Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

Ṭalḥah was the first person to pledge his allegiance to ʿAlī. The murderers
of ʿUthmān I forced him and brought him till he pledged. 1
And Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām I said:
إنما بايعت عليا واللج في عنقي
I pledged allegiance to ʿAlī I and the sword was on my neck. 2
These actions were interpreted as ʿAlī I being in agreement with the rebels in
their siege on ʿUthmān I and his murder, or at least being pleased with what
had happened so that the Khilāfah may be enjoyed by him.
Nonetheless, ʿAlī I assumed the reigns of the Khilāfah thereafter and the
Fitnah was still at its peak. According to many he was somewhat responsible in
the blood of ʿUthmān I, but Allah E knows that he was innocent and free
from that which the liars calumniate him of. 3
Ibn ʿAbbās I was rather inspired in the following statement of his:
اآلن إن قمت بهذا المر ألزمك الناس دم عثمان إلى يوم القيامة
Now if you assume this position, people will incriminate you for the murder
of ʿUthmān till the Day of Judgment. 4
And Ibn Sīrīn 5 said:
1 Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ 1/35.
2 Al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah 7/227.
3 Minhāj al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah 7/452.
4 Akhbār al-Madīnah 2/280; Tārīkh Madīnah Dimashq 42/438; also see: al-Fitnah wa Waqʿah Jamal p. 99.
5 Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn al-Anṣārī, Abū Bakr al--Baṣarī. From the leading figures of the successors.
His father was taken as a captive in Jirjirāyā and he thus became the slave of Anas ibn Mālik I
who enacted the contract of Kitābah (the payment of a specific amount to earn freedom) with him.
Muḥammad was born two years before the end of the Khilāfah of ʿUmar I and heard ḥadīths from a
group of the Ṣaḥābah M. He was a jurist, an ascetic and a reliable narrator. His narrations are found
in the six collections. See: Tārīkh Baghdād 5/331; Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ 4/606; al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah
9/267; Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb 9/190.
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