Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

Masjid of Rasūl Allāh H, commit adultery with a songstress concubine
who does not belong to him, kill the people of that city with the sword or with
starvation, and does not read Ṣalāh in congregation or Jumuʿah at all. 1
A poet has very beautifully said:
لعمرك ما اإلنسان إل ابن دينه
فقد رفغ اإلسالم سلمان فارس
فال تترك التقوى اتكال على النسب
وقد هجن الشرك الشريف أبا لهب
By your life a person is not but the son of his creed, so do not discard piety due to
reliance upon lineage.
For surely Islām raised Salmān of Persia, and surely polytheism degraded the noble
man Abū Lahab. 2
It is important to note that whilst the Ahl al-Sunnah concede and establish the
virtue of the Ahl al-Bayt and their superiority, they do not give them complete
preference over the entire Ummah in all conditions. Rather at times others
besides them, due to many aspects, will surpass them, as is clear from the verse:
إِناَّ‏ أَكْ‏ رَ‏ مَ‏ كُ‏ مْ‏ عِ‏ ندَ‏ اللّٰهِ‏ أَتْقَ‏ اكُ‏ مْ‏
The most honoured of you by Allah is the most virtuous. 3
And the ḥadīth of Nabī H:
من بطأ به عمله لم يسرع به نسبه
He whose actions keep him behind, his lineage will not take him forward. 4
1 Jamharah Ansāb al-ʿArab p. 39.
2 Tārīkh Madīnah Dimashq 21/426.
3 Sūrah al-Ḥujurāt: 13.
4 Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim: chapter of Dhikr, Duʿāʾ, Tawbah and Istighfār; sub-chapter regarding the virtue of
convening for the recitation of the Qurʾān and the remembrance of Allah: ḥadīth no. 2699.
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