The Identity of Terror: Seventh Century Inspiration For Contemporary Islamic Terrorism

1
The Identity of Terror:

Seventh Century Inspiration for Contemporary Islamic Terrorism

May 2014

By Kyle C. Niehoff
Grove City College
B.A. Political Science 16
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I did not want a share from him, only aspiring in killing him that I succeed. And relieve
the earth of him and those who wreak havoc and turn from the Truth. . . While the cowardly soul
is agitated, we patiently resist, even if standing on burning embers.
1
Seeing this quote as coming
from a contemporary radical such as Osama bin Laden would not be hard to believe. Islamic
terrorists with a hard pressed commitment to violence in the name of Allah, is not a foreign
concept to the contemporary mind. This quote is not, however, from a contemporary terrorist or
any Muslim of the past millennium, but is found in a seventh century poem written by a devout
member of one of the first sects of Islam, the Kharijites. While the Kharijites are far removed
from modern terrorists in terms of time, they are very close to modern terrorists in terms of
identity. Direct group lineage from the Kharijite sect of the seventh century to modern Islamic
terrorists does not exist, but an identity of modern Islamic terrorist groups with the sectarian
attitude and fundamentalist statutes of the early Kharijites is both traceable and legitimate.
Memory and identity is a powerful force in the Muslim world. Sunnis, Shiites, as well as modern
Islamic terrorists, have all looked back in time to form and shape an identity. It was through the
formation of the Kharijites in the seventh century and their influence thereafter, that a tradition of
violent fundamentalism was formed that later militant Islamic groups look back to for
inspiration. The three Kharijite principles of 1) a commitment to a strict adherence to the Quran,
2) the promotion of the necessity for a divisionary religion and 3) the defamation of human
governance, all shaped the Kharijite identity. These beliefs were rooted in the foundational
principle of jihadpersistent religious fervor that commended violence for the sake of Allah,
that set the standard for Islamic fundamentalism upon which later fundamentalists, and terrorists,
based their religious belief and militant action.

1
W. Heck, Paul L. Eschatological Scripturalism and the End of Community: The Case of Early Kharijism. Archiv
fr Religionsgeschichte 7 (2005), 148-149.
3

Historical Development of the Kharijite Identity
First, it would be advantageous to examine the historical details regarding the Kharijite
sect, prior to delving into their specific beliefs. By first examining the background of the
Kharijite movement, the beliefs and practices that formed the Kharijite identity will be
legitimized, or at the least understandable. As the stage is set prior to the rise of the Kharijites,
the methodical development of their three identifying principles is both clear and deliberate. P.L
Heck argues that the rise of Kharijism is debated in detail . . . clear in the main, meaning that
the minute elements to the Kharijite rise are disputed, but their general coming to be is clear and
identifiable.
2
The coming of the first Kharijites was, in general, a response to a supposed lack of
religious fundamentalism in the Islamic community during the mid to late 7th century. The
Arabic word Khawarij, from which this group of early separatists gets their name, means those
who go out, a clear sign that the Kharijites saw themselves as outside the community of
believers.
3
Why exactly the Kharijites wanted to go out from the Muslim community is rooted
in opposition to the political order created after the death of the Prophet Muhammad.
As will be discussed later, the Kharijites held to a firm belief in the power and rulership
of the Quran, and ultimately the will of Allah, rather than the power and rulership of any human
ruler.
4
This being one of the identifying factors of the Kharijite identity: a defamation of human
governance. The Kharijites despised any concept of human authority, or wilya, aside from the
will of Allah, purporting, rather, that only the best of the best, the most in line with the will of
God, should rule.
5
This commitment to a strict adherence to the will of God, dictated in the
Quran, would become a defining element of Kharijite fundamentalism. Muhammads death in

