Opposing the Imam : the legacy of the Nawasib in Islamic literature / Nebil Husayn.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"There was once a famous scholar who agreed to tutor the young sons of a caliph. He would travel to a palace located in the deserts of Syria to share his knowledge of ḥadīth and instruct the royal family in religion. One day, the tutor found the head of the Muslim community, the caliph himself, reading the Qurʼān. The caliph stopped on the verse, "Surely those who committed slander were a gang among you . . . Each one shall have his share of the sin that he has earned. As for the one who initiated it, he shall have a grievous chastisement" (Q24:11). The Umayyad caliph was familiar with this story, in which members of the community falsely accuse the Prophet's wife of infidelity. But the ensuing exchange between the caliph and the tutor shows that in the Umayyads' telling of the tale, the role of the unnamed villain who initiated the slander and would consequently face a "grievous chastisement" was played by the Prophet's son-in-law ʻAlī. Only a few sources report the conversation between the tutor and the caliph, but these sources include Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, the most revered ḥadīth collection in Sunnism. Thus, the belief of some early Muslims that ʻAlī had been capable of such a deed is preserved as canon in Sunnī Islam"-- Provided by publisher.