Nor do we subscribe to the doctrine of the Shuʿūbiyyah or to that of the baseborn mawālī who feel no affection for the Arabs and refuse to acknowledge their merit; their view is nothing but innovation and deviation.

This very statement is attributed to Imām Aḥmad himself, as reported in the treatise of Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd al-Isṭakhrī—if the attribution is sound—and it is indeed his position as well as that of the great majority of the scholars.

A faction has maintained that the Arab stock enjoys no superiority over the non-Arab stock. These people are called the Shuʿūbiyyah because they champion the “peoples” (shuʿūb) in opposition to the “tribes” (qabāʾil); as the saying goes, “Qabāʾil refers to the Arabs, whereas shuʿūb refers to the non-Arabs.”

Some even go so far as to prefer certain groups of non-Arabs over the Arabs.

In most cases, such talk issues only from a kind of hypocrisy—either in belief,