2
Heck. Eschatological Scripturalism and the End of Community: The Case of Early Kharijism., 139.
3
Bonner, Michael. Jihad in Islamic History: Doctrines and Practice. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006),
125.
4
Bonney, Richard. Jihd: From Qurn to bin Laden (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2004), 55.
5
Heck, Eschatological Scripturalism and the End of Community: The Case of Earl Kharijism., 140.
4

632 left the Muslim umma (community) with the challenge of establishing order, without a
clearly identified leader.
6
After discussion between the ruling elite of the Muslim community, it
was decided upon to place Abu Bakr in power as the first khalfa (caliph), making him the first
of the four rshidn (rightly guided ones).
7
The establishment of the rshidn caliphate is what
begins the hostilities of proto-Kharijite believers. As the rshidn caliphs pressed their power
and authority in the two decades after Muhammads death, many who held firms beliefs against
overreaching human authority (wilya) started to express their discontent.
8
While the Kharijites
had not yet been established as a distinct sect, groups of believers began to act upon their
disapproval of the rshidn caliphate. W. Montgomery Watt claims that the assassination of the
rshidn caliph Uthman in 656 was approved by later Kharijites.
9
Paul L. Heck goes further to
suggest that the assassination of Uthman was itself conducted by proto-Kharijites.
10
Regardless,
it is clear that in the decades following Muhammads death there was within the umma a
movement developing that strongly opposed the conduction of Muslim affairs under the
assumption that the caliph had authority within himself. It is upon this sentiment that the
Kharijites come into existence.
The events surrounding the Kharijites becoming a distinct sect are very important to the
development of the Kharijite identity. The official beginning of the Kharijites is commonly
recognized to be at the Battle of Siffin in 657.
11
Ali Bin Abi Talib, the fourth of the rshidn
caliphs, met a challenger to his power, the Umayyad leader Muawiya Bin Abi Sufyan, in battle

6
Donner, Fred M. Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam (Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
2010), 97.
7
Watt, W. Montgomery. What is Islam? (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1968), 113.
8
9
Watt, What is Islam?, 116.
10
Heck. Eschatological Scripturalism and the End of Community: The Case of Early Kharijism., 139.
11
Wagemakers, Joas. Seceders and Postponers? An Analysis of the Khawarij and Murjia Labels in Polemical
Debates between Quietist and Jihadi Salafis. Contextualizing Jihadi Ideologies. Ed. Jeevan Deol and Zaheer
Kazmi, London: Hurst, 2012: 147.
5

at Siffin in modern day Syria.
12
Ali settled with Muawiya by giving power over to him and the
Umayyads. As stated earlier, the Kharijites would advocate for the egalitarian belief that God
established the rightful ruler from the best of the umma, and human governance (wilya) should
not conflict with the will of God. At Siffin, a soon to be Kharijite, named Ibn Budayl ridiculed
Muawiya and expressed a disdain for the assertion of human governance. Budayl said:
Did not Muawiya claim that for which he is not suited, dispute in this matter one to
whom there is no equal and make his claim on the basis of falsehood in order to refute the
Truth? . . . so fight the brutish despots of the world and have no fear of them. Do you fear
them when in your hands is the book of God, pure and blessed? . . . If you are believers,
fight them so that God might punish them by your hands . . .
13

Here was a proto-Kharijite chastising Muawiya for a claim that for which he is not suited.
Muawiya wants the throne from Ali, but Budayl and the proto-Kharijites hold to the belief that
Ali has been chosen by God and Muawiya has no right to the throne. Crucial to this passage is
the second half of Budayls statement. He asserts that because of Muawiyas illegitimate claim
to power, he must be fought as a way of punishing him for questioning the will of God. Muslims
who did not do the will of God were considered to be kuffar, or literally unbelievers. Joas
Wagemakers claims that because they [Kharijites] believed sinful Muslims to be unbelievers
(kuffar), they directly applied passages from the Quran pertaining to jihad against non-Muslims
to those of their co-religionists. . .
14
So, as will be explained later, in the eyes of a Kharijite a
sinful Muslim (kuffar) is no different from an unbelieving polytheist (shirk).
15
This alienating,
questionable application of the commands of the Quran, coupled with the aforementioned
disdain for human governance, created a presupposed mindset in some of the believers that
would conflict with the direction of the Muslim community. This was realized when some

