Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

Allah E. They further reasoned that it is impermissible to love a disbeliever,
who according to them was ʿAlī I, and thus it would be compulsory to hate him
and fight him unless he repents, which ʿAlī did not do. Hence it was no surprise
that they confronted him in the severest of ways, deemed his blood violable 1 and
some of their leaders dubbed him the Jāḥid (denier) thereby expressing his hatred
and detraction. 2
It is clear to any person who reflects that the worst form of opposition is religious
opposition, even though it may be based on falsehood. For, owing to the ignorance
of the opponent regarding the proof, or his warped understanding thereof which
distances him completely from its actual purport, he becomes unstoppable in
his actions however reprehensible they may be. Because he assumes that this is
the actual Dīn of Allah and that whatever he is doing in defending it is an act of
worship and whatever befalls him in doing so is all in the way of attaining the
pleasure of Allah E.
The Fourth Cause: Fanaticism Regarding ʿAlī I
The fanaticism of the Shīʿah in respect to ʿAlī I is well-known. It does not stop
at merely giving him preference over others but exceeds logical boundaries. To
the extent that if it is claimed that none of the sub-sects of the Ummah can or
has matched this type of fanaticism it would not be far-fetched. There can be no
greater evidence of this than their passion to consecrate him and attribute to him
contrived virtues even if they may be impossible. 3 All of this in an endeavour to
elevate him to a stage which no one else can share with him and thereby bolster
their viewpoint regarding Imāmah.
1 Majmūʿ Fatāwā Shaikh al-Islām 4/469; Minhāj al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah 6/16; Fatḥ al-Bārī 13/537.
2 Al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah 7/290.
3 For example: A dog one day addressed him saying, “Your Wilāyah was presented to me and I did
not accept, and so I was disfigured.” Al-Nāfiʿ Yawm al-Ḥashr p. 170; and that he covered a distance in
one night which cannot normally be covered in two months; and that a person in Iraq (whose name
was Ibn Hubayrah) missed his children who were in Madīnah. Whereupon ʿAlī said to him, “Close
your eyes and then open them, “and suddenly he was in his house amidst his children. See: al-Ṣirāṭ
al-Mustaqīm 1/205.
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