Nasb-and-the-Nawasib

The Second Discussion
The Concept of Naṣb according to the Twelver Shīʿah
The issue of Naṣb is an issue which is discussed in various chapters of the Twelver
Fiqh due to many rulings being linked to it. Hence it is discussed in: the chapter
of purity, the chapter of the various types of impurities, the chapter of Asʾār 1
(leftovers), the chapter of Khums, the chapter of Zakāh, the chapter of Jihad, and
the chapter of Nikāḥ, amongst others.
It is a very complex issue in which the views of the Shīʿah have drastically varied.
This is despite the fact that it was very excessively used by their early and later
scholars alike. 2
1 Asʾār is the plural of Suʾr which literally means the remains of something. The Suʾr of an animal is
like the saliva of a human. However what is meant here is: whatever is little in quantity and is touched
by an animal. See: Lisān al-ʿArab 4/339; al-Miṣbāḥ al-Munīr 1/295; Jāmiʿ al-Maqāṣid 1/122; al-Muhadhdhab
al-Bāriʿ 1/122.
2 I managed to come across the following personalities of the Ṣaḥābah M and those after them
who are dubbed Nawāṣib by the Shīʿah:
1. ʿĀʾishah I. Al-Anwār al-Sāṭiʿah p. 219.
2. Muʿāwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān I. Khulāṣah ʿAbaqāt al-Anwār 9/212.
3. ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ and his son ʿAbd Allāh L. Iḥqāq al-Ḥaqq p. 406.
4. ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar L. Ghāyat al-Marām 1/248, 6/52.
5. ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zubayr and his brother ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr L. Sharḥ Iḥqāq al-Ḥaqq 2/541.
6. Miswar ibn Makhramah I. Sharḥ Minhāj al-Karāmah p. 420.
7. ʿIkrimah I. Sharḥ Iḥqāq al-Ḥaqq 2/541.
8. Al-Shaʿbī. Ghāyat al-Marām 5/286.
9. Abū Ḥanīfah. Al-Anwār al-Nuʿmāniyyah 2/307.
10. Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. Al-Ṣirāṭ al-Mustaqīm 3/223.
11. Al-Bukhārī and Muslim. Iḥqāq al-Ḥaqq p. 196.
12. Ibn Ḥibbān. Nafaḥāt al-Azhār 15/305.
13. Ibn al-Jawzī. Al-Musnad al-Ṣaḥīḥ p. 85.
14. Ibn Ḥazm. Nafaḥāt al-Azhār 6/40; Majallah Turāthinā 37/11.
15. Al-Rāzī. Biḥār al-Anwār 36/33.
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