Biography of Ali ibn Abi Talib

The sira of Abu al-Hasanayn Ali, may Allah be pleased with him :

The birth and lineage of Ali ibn Abi Talib

Ali ibn Abi Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib ibn Hashim ibn Abd Manaf, Commander of the Believers, Abu al-Hasan al-Qurashi al-Hashimi.

His mother was Fatima bint Asad ibn Hashim ibn Abd Manaf, al-Hashimiyya : she was the first cousin of Abu Talib. She was among the emigrant women, and she died during the lifetime of the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, in Medina.

Amr ibn Marra reported, from Abu al-Bakhtari, from Ali : "I said to my mother : spare Fatima, the daughter of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, the drawing of water and the trips for errands, and she will spare you the grinding and the kneading." This indicates that she died in Medina.

He related much from the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, and the Quran was recited to him, and he was among the best of reciters.

Abu Abd ar-Rahman as-Sulami had him recite the Quran, as did Abu al-Aswad ad-Du'ali and Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi Layla.

Those who narrated from Ali : Abu Bakr, Umar, his two sons al-Hasan and al-Husayn, Muhammad and Umar, his first cousin Ibn Abbas, Ibn az-Zubayr, a group of Companions, Qays ibn Abi Hazim, Alqama ibn Qays, Ubayda as-Sulmani, Masruq, Abu Raja' al-Atardi, and many others.

He was among the very first converts : he attended Badr and what came after, and he also received the kunya of Abu Turab (father of dust).

Abd al-Aziz ibn Abi Hazim reported, from his father, from Sahl : a man of the family of Marwan was appointed over Medina ; he summoned me and ordered me to insult Ali, but I refused. He said : "Since you refuse, then curse Abu Turab." Sahl said : Ali had no name dearer to him than that one ; if he was called by it, he would rejoice. He was told : "Tell us the story of how he was named Abu Turab." He said : The Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, came to the house of Fatima and did not find Ali in the house. He asked : "Where is your cousin ?" She said : "There was something between him and me that angered me, so he went out and did not nap in my house." He said to a man : "Go and see where he is." The man came back and said : "O Messenger of Allah, he is lying down in the mosque." The Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, came to him, lying down with his cloak slipped from his side, so that dust had reached him. The Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, began wiping the dust from him, saying : "Rise, Abu Turab, rise, Abu Turab." Reported by Muslim.

The physical description of Ali

Abu Raja' al-Atardi said : I saw Ali, a bald old man with abundant hair around the skull, like the tanned skin of a sheep ; of medium height, big-bellied, with a large beard.

Su'ada ibn Hanthala said : I saw Ali with a yellowish beard.

Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya reported : Ali dyed himself with henna once, then abandoned it.

Ash-Sha'bi reported : I saw Ali, his head and beard white like cotton.

Ash-Sha'bi also said : I saw Ali with a white beard ; I never saw a beard more imposing than his, with scattered hair on his head.

Abu Ishaq said : I saw him delivering a sermon, wearing an izar and a rida' that were new, big-bellied, with a white head and beard.

Abu Ja'far al-Baqir reported : Ali was deeply brown-skinned, with heavy, large eyes, and he was closer to shortness of stature.

The Islam of Ali ibn Abi Talib

Urwa said : Ali embraced Islam when he was eight years old.

Al-Hasan ibn Zayd ibn al-Hasan said : he embraced Islam when he was nine years old.

Al-Mughira said : he embraced Islam when he was fourteen years old. Jarir reported it from him.

It is established from Ibn Abbas : the first to embrace Islam was Ali.

Muhammad al-Quradhi reported : the first to embrace Islam was Khadija, and the first men to embrace it were Abu Bakr and Ali ; as for Abu Bakr, he was the first to manifest Islam openly. Ali, for his part, concealed his Islam for fear of his father, until Abu Talib met him and said : "Have you embraced Islam ?" He said : "Yes." Abu Talib said : "Support your cousin and defend him." So Ali embraced Islam before Abu Bakr.

Qatada said : Ali was the bearer of the banner of the Messenger of Allah on the day of Badr, and in every battle.

