Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

In this type of an aura it was obviously necessary for them to
mentally prepare themselves for this conflict by believing that
they were upon the truth and that they were demanding revenge
from the murderers of the oppressed Khalīfah, and by averring that
ʿAlī played a role in what had happened and therefore was tainted
with the blood of ʿUthmān I. 1
As a result, naturally enmity for him would settle in the hearts
of many of them and thereby the circle of his detractors would
gradually increase. It was thus completely normal for their children
to inherit this hatred from them.
2.
An external cause which was mostly the role played by the Umayyad
rulers in giving birth to and perpetuating the problem of Naṣb.
Despite Naṣb being prevalent in all of Shām, two cities however were more
effected than the rest. And they are:
a. Dimashq: No oddity in this, for it was the capital of the Umayyad
Empire, one of whose policies was openly proclaiming hatred for
ʿAlī I in order to subdue their rivals. Thus Naṣb was the dogma
of the people of Dimashq. 2 It became entrenched in them to an
extent that some narrators of Dimashq are reported to have heavily
adopted the dogma of the people Dimashq and to have severely
hated ʿAlī I. 3 To it many of the prominent Nawāṣib like Khālid
al-Qasrī 4 and others would be attributed.
1 Minhāj al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah 7/452.
2 Mīzān al-Iʿtidāl 1/205.
3 Al-Kāmil fī al-Ḍuʿafāʾ al-Rijāl 1/310; Tārīkh Madīnah Dimashq 7/281; Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb 1/159.
4 Khālid ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yazīd al-Qasrī, Abū al-Haytham al-Dimashqī. The governor of Iraq. He
presided over Makkah during the era of al-Walīd and Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Malik. Subsequently he was
appointed as the governor of Iraq by Hishām. He was an eloquent orator and was deemed to be from
the noblemen. He was also famous for his generosity. He died after suffering severe punishment in 126
A.H. His narrations appear in Khalq Afʿāl al-ʿIbād of al-Bukhārī and Sunan Abī Dāwūd. See: Tārīkh Madīnah
Dimashq 16/135; Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ 5/425; al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah 10/17; Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb 3/88.
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