir has been related with A ba’ and A Ra’ and it has been taken from the Arab saying A rajulun abirun which means the man who prunes the date-palm trees improves them. In one version the word is A athir and its meaning is A relater of news. In my view this is more appropriate, as though Amir al-Mu’minin intends to say that there should remain none to carry news. In one version the word appears as A abiz with A za’ which means one who leaps. One who dies is also called A abiz.
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1. History corroborates that after Amir al-Mu’minin, the Kharijites had to face all kinds of ignominy and disgrace and wherever they raised their heads to create trouble they were met with swords and spears. Thus Ziyad ibn Abih, A Ubaydullah ibn Ziyad, al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, Mis’ab ibn az-Zubayr and al-Muhallab ibn Abu Sufrah left no stone unturned in annihilating them from the surface of the globe. In particular, al-Muhallab had chased them and routed them thoroughly for nineteen years, resting only after completing their destruction.
At-Tabari writes that when ten thousand Kharijites collected in Silla wa sillibra (the name of a mountain in Ahwaz) then al-Muhallab faced them so steadfastly that he killed seven thousand Kharijites, while theremaining three thousand fled for their lives towards Kirman. But when the Governor of Iran noticed their rebellious activities he surrounded them in Sabur and killed a good number of them. Those who remained fled to Isfahan and Kirman. From there they again formed a contingent and advanced towards Kufa via Basra. Al-Harith ibn Abu Rabi’ah al-Makhzumi and A Abd ar-Rahman ibn Mikhnaf al-Azdi stood up with six thousand combatants to stop their advance, and turned them out of Iraq’s boundaries. In this way successive encounters completely trampled their military power and turning them out of cities compelled them to roam about in the deserts. Afterwards also, when they rose in the form of groups they were crushed. (Tarikh , Vol. 2, pp. 580-591; ibn al-Athir, Vol. 4, pp. 196-206).