Abu Hurayrah and others reported that the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said on the day of Khaybar : "I shall give the banner to a man who loves Allah and His Messenger, and whom Allah and His Messenger love, and Allah will grant the conquest through his hands." Umar said : I had never desired command before that day. He called Ali and handed the banner to him, and the hadith is mentioned as it already came regarding the expedition of Khaybar, through its various chains.

Muhammad ibn Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi Layla said, from al-Manhal, from Abdallah ibn Abi Layla : my father used to sit beside Ali, and Ali would wear summer clothes in winter and winter clothes in summer. I said to my father : "If you were to ask him, then ask him." He asked him, and Ali said : the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, sent for me while my eye was inflamed, on the day of Khaybar. I said : "O Messenger of Allah, my eye is inflamed." He spat in my eye and said : "O Allah, remove from him heat and cold." From that day on, I have never felt heat nor cold.

Jarir said, from al-Mughira, from Umm Musa : I heard Ali say : my eye has never been inflamed nor pierced since the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, passed his hand over my face and spat in my eye.

Al-Muttalib ibn Ziyad said, from Layth, from Abu Ja'far, from Jabir ibn Abdallah : Ali carried the door on his back on the day of Khaybar, until the Muslims climbed upon it and conquered the stronghold, that is, Khaybar ; afterwards they tried it together, and forty men could not carry it. Reported uniquely by Isma'il, the son of the daughter of as-Sudi, from al-Muttalib.

Ibn Ishaq said in "the Maghazi" : Abdallah ibn al-Hasan told me, from some of his family, from Abu Rafi', the client of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him : we went out with Ali when the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, sent him with his banner. As he drew near the fortress, its people came out against him and he fought them. A man among the Jews struck him and knocked his shield from his hand. Ali then seized a door at the fortress and used it as a shield, not letting go of it while he fought, until Allah granted us victory ; then he cast it away. I bear witness that we were eight men straining with all our might to turn that door, and we could not.

Ghandar said : Awf told us, from Maymun Abu Abdallah, from al-Bara' and Zayd ibn Arqam : the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said to Ali : "You are to me as Harun was to Musa, except that there is no prophet after me."

Maymun is a trustworthy narrator.

Bukayr ibn Musmar said, from Amir ibn Sa'd, from his father : Mu'awiya gave an order to Sa'd and said : "What prevents you from cursing Abu Turab ?" Sa'd replied : as for the three sayings which the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, addressed to him, I shall never curse the one who bears them ; to obtain a single one of them would be dearer to me than red camels. I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, say, when Ali stayed behind on one of his campaigns : "O Messenger of Allah, you leave me behind with the women and children ?" He said : "Would you not be pleased to be to me as Harun was to Musa, except that there is no prophet after me ?" At-Tirmidhi reported it and said : a hasan gharib hadith.

I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, say on the day of Khaybar : "I shall give the banner to a man who loves Allah and His Messenger, and whom Allah and His Messenger love." He handed him the banner, and Allah granted him the conquest.

When this verse was revealed : {Say : Come, let us call our sons and your sons, our women and your women, ourselves and yourselves} (Surah Al Imran, verse 61), the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, called Ali, Fatima, al-Hasan and al-Husayn, and said : "O Allah, these are my own." The hadith of Bukayr ; Muslim argued from it.

Ibrahim ibn al-Mundhir al-Hizami said : Ibrahim ibn Muhajjir ibn Musmar told us, from his father, from Amir ibn Sa'd, from his father : by Allah, I bear witness that the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said to Ali on the day of Ghadir Khumm, grasping his two forearms : "O people, who is your master ?" They said : Allah and His Messenger. He said : "Whosoever's master I am, Ali is his master. O Allah, be the ally of whosoever takes him for an ally, and the enemy of whosoever takes him for an enemy." Such is the hadith of this Ibrahim ; an-Nasa'i judged it weak.

It is reported from Anas that the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said to his daughter Fatima : "I have married you to the most forbearing of them, the first of them to Islam, and the most knowledgeable of them." Jabir al-Ju'fi, who is an abandoned narrator, reported something similar, from Ibn Burayda, from his father.

