Whatever comes closest to their guidance is the preferred path, and whatever departs from it is the deviation—whether the one who departs today is Arab by lineage or only by language.
Such is what has been transmitted from the earliest generations. Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Ṭāhir al-Salafī, in his work “The Merit of the Arabs,” relates with his chain from Abū Shihāb al-Ḥannāṭ—Ḥibbān ibn Mūsā narrated to us—from Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī, who said:
“Whoever is born within Islam is an Arab.”
The point of this report from Abū Jaʿfar is that whoever is born in Islam was born in the land of the Arabs and became accustomed to their speech; such, at that time, was the reality.
Al-Salafī also narrates—from al-Muʾtaman al-Sājī, from Abū’l-Qāsim al-Khallāl—that Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Nawbakhtī informed us, saying: “ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn …”
(1) ʿAbd Rabbih ibn Nafiʿ al-Kinani, nicknamed al-Hannat, Abu Shihab al-Asghar, a resident of al-Madaʾin. Ibn Hajar describes him as “reliable, though he sometimes errs.” He belongs to the eighth generation of narrators and died in 172 AH/788 CE. Al-Bukhari, Muslim, and others transmit his reports. See: Ibn Hajar, Taqrib al-Tahdhib 1/471, no. 851.
(2) MSS A and B and the printed edition give the name as “Jabbar,” but the correct reading, adopted here, is Hibbān ibn Musa ibn Sawar al-Sulami, Abu Muhammad al-Marwazi; his biography has already been cited—see the Index of Biographical Entries.
(3) This is Abu Jaʿfar al-Baqir; his biography has already been cited—see the Index of Biographical Entries.
(4) MSS J and D add: “and he has also narrated.”
(5) The printed edition reads: “al-Muʾtamar.”
(6) This refers to al-Muʾtaman ibn Ahmad ibn ʿAli al-Rabaʿi, known as al-Saji, a trusted hadith scholar who died in Baghdad in 507 AH/1113 CE; he was born in 445 AH/1053 CE. See: al-Zirikli, al-Aʿlam 7/318.
(7) ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Hasan ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hasan, Abu al-Qasim ibn al-Khallal. See: al-Dhahabi, Tadhkirat al-Huffaz, vol. 2, p. 1164 and its indices, p. 71.
(8) The printed edition reads: “al-Tawlakhī” and notes in the margin “thus in the original,” but the correct reading, as in the manuscripts at my disposal and in Lisan al-Mizan 2/201 (no. 909), is al-Nawbakhti. He is al-Hasan ibn al-Husayn ibn ʿAli ibn Abi Sahl al-Nawbakhti, Abu Muhammad. Lisan al-Mizan quotes al-Muhamili: “His auditions are sound, but he was a Rafidi Muʿtazili,” and al-Barqani: “He was a Muʿtazili and inclined toward Shiʿism, yet proved to be trustworthy.” He died in 452 AH/1060 CE. See: Lisan al-Mizan 2/201, no. 909.