Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

When attributing a person to it the term Nāṣibī is used, and the plural thereof is
Nawāṣib. Likewise the terms Nāṣibah, Nāṣibiyyah and Ahl al-Naṣb are also used. 1
As for the technical definition of Naṣb, the scholars have given variant but close
definitions of Naṣb and Nawāṣib:
1. Naṣb is hating ʿAlī I and opposing him. 2 This is the definition given by
al-Zamakhsharī. 3
2. Naṣb is hating ʿAlī I and giving preference to others over him. 4 Or it is
turning away from ʿAlī I and his household. 5 Both these definitions are
given by Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī.
3.
Naṣb also refers to a school which is all about hating ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib
I. 6 This is stated by Abū al-Baqāʾ al-Kafawī. 7
4. Nawāṣib are a people who consider hating ʿAlī I to be an act of worship. 8
1 Asās al-Balāghah p. 458; Iqtiḍāʾ al-Ṣirāṭ al-Mustaqīm p. 300; Minhāj al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah 4/39; al-
Qāmūs al-Muḥīṭ p. 177; Fatḥ al-Bārī 7/437; al-Ṣawāʿiq al-Muḥriqah 2/534.
2 Al-Kashshāf 4/777; Rūḥ al-Maʿānī 30/172.
3 Maḥmūd ibn ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Khawārizmī, Abū al-Qāsim al-Zamakhsharī. A
Ḥanafī jurist who was an expert in language and its various sciences. He was born in Zamakhshar,
one of the villages of Khwarazm, in 467 A.H. He earned acclaim for his knowledge of Arabic literature
and for his affiliation to Iʿtizāl. He passed away in 538 A.H. Some of his works are: al-Kashshāf, al-Fāʾiq
and Asās al-Balāghah. See: Tārīkh al-Islām 36/486; Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ 20/151; al-Jawāhir al-Muḍīʾah fī
Ṭabaqāt al-Ḥanafiyyah 2/160; Bughyah al-Wuʿāh 2/279.
4 Hady al-Sārī p. 459; Tadrīb al-Rāwī 1/328; Tawḍīḥ al-Afkār 2/443.
5 Fatḥ al-Bārī 10/420.
6 Al-Kulliyyāt p. 361.
7 Ayyūb ibn Mūsā al-Ḥusaynī al-Qarīmī, Abū al-Baqāʾ al-Kafawī. A Ḥanafī scholar. He assumed the
position of judicature in Kafā, in Turkey, the place to which he is attributed. Likewise he was appointed
as a judge in al-Quds and Baghdād. He thereafter returned to Istanbul and passed away there in 1094
A.H. One of his books in Arabic is Kitāb al-Kulliyyāt. See: al-Aʿlām 2/38; Muʿjam al-Muʾallifīn 3/31.
8 Al-Muḥkam wa al-Muḥīṭ al-Aʿẓam 8/345, Lisān al-ʿArab 1/762; al-Qāmūs al-Muḥīṭ p. 176. Also see: al-
Ṣanʿānī: Thamarāt al-Naẓr p. 30, 36.
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