Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

Likewise in Kūfah, Saʿīd ibn Zayd I condemned a person whom he saw reviling
ʿAlī I. He also condemned those who did not condemn the criticiserdespite
knowing and having the ability to do so. Riyāḥ ibn al-Ḥārith 1 narrates:
كنت قاعدا عند فالن في مسجد الكوفة وعنده أهل الكوفة،‏ فجاء سعيد بن زيد بن عمرو بن نفيل فرحب
به،‏ وحياه وأقعده عند رجله على السرير،‏ فجاء رجل من أهل الكوفة يقال له:‏ قيس بن علقمة فاستقبله
فسب وسب.‏ فقال سعيد:‏ من يسب هذا الرجل؟ قال:‏ يسب عليا.‏ قال أل أرى أصحاب رسول الله يسبون
عندك ثم ل تنكر ول تغير؟
I was sitting by so and so in the Masjid of Kūfah and around him were the
people of Kūfah. Saʿīd ibn Zayd came and so he welcomed him, greeted him,
and made him sit by his feet upon the bed. Then came a person of Kūfah
who was known as Qays ibn ʿAlqamah 2 whom he welcomed. This person
started reviling and reviling. Saʿīd thus said, “Who is this person reviling?”
He said, “He is reviling ʿAlī.” Upon which Saʿīd said, “Do I not see that the
Companions of Rasūl Allah H are being reviled in your presence and
you do not condemn or make an effort to bring about a change.” 3
At another instance, when he heard a person reviling ʿAlī I upon the pulpit he
stood up and walked out of the Masjid and said to the person who was with him:
أل تعجب من هذا يسب عليا.‏ أشهد على رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم أنا كنا على حراء أو أحد فقال
النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم:‏ اثبت حراء أو أحد،‏ فإنما عليك صديق أو شهيد
Are you not appalled at this person who reviles ʿAlī? I testify that we were
upon the mountain of Ḥirāʾ or Uḥud when Nabī H said, “Stay still
1 Riyāḥ ibn al-Ḥārith al-Nakhaʿī, Abū al-Muthannā al-Kūfī. A successor who heard from ʿAlī and
Saʿīd ibn Zayd. Al-ʿIjlī has deemed him reliable and Ibn Ḥibbān has mentioned him in his Thiqāt. I did
not come across the date of his demise. His narrations appear in the Sunans of Abū Dāwūd, al-Nasāʾī
and Ibn Mājah. See: Maʿrifah al-Thiqāt 1/365; Tārīkh Baghdād 8/419; Tahdhīb al-Kamāl 9/256; Tahdhīb
al-Tahdhīb 3/258.
2 I did not come across his biography in the books I have at my disposal.
3 Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal: Faḍāʾil al-Ṣaḥābah: ḥadīth no. 90; Sunan Abī Dāwūd: Chapter of al-Sunnah: subchapter
regarding the Khulafāʾ: ḥadīth no. 4650; Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim: al-Sunnah: ḥadīth no. 1433; Musnad
al-Shāshī: ḥadīth no. 216. Al-Albānī has deemed the ḥadīth Ṣaḥīḥ in his Ṣaḥīḥ Sunan Abī Dāwūd.
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