This chapter discusses the section on rebellion from the Radd al-Muḥtār of the Damascene Ottoman muftī Ibn ʿĀbidīn (d. 1252/1836), with remarks on how social reality features in juristic texts, in this case the meteoric rise and destruction of the first Wahhābī state. The major theme of the extract is baghy (rebellion), and the correct response to it. Ibn ʿĀbidīn draws on centuries of Ḥanafī legal thought and carefully distinguishes brigands from rebels with a legitimate cause. In 1801, Mecca was invaded by the followers of the Wahhābī movement. By putting an end to the delivery of the Friday sermon in the name of the Ottoman sultan and barring Muslims from Ottoman lands from performing the pilgrimage, the Wahhābīs proclaimed the dawn of a new order in this, the holiest of cities. Ibn ʿĀbidīn, though by no means distinctive in designating the Wahhābīs Khārijites, is nevertheless interesting for his choice to address them in the chapter on rebellion. By doing so, he deploys an existing category of fiqh literature to evaluate a phenomenon of his own time.

Chapter 3 provides an overview of the history and development of the medieval group known as the Khārijites. It first discusses the many problems with scholarship and sources on them: there are vitually no sources from the Khārijites themselves, and much of what exists is polemic against them. Nevertheless, the chapter delves into the origins of the group at the Battle of Ṣiffīn, the shurāt rebellions that followed, and the emergence of the militant Khārijites during the first Muslim civil war (fitna). It emphasizes how the militant groups achieved self-definition earlier than their moderate counterparts, but that their militancy resulted in their early demise at the hands of the Umayyads. The last segment of this chapter follows the development of the moderates, namely, the Ṣufriyya and Ibāḍiyya, the latter of whom survive to the present.