Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

حدثناهم بغضب صحاب محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم فاتخذوه دينا
We narrated to them the anger of the Ṣaḥābah of Muḥammad H and
they took that as religion. 1
He has also said:
نستغفر الله من أشياء كنا نرويها على وجه التعجب اتخذوها دينا!‏ وقد أدرك أصحاب النبي صلى الله عليه
وسلم معاوية أميرا في زمان عمر وبعد ذلك عشر سنين فلم يقم إليه أحد فيقتله
We seek the forgiveness of Allah for things that we would narrate by way
of displaying amusement, which they have now taken as religion. The
Ṣaḥābah M of Nabī H lived during the era of ʿUmar I when
Muʿāwiyah I was the governor and ten years thereafter. But none of
them endeavoured to kill him. 2
Secondly, it can in all likelihood lead to embedding hatred in the hearts for some
of the Ṣaḥābah, whereas the Muslims are ordered to seek forgiveness for their
brothers who has preceded them with faith.
Shihāb ibn Khirāsh 3 says:
أدركت من أدركت من صدر هذه المة وهم يقولون:‏ اذكروا محاسن أصحاب رسول الله ما تأتلف عليه
القلوب،‏ ول تذكروا الذي شجر بينهم فتحرشوا عليهم الناس
Whoever of the predecessors of this Ummah I accompanied, I heard him
saying, “Mention the merits of the Ṣaḥābah M of Rasūl Allāh H that
1 Al-Maʿrifah wa al-Tārīkh 3/85; Tārīkh Madīnah Dimashq 32/93; Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ 2/394.
2 Al-Tārīkh al-Awsaṭ 1/136.
3 Shihāb ibn Khirāsh ibn Ḥawshab al-Shaybānī, Abū al-Ṣalt al-Wāsiṭī. First he settled in Kufah and
then he moved to Ramlah in Palestine. Imām Ahmad has deemed him authentic. He was an adherent
of the Sunnah. Some of his narrations, however, are reprehensible. Ibn Ḥajr said, “A satisfactory
narrator who at times errs.” In the sources that I referred to, I have not come across the year of his
demise. His narrations feature in the Sunan of Abū Dāwūd al-Sijistānī. See al-Kāmil fī Ḍuʿafāʾ al-Rijāl
4/34; Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ 8/284; Tahdhīb al-Kamāl 12/568; Taqrīb al-Tahdhīb p. 269.
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