A few days ago, pictures of six tied-up, half-naked bodies along a roadside in Balochistan circulated on social media, bringing the terms fitna al-Khawarij and fitna al-Hindustan- oft used by Pakistan’s ISPR- to mind, alongside historical mentions of the Khawarij’s own brutality.

When Pakistan’s military adopts “Fitna al-Khawarij,” it isn’t merely describing a threat-it invokes a religious narrative placing the state on the side of orthodoxy while casting its enemies as heretics. But here, those labelled fitna al-Khawarij were displayed exactly as the Khawarij once displayed their own enemies.

Who were the “Kharijites”

The word Khawarij carries deep weight in Islamic tradition. In the 7th century, a sect broke from Caliph Ali over the arbitration at the Battle of Siffin (657 CE / 37 AH) and pioneered takfir-declaring fellow Muslims kafir (apostates) as a pretext for killing them. Their actions were worse than the theology itself: they killed Abdullah ibn Khabbab, son of a companion of the Prophet (pbuh), alongside his pregnant wife-her body cut open-for giving the “wrong” answer about Ali’s legitimacy, and killed anyone else they deemed a major sinner, excommunicating them and taking the law into their own hands. Calling someone a “Kharijite,” then, has never been a casual accusation- it’s a theological judgment implying deviation from Islam itself.

The Response of the One with Knowledge

As always, there is no clarity on who did the killing and who was killed-BLA fighters, some say, as if that justifies dumping bodies roadside; Baloch victims of enforced disappearance, others say-either way, left there to terrify the rest.

The brutality of that display should give us pause-not to ask who deserves the label “Khawarij,” but who is acting in its spirit. In a dispute, it is not the label you attach to an opponent that reveals who you are-it’s how you treat them. No one demonstrates that more clearly than Ali, known as Bab al-‘Ilm, the Gate of Knowledge, who faced the actual Khawarij.

Despite their rebellion-murdering his........

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