12
Ibid
13
14
Wagemakers Seceders and Postponers? An Analysis of the Khawarij and Murjia Labels in Polemical
Debates between Quietist and Jihadi Salafis, 148.
15
Ibid, 147-150.
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fighting on the side of Ali viewed him to be the rightfully guided leader, chosen by God, and
therefore Alis ceding of power was a clear sign of unbelief.
16
This group went out from the
battlefield, abandoning Ali, and as they left yelled l hukm ill li-lh or There is no rule but
Gods.
17
These people became known as the Khwarij (those who go out), or Kharijites, because
of their actions at the Battle of Siffin and their slogan became l hukm ill li-lh. The Kharijite
influence did not end at the Battle of Siffin. The Kharijites frustration towards the human
governance of Ali developed hatred within the Kharijites that would turn into radical militancy.
The Kharijites became more infuriated with the unbelief of the ruling elite to the point that
violence was not only acceptable, but necessary to restore legitimate rulership to the Muslim
community.
After the formation of the Kharijite sect at the Battle of Siffin, the Kharijites became
more aggressive in promoting their beliefs, leaving behind an established identity that remained
influential for years to come. After the fallout at Siffin, a group of the Kharijites were hunted
down and killed by Ali at the Battle of Nahrawain in July of 657.
18
In response, a brother of one
of the Kharijites killed by Ali at Nahrawain, assassinated Ali in 661.
19
The assassination of Ali
is further evidence of the Kharijites disdain for human governance. Paul Heck argues, in regards
to the Kharijite assassination of Ali and connections to the assassination of Uthman, that
Kharijite dissatisfaction was not the result of the allegedly unjust actions of a particular ruler,
but originated in the very idea of human governance of the Muslim community and its
resources.
20
The murder of Ali began a period in which the Kharijites started largely

16
Ibid, 147.
17
18
Aboul-Enein, Youssef. Militant Islamist Ideology: Understanding the Global Threat (Annapolis, Maryland:
Naval Institute Press, 2010), 44.
19
Aboul-Enein. Militant Islamist Ideology: Understanding the Global Threat, 44.
20
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unsuccessful insurrections against what they deemed to be unlawful human governance in
regions like Iraq, Iran and Syria.
21
From this point on the Kharijites faded as a relevant political
player. The history of Abu-Mansur written in 1037, records the various sects of the Kharijites,
about twenty in total, most of which become quietist groups, such as the Ibadi in modern day
Oman.
22
He does, however, give special credence to the Azraqites, who will be discussed later,
as a particular sect of the Kharijites that was more influential than others. Before delving into the
Kharijite inspired movements of modern times, it is important to clearly outline the fundamental
beliefs of the seventh century Kharijites.
The Fundamentals of the Kharijite Identity
The identity of the Kharijites that is drawn from by modern Islamic militants is not an
identity that was developed in a vacuum. As has been seen in the tracing of Kharijite history, the
Kharijite identity was one that was developed according to its historical surroundings. The
implementation of the rshidn caliphate provoked proto-Kharijites to question the legitimacy of
the authority of the caliph. Alis ceding of power to Muawiya was condemned by a fervent few
who adopted the slogan There is no rule but Gods, officially forming the Kharijites. As a
statement against Alis unbelief, he was assassinated by a Kharijite in 661. It is not, however,
any of these specific actions of the Kharijites that is adopted by modern day Islamic terrorists.
The Kharijite belief system, which developed as a result of their actions, established a
foundational belief for radical Islamic militancy. The key in regards to the Kharijites restrictive
application of the Quran, a rejection of human rule and a divisionary view of religion, is that
their natural response to those who disagreed was violence. Ultimately, the Kharajite identity can

