Al-Mutawakkil...

Al-Mutawakkil, whom traditionists called muhyi al-Sunnah , the person who revived the Sunnah, and whom Ahmad ibn Hanbal used to respect and hold in high regards and whose orders he endorsed in appointing judges, was one of the most notorious Nasibis who were antagonistic towards Ali and his Ahlul Bayt, so much so that his grudge prompted him to desecrate the graves of both Ali and his son Husayn, peace be upon them.

He used to forbid anyone from visiting their sites and would kill anyone named “Ali.” In his dissertation, al-Khawarizmi quotes him saying that he used to generously reward with money only those who cursed the descendants of Abu Talib, peace be upon them, and support the sect of Nasibism.[^6] Needless to say, Nasibism is one of the sects of “Ahlul Sunnah wal Jama`a;” therefore, the promoter of Nasibism, namely al-Mutawakkil, is the same one labelled as muhyi al-Sunnah , the person who revived the Sunnah; so, consider.

Ibn Kathir, in his Al-Bidaya wal Nihaya , tells us that when “Ahlul Sunnah wal Jama`a” heard al-A`mash narrating the tradition of the roasted bird, which contains a praise of Ali ibn Abu Talib (peace be upon him), they took him out of the mosque then washed the place where he used to sit.[^7] They also opposed the burial of Imam Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari, author of Al-Tafsir al-Kabir (the great exegesis) and the great historian, for no reason other than his admission of the authenticity of hadith al-Ghadeer in which the Prophet is quoted saying, “Whoever regards me as his/her mawla (master), this Ali is (henceforth) his/her master.” He collected its sources from various avenues.

Those sources were quite numerous, so they came to be referred to as mutawatir , consecutively reported.