Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

ladies under his custody whom he would cohabit with 1 and whom he would
debase by assigning to them difficult chores. 2
This is not something which the governors of the Umayyad dynasty were unaware
of. Hence Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf, after having asked al-Shaʿbī about the view of ʿAlī I
regarding some matters of inheritance, said to him:
إنا لم نعب على قضائه،‏ إنما عبنا كذا و كذا
We did not criticise his judgements, we only criticised this and that. 3
This statement is indicative of the type of clash which existed. This is
notwithstanding that the Umayyads tried in every way to conceal this from the
people by exaggerating in his denigration as if to suggest that he was not worthy
of anything being drawn from him.
Ibn Taymiyyah tells us of the state of the killers of Ḥusayn I. He says:
كان كثير منهم أو أكثرهم يكرهون قتله ويرونه ذنبا عظيما،‏ لكن قتلوه لغرضهم،‏ كما يقتل الناس بعضهم
بعضا على الملك
Many of them, or most of them, disliked killing him and considered it a
major sin. But they killed him for their ulterior motives, like people kill
one another for rulership and authority. 4
The Alawids, hence, suffered harassment of others besides the Umayyads as well
due to the same reason, i.e. the Khilāfah. Ibn Ḥajar says:
1 Al-ʿIbar fī Khabar man Ghabar 2/48; Simṭ al-Nujūm al-ʿAwālī 3/477.
2 Simṭ al-Nujūm al-ʿAwālī 3/477.
3 Muṣannaf Ibn Abī Shaybah: chapter of inheritance: sub-chapter regarding a mother, a full sister and
a grandfather: ḥadīth no. 31244.
Ostensibly it seems that because of Ḥajjāj accused ʿAlī I of being complicit in the murder of
ʿUthmān I, as was popular amongst the Umayyads and their governors, al-Shaʿbī disliked clearly
mentioning that and thus he said ‘this and that’ instead.
4 Minhāj al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah 4/560.
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