Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

The Second Category: Areas where Nawāṣib other than the Khawārij
existed.
These places are the following:
The Nawāṣib in the East
• Shām
Shām was the epicentre of Naṣb and the actual abode of the Nawāṣib. The
following distinguished it from other places:
Firstly, Naṣb was the dominant idea there. Hence most of the Shāmis were
hesitant to concede the virtue of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib I from after the Battle
of Ṣiffīn. 1 Their hatred was such that they would call every ʿAlī ʿUlay (doing
so denigratingly). 2 Naṣb had also influenced some of the scholars of Shām,
something unprecedented anywhere else where the Nawāṣib existed. The
people of Shām were known to be the enemies of the Ṭālibiyyīn. 3 It was
assumed that the only household which they knew was the household of
Abū Sufyān and the only obedience which they knew was being obedient to
the Banū Marwān. 4 They had reached in their adherence to their Khulafāʾ
a level which later became proverbial. It would thus be said ‘obedience
like the Shāmis’. 5 Some historians even go on to falsely allege that
Muʿāwiyah I delayed the Jumuʿah Ṣalāh when marching toward Ṣiffīn
and only performed it with the people on Saturday, and they followed. 6
1 Mīzān al-Iʿtidāl 6/153.
2 Al-Thiqāt 7/454; Fatḥ al-Mughīth 3/285; Tadrīb al-Rāwī 2/331.
3 Tārīkh Ibn Khaldūn 3/240; Simṭ al-Nujūm al-ʿAwālī 4/171.
4 Muʿjam al-Buldān 2/352.
5 Minhāj al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah 6/431.
6 Tārīkh Madīnah Dimashq 1/366. Ibn ʿAsākir commenting upon this narration mentions, “As for what
the commonality narrate regarding Muʿāwiyah I delaying the Jumuʿah Ṣalāh till Saturday and the
people of Shām agreeing with him in doing so, it is an incident which is fabricated. Muʿāwiyah I
and his contemporaries from amongst the Ṣaḥābah M and the successors were too pious and cautious
regarding the fulfilment of the obligatory prayer to be unaware of delaying the Ṣalāh being impermissible.
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