Al-Ajlah al-Kindi said, from Abdallah ibn Burayda, from his father : the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "O Burayda, do not trouble Ali : he is from me and I am from him, and he is your guardian after me."

Al-A'mash said, from Sa'd ibn Ubayda, from Abdallah ibn Burayda, from his father : the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "Whosoever's ally I am, Ali is his ally."

Ghandar said : Shu'ba told us, from Maymun Abu Abdallah, from Zayd ibn Arqam : the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "Whosoever's master I am, Ali is his master." This hadith is authentic.

Abu al-Jawab said : Yunus ibn Abi Ishaq told us, from his father, from al-Bara' : the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, sent two detachments, placing Ali over one and Khalid ibn al-Walid over the other, and said : "When there is fighting, it is Ali who will face the people." Ali opened a fortress and took a captive woman for himself. Khalid wrote about it ; when the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, read the letter, he said : "What do you say about a man who loves Allah and His Messenger, and whom Allah and His Messenger love ?" Al-Bara' said : I answered : I seek refuge with Allah from His anger.

Abu al-Jawab is a trustworthy narrator ; at-Tirmidhi reported it and said : a hasan hadith.

I read before Abu al-Ma'ali Ahmad ibn Ishaq : al-Fath ibn Abdallah ibn Muhammad informs you.

"H" : Yahya ibn Abi Mansur and a group of holders of license informed us, saying : Abu al-Futuh Muhammad ibn Ali ibn al-Jallajili informed us ; both said : Abu al-Qasim Hibatallah ibn al-Husayn al-Hasib informed us ; he said : Abu al-Husayn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn an-Naqqur informed us ; he said : Isa ibn Ali ibn al-Jarrah dictated to us, in the year three hundred eighty-nine ; he said : Abu al-Qasim Abdallah ibn Muhammad told us ; he said : Suwayd ibn Sa'id told us ; he said : Sharik told us, from Abu Ishaq, from Habashi ibn Junada : I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, say : "Ali is from me and I am from Ali ; none can discharge anything on my behalf but I or he." Ibn Majah reported it through the chain of Suwayd, and at-Tirmidhi reported it through Isma'il ibn Musa, from Sharik, and said : a hasan gharib hadith.

Yahya ibn Adam reported it, from Isra'il, from his grandfather ; an-Nasa'i mentioned it in "the Characteristics".

Ja'far ibn Sulayman ad-Dabbi said : Yazid ar-Rashk told us, from Mu'tarif ibn Abdallah, from Imran ibn Husayn : the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, sent an expedition and placed Ali at its head. When the Muslims returned from a journey or an expedition, they would come to the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, before joining their families, and inform him of their march. Ali had united with a captive woman ; four Companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, had agreed together to inform him. The expedition returned and informed the Messenger of Allah of its march ; one of the four rose and said : "O Messenger of Allah, Ali has united with a captive woman." He turned away from him. The second rose and said : he did such and such. He turned away from him. Then the third did likewise, then the fourth. The Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, turned to them in anger and said : "What do you want with Ali ? Ali is from me and I am from Ali, and he is the guardian of every believer after me." Ahmad reported it in "the Musnad", as did at-Tirmidhi, who judged it hasan, and an-Nasa'i.

Zaynab bint Ka'b ibn Ajra reported, from Abu Sa'id : the people complained about Ali, and the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, stood among us to deliver a sermon and said : "Do not complain about Ali : by Allah, he is the most withdrawn of men in the cause of Allah." Reported by Sa'd ibn Ishaq and his cousin Sulayman ibn Muhammad, from their aunt.

It is reported from Amr ibn Shu'as al-Aslami : I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, say : "Whosoever offends Ali offends me."

Fitr ibn Khalifa said, from Abu at-Tufayl : Ali gathered the people in the courtyard and said to them : "I call Allah to witness every person who heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, say on the day of Ghadir Khumm what he said when he stood." A great number of people stood and bore witness to that moment when the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, had taken his hand and said to the people : "Do you know that I have more right over the believers than they themselves ?" They said : yes, O Messenger of Allah. He said : "Whosoever's master I am, this one is his master. O Allah, be the ally of whosoever takes him for an ally, and the enemy of whosoever takes him for an enemy." Then Zayd ibn Arqam said to me : I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, say that of him.

