Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

However, their time period was a hundred years less (than the time period
of the Imāms of the Rāfiḍah).
Each one of them was a Nāṣibī, with the exception of the pious ʿUmar. 1
Similarly, some of the Abbasid Khulafāʾ would, in order to win the support of their
Alawid opponents, remind them with presumptuousness of the abusive stance
the Umayyads held toward ʿAlī I. 2
Nonetheless, although the resentment of the Umayyads differed from individual
to individual, it did not lead them to the extent of them excommunicating him.
Likewise, although what had propelled Naṣb in them initially was the grave
events which took place after the martyrdom of ʿUthmān I, but subsequently
it shifted to a purely politically motivated issue.
Since the Naṣb of most of the Umayyads is beyond dispute, it is important to
ascertain the reality of their stance regarding ʿAlī I. Likewise it is important
to investigate the causes which led to them becoming disillusioned with him.
However, there is a contention here which poses itself to every researcher, i.e. the
contention of their inconsistent stances regarding the Alawids in general, such
that at times they would manifest as completely contradicting one another.
It would probably be easy to resolve a very large extent of this contention if
one considers the human disposition. One should appreciate that within every
human there is a mix of various conflicting interests, like love and hate, virtue
and vice, pleasure and displeasure, inclination and aversion, advancement and
decline. Hence, when there is a clash between these interests, often times what
he displays is due to him succumbing to the strongest among them. Obviously
1 Al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah 13/206 (Ibn Kathīr has not attributed to anyone specific.)
2 Tārīkh al-Ṭabarī 4/433; al-Kāmil fī al-Tārīkh 5/155; Tārīkh Ibn Khaldūn 4/10; Simṭ al-Nujūm al-ʿAwālī
4/175.
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