21
Berkey, Jonathan P. The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East, 600-1800 (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2003), 86-87.
22
Al-Baghdadi, abu-Mansur abd-al-Kahir ibn-Tahir. Al-Farq Bayn Al-Firaq. Columbia University Oriental
Studies, Vol. XV. Trans. Kate Chambers Seelye Ph.D. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1920),74-115.
8

be described as a strict fundamentalism that required violence to advocate the three core
elements of Kharijism. A tradition rooted in violencethis is the Kharijite legacy. Many actions
of modern Islamic terrorists appear to be similar to those of the 7
th
century Kharijites because of
the identity the Kharijites left within the Muslim world, not because they are looking back in
history trying to imitate specific Kharijite actions. During the events that gave rise to the
Kharijites came several passages of Kharijite poetry, elements of Kharijite coinage and sermons
given by Kharijites, which cemented the three elements of the Kharijite identity.
One of the three elements of the Kharijite identity, as stated earlier, is strict adherence to
the Quran. In order to distinguish the Kharijites as fundamentalist, even radically so, it is helpful
to see where exactly they disagreed with mainstream orthodox belief of the time. In terms of
adherence to the Quran, the Kharijites were fundamentalist and exclusivist.
23
The concept of
devoutness to the Quran was not consistent throughout all the Islamic community in the seventh
century. Paul L. Heck holds that opposing interpretations of the application and recitation of the
Quran were responsible for the communal divisions that arose in early Islam.
24
As we have seen
in the historical record of the Kharijites, they played a key role in the early communal division,
and their understanding of the Quran played a key role in their divisionary nature. The Kharijites
called themselves shurat, or sellers, in that they had sold their lives in return for the divine
reward promised by God in the Quran.
25
As sellers of their lives for the sake of the Quran, the
Kharijites espoused to an extremely strict application of its teachings. Ali and his followers
recognized the authoritative sovereignty of the Quran under human authority.
26
The importance
of the Kharijite slogan, la hukm illa lilah (there is no rule but Gods), adopted at the Battle of

23
Bonney. Jihd: From Qurn to bin Laden, 55.
24
25
Bonner. Jihad in Islamic History: Doctrines and Practice, 126.
26
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Siffin, is evident in early Kharijite coinage. Adam R. Gaiser in a study of Kharijite coins, found
that early Kharijite coins had the slogan, la hukm illa lilah, stamped on it in clear identifiable
lettering.
27
The Quran, as an oral recitation of the very will and rule of God, was an imperative
belief for the Kharijites. The Kharijites strongly believed in the Quran as the orally recited,
authoritative voice of God uncompromised by human mediation.
28
This clear division from the
mainstream belief at the time contributed to the going out separatism of the Kharijites. Ibn Abi
Shayba records in his reports of the first Muslims what was supposedly a warning of Muhammad
about the coming Kharijites and their view of the Quran:
Did you hear the Apostle of Allah (may peace be upon him) making a mention of the
Khwarij? He said: I heard him say (and he pointed with his hand towards the east) that
these would be a people who would recite the Qur'an with their tongues and it would not
go beyond their collar bones. They would pass clean through their religion just as the
arrow passes through the prey.
29

Whether or not this warning was actually from Muhammad, it is a clear sign that even 200 years
after the Kharijites came into existence they were deemed to be unorthodox by mainstream
Islamic scholars. But for the seventh century Kharijites, distancing themselves from the
mainstream of Islamic belief was not unfortunate, it became central to their identity. Those who
go out were not hesitant to alienate or even enact violence against fellow Muslims who did not
espouse to Kharijite beliefs.
The second of the three defining elements of the Kharijite tradition is the promotion of a
divisionary religion. As indicated earlier, the strongest oppositional sentiment in Kharijism was
not towards non-Muslims, but towards Muslims who did not embrace Kharijite beliefs. Ali was
assassinated because he had abandoned the true Islamic belief, in the eyes of the Kharijites. This

