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Arbitration (Ta?k?m)-Takf?r Relationship in the First Kharijites (al-Mu?akkima al-?l?)

2022    Atalay, Hakan

Besides being religious structures, sects are human formations which have political and social dimensions. Various theological views that emerged due to certain events are not only prominent elements in the formation of political-theological schisms, but may also become a label on the said sect. In the case of Kharijism, the first connotation that comes to mind is the phenomenon of takflr. Another important point about the sects is that the views do not remain stable, but change and transform in the process and experience some breaks. In order to understand the sects and their views that make them up in a healty way, it is an inevitable necessity to analyze these by following their historical processes and by getting rid of the general and widespread perception that has become a label to the sects. As it is known, Khawarij started to take its place on history by blaming by "kufr"/apostasy the Muslims who consented to arbitration during the Battle of Siffln, a conflict between MODIFIER LETTER LEFT HALF RINGAll and MuMODIFIER LETTER LEFT HALF RINGawiya and their supporters. The Kharijites gathered in Kharura and pledged allegiance to Abdullah ibn Wahb al-Rasibl as an amlr. In this way, they separated by taking a distance against other Muslims. The point that we want to draw attention to is the problem of subjecting the Kharijites to a generalization such as "accussation by takflr those who commit major sins". This problem arises from the fact that the heresiographies generally deal the sects with their purely theological dimension, approaching to this subject in the context of faith-deed relationship. However, it is not possible to say that the discussions on this issue have started at the first stage yet. Therefore, to evaluate the attitude of the first Kharijites, also known as al-Muhakkima al-Ula, from such a point of view, leads to anachronism. The aim of this study is to evaluate the blasphemy/ takfirist attitude of the first Kharijites as free from this widespread perception, by drawing attention to the problematic nature of the widespread labeling accusation that portrays Kharijites as "takfirs of those who commit major sins". In this context, it is given importance to analyze the takflr of al-Muhakkima, which was formed before the other Kharijites, by making contact with the events that took place in its own historical ground, rather than dealing with purely theological discussions such as the great sin-takflr relationship or the relationship between deeds and faith. One of our determinations at this point is that the takfirism at this stage is not directly based on the relationship of major sin, but on the contrary, it is largely a situation arising from the intertwining of religion and politics. Al-Muhakkima, on the one hand, seen as kuffar or accused by kufr Muawiya and his supporters due to "opposition to the Muslim's amlr". On the other hand, they accused by kufr MODIFIER LETTER LEFT HALF RINGAll and his followers because they stopped fighting against MuMODIFIER LETTER LEFT HALF RINGawiya and his supporters, the group that "considered shedding the blood of Muslims halal" and accepted their rules. Therefore, we can see that the takflr here is a phenomenon independent of the great sin debate, so it has a predominant political dimension. The main point to be emphasized in our research is that associating takfirism in al-Muhakkima directly with "major sin", which is a theoretical theological debate, is not a healthy approach to understand takfirism at this point.