Answered by Shaykh Hamza Karamali, SunniPath Academy Teacher
Please explain the following hadith:
I heard the Prophet saying, “In the last days (of the world) there will appear young people with foolish thoughts and ideas. They will give good talks, but they will go out of Islam as an arrow goes out of its game, their faith will not exceed their throats. So, wherever you find them, kill them, for there will be a reward for their killers on the Day of
Resurrection.” (Bukhari: 6-61:577)
Who, exactly, was the Prophet (SAW) referring to in this tradition? How should Islamic workers/activists understand this hadith in relation to the da’wah? What is the hukm on the last sentence of the hadith?
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful and Compassionate
This hadith has been related by both Bukhari and Muslim in their
compilations of rigorously authenticated hadiths. Imam Nawawi
explains in his commentary on Sahih Muslim that the people being
referred to in the hadith are seemingly pious Muslims who rebel
against the rightful ruler of the Muslims by taking up arms against
him. The most prominent historical example was the Khawarij, an early
Muslim sect that declared major companions and their rightful
supporters to have left Islam, and used this as a justification to
take up armed struggle against them. The hadith is a true prophecy
with respect to the Khawarij, and, as explained by Imam Nawawi,
applies to other similar groups of Muslims who oppose the mainstream
Muslims and take up arms against them. The instruction in the hadith
to kill such people is an instruction to Muslim rulers to gather an
army to forcibly quell such rebellions.
This is how classical scholars have understood the above hadith. This
hadith does not in any way justify individual Muslims’ causing civil
discord by taking the law into their own hands and go about spilling
blood, nor does it justify the terrible acts of violence and terror
that are committed in the name of Islam by the ignorant.
And Allah knows best.