27
Gaiser, Adam R. What Do We Learn About the Early Kharijites and Ibadiyya from Their Coins? Journal of the
American Oriental Society 130, no. 2 (April-June 2010), 170.
28
29
University of Southern California Center for Muslim Jewish Engagement. Translation of Sahih Muslim, Book
5. Accessed April 2, 2014.
10

concept, classifying believers as unbelievers (kuffar) if the view of the erstwhile believer did
not accord with their [the Kharijites] own predilections, was known as takfir.
30
A sermon given
by the Kharijite Salih bin Musarrih in 695 is evidence of the Kharijites adoption of the teaching
of takfir: I charge you with fear of God, abstinence in this world, desire for the next, and
frequent remembrance of death, separation from the sinners [kuffar] and love for the believers.
31

The most important element of takfir is that those who are kuffar are considered just as
disobedient to Allah as shirk (polytheists), and are to be weeded out from Islam via the
conduction of jihad.
32
The Azraqites, a later sect within the Kharijites, perfected the application
of takfir. While most sects of Kharijites abandoned violence by the beginning of the eighth
century in favor of a more quietist lifestyle, several groups continued to assert their beliefs with
violence, the Azariqah being the most relevant of them. The Azraqites, led by Nafi bin al-Azraq,
were so radical in their application of takfir that they considered all other Muslims unbelievers
who could be killed without sin.
33
Divisiveness as a result of their strict view of the Quran,
resulting in violence towards any and all unbelievers is important to the Kharijite identity.
Returning to the sermon given by the Kharijite Salih bin Musarrih, it is clear that the aggressive,
violent application of takfir was not just a later development of the Azraqites. Salih extols, So
prepare yourselfmay God have mercy upon youto fight (jihad) against these enemies
[kuffar] . . . join out believing brothers who have sold this world for the next, and who have
expended their wealth, seeking to please God in the hereafter.
34
Takfir and jihad against
unbelievers is an identifying factor of Kharijism that would be accepted and implemented by

30
31
Ibid, 57.
32
Wagemakers Seceders and Postponers?, 148.
33
Abu-Khalil, Asad. The Incoherence of Islamic Fundamentalism: Arabic Islamic Thought at the End of the 20th
Century. The Middle East Journal 48, no. 4 (Autumn, 1994): 680.
34
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medieval fundamentalists such as Ibn Taymiyyah, and modern radicals such as Sayyid Qutb. The
third, and final, key element of the Kharijite identity is closely related to the first two.
The aforementioned Kharijite convictions about the use and application of the Quran and
the advocacy for the removal of unbelievers, influenced the third identifying element of the
Kharijite identitya strict opposition to human willed governance. As stated earlier, the
Kharijites considered human governance, wilya, to be outside the will of God because any
government manipulated by humans assumes that Gods will is in the wrong. The true ruler,
imam, of the Muslims was to be the best of the community, and would be deposed if he deviated
from the decrees of God.
35
Watt argues that it is likely that most of the early Kharijites came
from tribes where there had been a profound awareness of the dependence of the individual on
his tribe.
36
A foundational identity with the group as opposed to the individual, contributed to
the Kharijite dissent against human governance. Heck purports that for the Kharijites the
individual responsibility for the will of God was considered the mark of religious membership,
effectively doing away with the need for human leadership.
37
Individual rule was not important
to the tribes that formed the Kharijites, so self-validated leadership would be strongly opposed.
Also on the earlier mentioned Kharijite coin examined by Gaiser is the phrase Abd Allah, amir
al-muminin, which means Servant of God, Commander of the Faithful, placed directly next
to la hukm illa li-lah, there is no rule but Gods.
38
Gaiser purports that these statements, so
clearly imprinted on early Kharijite coins, make implicit claims about the issuers political and
religious authority and challenged the authority of the reigning caliphs.
39
This placement
suggests the connection of two of the Kharijite principlesthe belief that the will of God is to