Shu'ba said, from Salama ibn Kuhayl : I heard Abu at-Tufayl narrate, from Abu Sariha, or Zayd ibn Arqam : Shu'ba was unsure, from the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him : "Whosoever's master I am, Ali is his master." At-Tirmidhi judged it hasan, but it is not authenticated ; for Shu'ba reported it through Maymun Abu Abdallah, from Zayd ibn Arqam, in a similar way, and it appears that this hadith is with Shu'ba by two paths, the first being that reported by Bundar, from Ghandar, from him.

Kamil Abu al-Ala' said, from Habib ibn Abi Thabit, from Yahya ibn Ja'da, from Zayd ibn Arqam : the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said to Ali on the day of Ghadir Khumm : "Whosoever's master I am, Ali is his master."

Yahya ibn Abi Zayd reported it in a similar way, from Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi Layla : he heard Ali calling the people to bear witness in the courtyard. Abdallah ibn Ahmad reported it in "the Musnad" of his father, from the hadith of Sammak ibn Ubayd, from Ibn Abi Layla. This hadith has other paths which the hafiz Ibn Asakir unrolled in the tarjama of Ali, and which corroborate one another.

Hammad ibn Salama said, from Ali ibn Zayd and Abu Harun, from Adi ibn Thabit, from al-Bara' : we were with the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, during the farewell pilgrimage. When we came to Ghadir Khumm, the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, swept the ground under two trees, the people were called : "The prayer is gathered", and the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, called Ali, took his hand, stood him at his right, then said : "Have I not more right over every believer than he has over himself ?" They said : yes. He said : "Whosoever's master I am, this one is his master. O Allah, be the ally of whosoever takes him for an ally, and the enemy of whosoever takes him for an enemy." Umar ibn al-Khattab met him and said : "Congratulations to you, O Ali : you have become, from morning to evening, the master of every believing man and every believing woman."

Abd ar-Razzaq reported it, from Ma'mar, from Ali ibn Zayd.

Ubaydallah ibn Musa and others said, from Isa ibn Umar the reciter, from as-Sudi : Anas ibn Malik told us : birds were offered as a gift to the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him ; he distributed them, set one aside, and said : "O Allah, send me the creature You love most, that it may eat with me." Ali came : such is the hadith of the bird. Many paths are reported from Anas, some of which meet the criteria of the Sunan ; the most generous is the hadith of Qutan ibn Nasir, a sheikh of Muslim, who said : Ja'far ibn Sulayman told us ; he said : Abdallah ibn al-Muthanna told us, from Abdallah ibn Anas ibn Malik, from Anas : a roasted hare was offered to the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, and he said : "O Allah, send me the creature You love most, that it may eat with me." And he mentioned the hadith.

Ja'far al-Ahmar said, from Abdallah ibn Ata', from Ibn Burayda, from his father : the most beloved of women to the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, was Fatima, and of men, Ali. At-Tirmidhi reported it and said : hasan gharib.

Abu Ishaq as-Suba'i said, from Abu Abdallah al-Jadali : I entered upon Umm Salama, and she said to me : "Is Ali being insulted among you, when the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : whosoever insults Ali insults me ?" Ahmad reported it in "his Musnad".

Al-A'mash said, from Adi ibn Thabit, from Zarr, from Ali : the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, made the covenant concerning him : "None but a believer loves you, and none but a hypocrite hates you." Muslim reported it, as did at-Tirmidhi, who authenticated it.

Abu Salih as-Samman and others said, from Abu Sa'id : we recognized the hypocrites by their hatred of Ali.

Abu az-Zubayr said, from Jabir : we knew the hypocrites of this community only by their hatred of Ali.

Al-Mukhtar ibn Nafi', one of the weak narrators, said : Abu Hayyan at-Taymi told us, from his father, from Ali : the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "May Allah have mercy on Abu Bakr : he gave me his daughter in marriage, he carried me to the house of the Hijra, and he freed Bilal. May Allah have mercy on Umar : he spoke the truth even when it was bitter ; truth has left him and turned to his friend. May Allah have mercy on Uthman : the angels themselves are modest before him. May Allah have mercy on Ali : O Allah, make truth follow him wherever he goes." At-Tirmidhi reported it and said : a gharib hadith which we know only by this path.

