In short, the general characteristic of this chaotic trend was absence of a clear-cut revolutionary program, since it adopted rejection as the basis of its political movement and searched for points of weakness to strike a chord of conflict with the ruling authority or other political trends.
The best example of a chaotic trend was the Khawarij who seized all opportunities possible to act against the ruling authority, especially when this would cause political conditions to worsen and the rejecting movements to increase. For instance, the Khawarij raised the slogan of ‘Judgment is Allah’s alone’ against Imam `Ali ('a) and against the Umayyad and `Abbasid dynasties thereafter.
Giving a general assessment of their political movement Imam `Ali (‘a) used to describe them and their slogan as follows: كَلِمَةُ حَقٍّ يُرَادُ بِهَا بَاطِلٌ. نَعَمْ، إنَّهُ لاَ حُكْمَ إِلاَّ للهِ، وَلَكِنَّ هَؤُلاَءِ يَقُولُونَ: لاَ إِمْرَةَ إِلاَّ للهِ. وَإنَّهُ لاَ بُدَّ لِلنَّاسِ مِنْ أَمِيرٍ بَرٍّ أَوْ فَاجِرٍ. The sentence is true but what they mean by it is false. It is true that judgment lies with none but Allah, but these people say that the function of governance is only for Allah.
The fact is that there is no escape for people from good or bad rulers. [^3] Imam `Ali (‘a) also prohibited his Shi`ah and followers to fight against the Khawarij to the benefit of the Umayyads. He thus said: لاَ تُقَاتِلُوا الْخَوَارِجَ بَعْدِي، فَلَيْسَ مَنْ طَلِبَ الْحَقَّ فَأَخْطَأَهُ كَمَنْ طَلِبَ الْبَاطِلَ فَأَدْرَكَهُ. Do not fight the Khawarij after me, because one who seeks right but does not find it is not like one who seeks wrong and finds it.
[^4] He (‘a) predicted that the Khawarij would finally turn into thieves and robbers: كَلاَّ وَالله، إِنَّهُمْ نُطَفٌ فِي أَصْلاَبِ الرِّجَالِ، وَقَرَارَاتِ النِّسَاءِ، كُلَّمَا نَجَمَ مِنْهُمْ قَرْنٌ قُطِعَ، حَتَّى يَكُونَ آخِرُهُمْ لُصُوصاً سَلاَّبِينَ. By Allah, no! Not yet. They still exist in the loins of men and wombs of women. Whenever a chief would appear from among them, he would be cut down until the last of them would turn into thieves and robbers.
[^5] Other examples of such chaotic trends were the movements of the Qaramitah (one of the factions of the Khawarij) and the Zinj, some of whom also sought personal interests and tried to make use of general rejection of the ruling authority in order to achieve those interests.