35
Ibid, 56.
36
Watt, What is Islam?, 117.
37
38
Gaiser, Adam R. What Do We Learn About the Early Kharijites and Ibadiyya from Their Coins?, 170.
39
Ibid.
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have the rightful ruler, imam, in place. Along with Kharijite coinage is evidence from early
Kharjite poetry of the disdain for human governance. The following is an excerpt written by an
early Kharjite, Abul Bilal Mirdas: Governors have shown their tyranny and with betrayal and
infidelity [kuffar] have settled upon transgression against the adherents of the Truth. If it is in
your power, my God, if you will, to change all that the sons of stone have brought upon us.
40

Abul equates leaders who have rejected the will of Allah with kuffar (unbelievers), who, as
addressed earlier, were subject to any and all sorts of violence because of their blatant unbelief.
This explains the actions against Ali and continued aggression by the Azariqah. But as the
second half of this excerpt suggests, the will of God is supreme and is upon which the Kharijites
place their faith and their identity. Opposition to worldly governance, and the exaction of
violence against leaders who doubt the will of Allah, is yet another aspect of the Kharijite
identity that we see at work in later Islamic extremist groups. All three of the key elements of the
Kharijite identity were fiercely campaigned by the Kharijites via the conduction of jihad.
As has been addressed in part, violence to promote the Kharijite beliefs was not only
commonplace, but deemed necessary, and the centrality and necessity of jihad is the
foundational principle of the Kharijite identity. Again, the centrality of the Quran, removal of
unbelievers and defamation of human governance are the three key elements of the Kharijite
identity, but without jihad they would all be incomplete. Without jihad the opposing views of
Ali and others about the Quran could not have been challenged. Without jihad the Muslim
community could not have been cleansed of the kuffar, the unbelievers. Without jihad
disobedient human governance could not be held in check. Jihad is the Kharijite identity. Surah
9:111 of the Quran can be easily identified as the anthem of the Kharijites. It reads, God has
purchased from the faithful their lives and worldly goods, and in return has promised them the

40
13

Garden. They will fight for the cause of God, they will slay and be slain. Such is the true promise
which he has made them . . . Rejoice then in the bargain you have made. That is the supreme
triumph.
41
The egalitarian vision of the Kharijites can be identified in this Surah. In a world in
where Gods will reigns supreme, all believers follow the teachings of the Quran, and all
governance submits to Gods will, is the Garden for the Kharijites. Youssef Aboul-Enein, who
claims that the Kharijites were Islams first militant Islamists, asserts that the Kharijites
amplified jihad by making its higher form death in the name of God.
42
Killing of others
resulting in death is glorified in many excerpts of Kharijite poetry. Here all three of the key
elements of the Kharijite identity are to be achieved via jihad to the point of death. Killing to
preserve the centrality of the Truth, of the Quran, was evident: I strike a people to exact
revenge, until the rule of evil comes to an end, and the Truth returns to good. Disregard for the
self in favor of the removal of the kuffar (unbelievers) was apparent: . . . relieve the earth of him
and those who wreak havoc and turn from the Truth. . . selling my family and wealth, in the
hopes of a place and possessions in the gardens of eternity.
43
Death was favored rather than
submitting to disobedient human governance: I fear the punishment of God, if I were to die
favorably disposed to the governance of Ubayd Allah.
44
Over and over again in Kharijite
poetry and sermons do we see references to conducting violent jihad in order to preserve the
three foundational elements of the Kharijite identity. All three of these elements, wound up in the
conduction of violent jihad, inspired committed militant Islamists for centuries after the
Kharijites.

