[1] The name Muḥakkima derives from their slogan lā ḥukma illā li-llāh (لا حكم إلا لله), meaning "no judgment (hukm) except God's".
[3] The al-Muhakkima al-Ula group were led by a figure named Dhu al-Khuwaishirah at-Tamimi,[4] more famously known as Hurqus ibn Zuhayr as-Sa'di, a Tamim tribe chieftain, veteran of the Battle of Hunayn and first generation Kharijites who protested the war spoils distribution.
[9] At first, Hosts of Hurqus were among those who participated in the Muslim conquest of Persia led by Arfajah, Rashidun general who commands the army and navy in Iraq.
[2] The host of Hurqus also contained another Kharijite embryos that hail from Bajila tribe,[11] which led by Abd Allah ibn Wahb al-Rasibi, who later became founder of Ibadi group.
[12] During the Battle of Siffin, Mu'awiya proposed to Ali to settle their dispute through arbitration, with each side appointing referees who would pronounce judgment according to the Quran.
[1] While most of Ali's army accepted the proposal, one group, mostly from the tribe of Tamim, vehemently objected to the arbitration, seeing it as setting human judgment above God's word.
[18] However, when the arbitration ended in a verdict unfavorable to Ali, a large number of his followers left Kufa to join ibn Wahb, who had meanwhile moved his camp to another location along the Nahrawan Canal.
[18] When attempts at conciliation failed, Ali's forces attacked the Kharijites in their camp, inflicting a heavy defeat on them at the Battle of Nahrawan in 658.
The unity of the followers of ‘Alī was sundered in the crisis of the second fitna (64/683) when it split into three main schools, with the extremist Azāriqa and the moderate Ibadis at opposite poles and the Sufris somewhere in between.
[19] They believed that the Quran clearly stated that as a rebel Mu'awiya was not entitled to arbitration, but rather should be fought until he repented, pointing to the following verses:[19][18] If two parties of the faithful fight each other, then conciliate them.
[19] Khaled Abou El Fadl writes,Anecdotal reports about the debates between 'Ali and the Khawarij reflect unmistakable tension about the meaning of legality and the implications of the rule of law.
[2] As Muhammad Sa'id Roslan, Egyptian Salafi cleric explained the medieval Islamic scholars associate the early Kharijites who killed Uthman as those who follow Abdullah ibn Saba'.
[28] Ibadis have traditionally used the adjective Wahbi (referring to Ibn Wahb al-Rasibi) to describe their denomination and strongly identified with ahl al-Nahrawan (the people of Nahrawan).