the manifestation of Imam Ali\'s attraction and repulsion in his caliphate periods

In the period of his caliphate, ~Ali~ expelled three groups from beside him and rose up to do battle with them: the people of (the battle of) ~Jamal~, whom he himself named the ~Nakithun~ (those who break their allegiance); the people of (the battle of) ~Siffin~, whom he called ~Qasitun~ (those who deviate); and the people of (the battle of) ~Nahrawan~, the ~Khawarij~, whom he called the ~Mariqun~ (those who miss the truth of the religion). [Before Ali, the Prophet called these people by these names when he said to him: "After me, you will fight with the nakithun, the qasitun and the mariqun." This tradition is narrated by ~Ibn Abi'l Hadid~ in his commentary on Nahju 'l-balaghah (vol. 1, p.201), where he says that it is one of the proofs of the prophethood of Muhammad since the tradition is quite explicit about the future and the unknown (ghayb), and there is no kind of hidden interpretation or ellipsis in it.]

Ali said: When I took up the reins of government one party broke their allegiance (nakathah), another missed the truth of the religion (maraqah), and another deviated (qasatah). [Nahju 'l-balaghah - Sermon 3 "ash-Shiqshiqiyah]

The Nakithun were of a money-worshipping mentality, people of covetousness and displayers of prejudice. `Ali's speeches about justice and equality were more for the attention of this group.

However the mind of the Qasitun belonged to politics, deception and sedition; they killed so as to take the reins of government into their own hands, and to topple the basis of 'Ali's government and his governorship. Some people advised him to come to a compromise with them and to give them, to a certain extent, what they were after, but he did not accept because he was not a person to do this kind of thing. He was ready to fight injustice, not to give his signature to it. On the one hand, Mu'awiyah and his clique were against the basis of 'Ali's government, and then the Qasitun wanted to occupy the seat of the caliphate of Islam themselves. In reality 'Ali's war with them was a war with sedition and double-dealing.

The third group, which was the Mariqun, had a spirit of inadmissible fanaticism, sanctimoniousness and dangerous ignorance. In relation to all these people, 'Ali was a powerful repeller and they lived in a state of non-conciliation.

One of the manifestations of 'Ali's completeness and his being a ~perfect individual~was that, when it was called for, he faced the various factions and deviations and fought against all of them. Sometimes we see him on the scene, fighting with those who were devoted to money or to this world, and sometimes too on the scene fighting with professional politicians of the most hypocritical type, and sometimes with ignorant and deviationist men of false piety.

The Khawarij although have been overthrown and are no more, they present an instructive and admonitory little history. Their thinking has taken root among the Muslims, and consequently their spirit has always existed, and still does, in the shape of sanctimonious persons, all the way down these fourteen centuries, even though the individual Khawarij and even their name have disappeared, and they can be counted as a grave hindrance to the advancement of Islam and the Muslims.

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