41
Quran 9:111
42
Aboul-Enein. Militant Islamist Ideology: Understanding the Global Threat, 38
43
44
Ibid, 150.
14

The Long Lasting Kharijite Identity
A key medieval Muslim scholar, Ibn Taymiyyah, followed the Kharijite tradition and
developed teachings that would inspire 20
th
century Muslim terrorists. Ibn Taymiyyah wrote
during the years following the Mongol overthrow of the Abbasid dynasty in 1258, and developed
his own political ideology in response to the Mongol occupation.
45
Natana Delong-Bas argues
that Ibn Taymiyyah was inspired by the Kharijite identity. She writes, Ibn Taymiyyahs
worldview was not without historical precedent. He drew his inspiration from the militant
interpretation of Islam developed by the seventh-century Kharijite movement. . .[He] turned to
the Kharijites for legitimacy in calling for the overthrow of the Mongols.
46
Delong-Bas is right
to conclude that Taymiyyah drew from the Kharijites in the development of his political position,
the similarities are obvious. Taymiyyah looked to the Kharijite tradition of opposing human
governance (wilya) as reason to rebel against the Mongols. As stated earlier, the teaching and
application of takfir was central to the Kharijite exaction of jihad. Taymiyyah, who has inspired
many modern fundamentalists, held takfir to be the first innovation of Islam.
47
Taymiyyah
outlined his political theory in his piece titled Governance according to Gods Law in reforming
both the ruler and his flock in 1258.
48
In this piece he writes, The penalties of the Sharia has
introduced for those who disobey God . . . the jihad against the unbelievers (kuffar), the enemies
of God and His Messenger.
49
While Taymiyyah is nearly 600 years removed from the
Kharijites, the Kharijite identity has lasted through the centuries to inspire, yet again, jihad

45
Delong-Bas, Natana J. Wahhabi Islam: From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad (New York: Oxford University
Press, 2004), 248.
46
Delong-Bas. Wahhabi Islam: From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad, 248-249.
47
Abu-Khalil. The Incoherence of Islamic Fundamentalism., 679.
48
Taymiyyah, Ibn. The Religious and Moral Doctrine of Jihad: Ibn Taymiyyah on Jihad. in Jihad In Classical and
Modern Islam, Ed. Rudolph Peters, Bernard Lewis and Andras Hamori, (Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers,
2005), 43.
49
Ibid, 44.
15

against kuffar rulership. Taymiyyah and the Kharijite tradition lingered for more than 600 years
to inspire modern day radicals such as Sayyid Qutb and Osama bin Laden.
Sayyid Qutb, a leader of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, and Osama bin Laden,
founder of Al-Qaida, espoused beliefs that were inspired by Taymiyyah and the Kharijite
identity. Qutb was most influential in his political writings and activism during the mid-20
th

century in Egypt. Delong-Bas asserts that Qutb reinterpreted the work of Ibn Taymiyyah and
infused his teachings into his own political writings.
50
Overall, Qutb was a reformist who sought
to advocate an Islam that was staunchly resistant to Western influence. In several excerpts of
Qutbs writings we can see tell-tale signs of the influence of the three elements of Kharijism as
well as the overarching Kharijite commitment to jihad. Qutb, like the Kharijites centuries before,
ascribed to a firm belief in the God-dictated Quran, that should not be altered: It is a divine
vision that proceeds from God in all its particularities and its essentials. It is received by man in
its perfect condition. He is not to complement it from his own resources or delete any of it; rather
he is to appropriate it and implement all its essentials in his life.
51
Qutb also stressed the
Kharijite defamation of human governance, and the importance of a reliance on Gods rulership
and law: The Kingdom of God on earth . . . is established when Gods law has sovereignty and
all matters are judged in the light of Gods will as evident in his shariah.
52
As stated earlier,
jihad is the foundational principle of Kharijism, and Qutb understood the importance of jihad:
Peace is the eternal principle; war is the exception which becomes a necessity when there is a
deviation from the integration exemplified in the religion of the one God.
53
The Muslim
Brotherhood under the leadership of Qutb tried to assassinate the prime minister of Egypt in

