Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

إذا كنت في الشام فاذكر مناقب علي رضي الله عنه
When you are in Shām then talk of feats of ʿAlī I. 1
And Abū Zurʿah al-Rāzī states:
إذا رأيت الشامي يطعن على مكحول والوزاعي فال تشك أنه ناصبي
When you see a Shāmī impugning Makḥūl and Awzāʿī then do not doubt
that he is a Nāṣibī. 2
This text of Abū Zurʿah which is vague in terms of the link between
impugning these two scholars and Naṣb becomes abundantly clear when
considering the aspect of detraction from ʿAlī I.
That is to say that these two scholars were from the most prominent
scholars of Shām and were held in the highest of esteem by its people.
They had realised their merit and no none had ever criticised them, nor
in their knowledge and nor in their practice. Hence despite all of this if
a Shāmī still impugned them it was primarily because of their positive
position regarding ʿAlī I.
In addition, Abū Bakr al-Khallāl, 3 Ibn Taymiyah, 4 al-Dhahabī, 5 Ibn Kathīr, 6
and Ibn Ḥajr 7 have also alluded to the presence of the Nawāṣib in Shām.
1 Ḥilyah al-Awliyāʾ 7/27.
2 Ṭabaqāt al-Ḥanābilah 1/200; al-Maqṣid al-Arshad 2/70.
3 Kitāb al-Sunnah 2/410. Al-Khallāl is Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Hārūn al-Baghdādī, Abū Bakr al-
Khallāl. The leading scholar of the Ḥanbalī School and a great jurist and scholar of ḥadīth. He became
famous for gathering the knowledge of Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and codifying it. As a result of his
strenuous efforts the Ḥanbalī School was born. He passed away in 311 A.H. at approximately eighty.
Some of books are: Kitāb al-Sunnah, Kitāb al-ʿIlal, and Kitāb al-Jāmiʿ. See: Tārīkh Baghdād 5/112; Siyar
Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ 14/297; Tadhkirah al-Ḥuffāẓ 3/785; Ṭabaqāt al-Ḥuffāẓ 1/331.
4 Minhāj al-Sunnah 4/146.
5 Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ 3/128.
6 Al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah 6/198, 229.
7 Fatḥ al-Bārī 13/537.
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