Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

The Two phases of Naṣb
The First Phase
In this phase ʿAlī I was the direct victim of Naṣb, for all that it entailed at that
time was hatred for ʿAlī I. Hence it comprised of two components:
1.
Open hatred, whether it be for religious reasons or otherwise.
2. It was specific to Amīr al-Muʾminīn ʿAlī I
Two types of people considered this to be a virtue and an act of worship:
The first type: The Khawārij. Initially they were his ardent supporters and his
courageous soldiers who fought by his side and under his flag. Subsequently,
after the famous incident of arbitration occurred they turned against him; they
excommunicated him and considered harbouring enmity against him to be an act of
worship due to entertaining the notion that a disbeliever can never be befriended. 1
There is no dispute amidst the scholars as to the Khawārij being from the people of
Naṣb; because they opposed him very vigorously by hating him, excommunicating
him and thereafter assassinating him.
However, some scholars like al-ʿUkbarī 2 and al-Zabīdī 3 have suggested that Naṣb
1 Ibid. 4/469.
2 ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Baghdādī, al-ʿUkbarī. A dynamic Ḥanbalī scholar who
became famous for language and literature, to the extent that people would come to benefit from
him from all places. He was born in 538 A.H. He was ʿUkbarā, a small town on the bank of Euphrates
River. He was afflicted with measles in his childhood. He passed away in Baghdād in 616 A.H. Some of
his books are: Imlāʾ mā Manna bihī al-Raḥmān, Sharḥ Dīwān al-Mutanabbī and Sharḥ al-Lumaʿ. See: Tārīkh
al-Islām 44/294; al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah 13/85; Tārīkh ibn al-Wardī 2/136; Bughyah al-Wuʿāh 2/38.
3 Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Ḥusaynī, Abū al-Fayḍ al-Zabīdī.
A dynamic Ḥanafī jurist. He was born in India and grew up in Zabīd, in Yemen. He travelled to Ḥijāz
and thereafter settled in Egypt. He earned acclaim there and the kings wrote letters to him. He passed
away in Egypt in a plague in the year 1205. Some of his books are: Tāj al-ʿArūs, Itḥāf al-Sādah al-Muttaqīn
and ʿUqūd al-Jawāhir al-Munīfah. See: ʿAjāʾib al-Athar 2/104; Abjad al-ʿUlūm 3/12; al-Aʿlām 7/70; Muʿjam
al-Muʾallifīn 11/282.
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