50
Delong-Bas. Wahhabi Islam: From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad, 256.
51
Esposito, John L. Voices of Resurgent Islam (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983), 74.
52
Ibid, 81.
53
Ibid, 83.
16

1954, Nasser, because he had blamed religion for the degradation of Egyptian society.
54
Any
leader blaming Islam for the degradation of society would be hated by the Kharijites for they
believed strict adherence to the Quran and rightful leadership was essential to a positive society,
Qutb and the Brotherhood agreed. The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt implemented the Kharijite
held belief of takfir. Even after Qutb was executed for the failed assassination attempt, his
followers in Egypt adopted the group names of Takfir wa-hijra, meaning identifying
adversaries as infidels, and Islamic Jihad.
55
Bonner claims that these groups even further
radicalized the beliefs of Taymiyya and Qutb and assassinated the Egyptian prime minister
Anwer Sadat in 1981.
56
The Muslim Brotherhood and Sayyid Qutb were, and the Brotherhood
continues to be, committed to subversive terrorism for the sake of rooting out those deemed to be
kuffar. The direct influence to Qutb via Taymiyyah, and the clear connections to aspects of the
Kharijite identity indicates that the Kharijite identity is alive and well. Later, Osama bin Laden
would adopt the beliefs of Sayyid Qutb and Ibn Taymiyyah, forming the infamous Islamic terror
group, Al-Qaida.
57
Bin Laden claimed that Ibn Taymiyyah was the original inspiration of jihad
against a corrupt regime.
58
The original inspiration for Ibn Taymiyyah was the Kharijite
tradition.
These events have divided the whole world into two sides: the side of believers and the
side of infidels . . . Every Muslim has to rush to make his religion victorious.
59
This quote
sounds a lot like a seventh century Kharijitethe division between believers and unbelievers
into a struggle (jihad) for the purification of religion. Osama bin Laden uttered these words in

54
55
Bonner. Jihad in Islamic History: Doctrines and Practice, 162.
56
Ibid, 163.
57
58
Ibid, 273.
59
Ibid, 278.
17

October 2001, about a month after he enacted jihad against Americans. Kharijism, as an identity
is relevant and inspirational to modern Islamic militants who terrorize the world around them as
much as the Kharijites did in the seventh century. No direct lineage exists between the Kharijites
and the Muslim brotherhood or Al-Qaida, but memory and identity are not limited to lineage.
Both the Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Qaida still operate today and are committed to the
fundamentals of the Kharijite identitycontinuing the Kharijite tradition of violent jihad for the
sake of Quranic centrality, a pure Islam and divine governance.

18

References
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Abu-Khalil, Asad. The Incoherence of Islamic Fundamentalism: Arabic Islamic Thought at the
End of the 20
th
Century. The Middle East Journal 48, no. 4 (Autumn, 1994): 677-694.
Al-Baghdadi, abu-Mansur abd-al-Kahir ibn-Tahir. Al-Farq Bayn Al-Firaq. Columbia
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Berkey, Jonathan P. The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East, 600-1800.
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Bonner, Michael. Jihad in Islamic History: Doctrines and Practice. Princeton: Princeton
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Bonney, Richard. Jihd: From Qurn to bin Laden. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2004.
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Esposito, John L. Voices of Resurgent Islam. New York: Oxford University Press, 1983.
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Heck, Paul L. Eschatological Scripturalism and the End of Community: The Case of Early
Kharijism. Archiv fr Religionsgeschichte 7 (2005), 137-152.
The Koran. Trans. N.J Dawood. London: Penguin Books, 2010. Print.
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Wagemakers, Joas. Seceders and Postponers? An Analysis of the Khawarij and Murjia
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Ideologies. Ed. Jeevan Deol and Zaheer Kazmi, 145-164. London: Hurst, 2012.
Watt, W. Montgomery. What is Islam? New York: Praeger Publishers, 1968.

The Identity of Terror: Seventh Century Inspiration For Contemporary Islamic Terrorism

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