Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

rationale behind debating them was to establish evidence against them and
thereby acquire legitimacy for fighting them and stand exonerated before Allah
E. They were very eager to falsify their claims and rebut them so that their
misconceptions do not easily slip into people who were not aware of their reality
and would thus be beguiled by their external state; for they were described as:
إذ فيهم من الجتهاد في العبادة والورع ما لم يكن في الصحابة
People in who there was more devotion and ‘piety’ than even the Ṣaḥābah
M. 1
Exactly what Nabī H had said:
يخرج فيكم قوم تحقرون صالتكم مع صالتهم،‏ وصيامكم مع صيامهم،‏ وعملكم مع عملهم
There will emerge amongst you a people, in comparison to whose Ṣalāh
you will undermine your Ṣalāh, in comparison to whose fasting you will
undermine your fasting, and in comparison to whose actions you will
undermine your actions. 2
Amazing indeed is the statement of Ibn ʿAbbās L which he made when he was
told of how devout they were in their worship:
ليسوا بأشد اجتهادا من اليهود والنصارى
They are not more devout than the Jews and the Christians. 3
1 Al-Istiqāmah 1/258.
2 The ḥadīth of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī which appears in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: Chapter regarding the virtues
of the Qurʾān: sub-chapter regarding the evil of a person who shows off with the recitation of the
Qurʾān, eats off it, or boasts about it: ḥadīth no. 4771; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim: Chapter of Zakāh: sub-chapter
regarding the Khawārij and their description: ḥadīth no. 1064.
3 Muṣannaf ʿAbd al-Razzāq: Chapter regarding blood money: sub-chapter regarding the Ḥarūriyyah:
ḥadīth no. 18581; Muṣannaf Ibn Abī Shaybah: Chapter regarding the battle of Jamal: sub-chapter
regarding the mention of the Khawārij: ḥadīth no. 37901.
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