Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

them having knowledge regarding the lineage of the Dayṣānīs, 1 the brothers of
the disbelievers and the semen of the devils. They testified hoping thereby to
attain closeness to Allah and believing in the obligation of disseminating to the
people what they knew as binding. 2
1 A sect of the fire worshippers known as Dayṣān. They believe in light as a source of good and
darkness as a source of evil. Hence all good is from light and all evil is from darkness. They believed
that light is alive, knowledgeable, capable and sensitive and that from it emerges movement and life.
As for darkness it is dead, ignorant, incapable, and inert and has no will or perception. They hold
other beliefs as well. See: Maqālāt al-Islāmiyyīn p. 338; al-Māturīdī: al-Tawḥīd p. 163; al-Fiṣal fi al-Milal wa
al-Niḥal 1/37, al-Milal wa l-Niḥal 1/250.
2 Tārīkh al-Islām 28/11; al-Nujūm al-Zāhirah 4/229 (with a bit of condensation). For more Information
of the Ubaydīs who masqueraded as Alawids and others of their kin refer to: al-ʿIbar fi Khabar man
Ghabar 3/79; al-Wāfī bi al-Wafayāt 4/108; al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah 11/180; Maʾāthir al-Ināqah 3/163;
Shadharāt al-Dhahab 3/162; Simṭ al-Nujūm al-ʿAwālī 3/560, 4/142.
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