Al-A'mash said, from Amr ibn Marra, from al-Harith, from Ali : two men are lost : the hateful slanderer, and the admirer who goes to excess.

Yahya al-Hamani said : Abu Awwana told us, from Abu Bashir, from Sa'id ibn Jubayr, from Aisha : I was sitting beside the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, when Ali came in and he said : "O Aisha, this is the master of the Arabs." I said : "O Messenger of Allah, are you not the master of the Arabs ?" He said : "I am the master of the children of Adam, and this is the master of the Arabs." A similar report from Aisha has been related by two paths. It is a gharib hadith.

Abu al-Jahhaf said, from Jumayy ibn Umayr at-Taymi : I entered with my aunt upon Aisha, and she was asked : who among the people was most beloved to the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him ? She said : Fatima. It was said : and among the men ? She said : her husband ; and he was, as far as I know, one who fasted and stood in prayer. At-Tirmidhi reported it and said : hasan gharib.

I say : more than one narrator called Jumayy a liar.

Abdallah ibn Muhammad ibn Aqil said, from Jabir : we went out with the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, to the palm trees of a woman of the Ansar, and he said : "A man of the people of Paradise is about to appear to you." Abu Bakr rose, and we congratulated him. Then he said : "A man of the people of Paradise is about to appear to you." Umar rose and we congratulated him. Then he said : "A man of the people of Paradise is about to appear to you", and he looked among the palm trees, saying : "O Allah, if You willed, You would make him Ali." Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, rose. A hasan hadith.

Sa'id ibn Zayd reported that the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "Hold fast, Hira : above you there is none but a prophet, a truthful one, or a martyr", and this was fulfilled for Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali. He mentioned the rest of the Ten.

Muhammad ibn Ka'b al-Quradhi said : Ali said : I found myself in the company of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, while I pressed a stone against my belly from hunger ; and the alms of my wealth reaches today forty thousand. Sharik reported it, from Asim ibn Kulayb, from him. Ahmad mentioned it in "the Musnad".

Ash-Sha'bi reported : Ali said : we possessed nothing but the skin of a ram : we slept on one side and Fatima kneaded on the other. That is : we slept on one side, and she kneaded on the other side.

Amr ibn Marra said, from Abu al-Bakhtari, from Ali : the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, sent me to Yemen while I was young, and I had no knowledge of judgment ; he struck my chest and said : "Go : Allah will guide your heart and fortify your tongue." He said : from then on, I never doubted in a judgment between two persons.

Al-A'mash said, from Ibrahim at-Taymi, from his father : Ali delivered a sermon and said : whosoever claims that we possess, apart from the Book of Allah, a writing that we read, when it is only this sheet containing the price of camels and some notes on wounds, such a one lies.

Sulayman al-Ahmasi reported, from his father : Ali said : by Allah, no verse came down but I knew about what it came down, where it came down, and concerning whom it came down ; and my Lord granted me a reasonable heart and an eloquent tongue.

Muhammad ibn Sirin said : when the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, died, Ali was slow in pledging allegiance to Abu Bakr. Abu Bakr met him and said : "Do you reproach my command ?" He replied : "No, but I have vowed not to wear my cloak again except for prayer, until I had gathered the Quran." It is claimed that he wrote it in the order of its revelation. Muhammad said : had he recovered that writing, the knowledge would have been in it.

Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib said : none of the Companions said "ask me", except Ali.

Ibn Abbas said : Umar said : Ali is the most skilled among us in judgment, and Ubayy the most learned in recitation.

Ibn Mas'ud said : we used to say that the most skilled in judgment among the people of Medina was Ali.

Ibn al-Musayyib reported, from Umar : I seek refuge with Allah from a predicament whose solution is not Abu al-Hasan.

Ibn Abbas said : when a trustworthy narrator passed on to us a legal ruling of Ali, we sought no further.

Sufyan said, from Kulayb, from Jassara : the fast of Ashura was mentioned before Aisha, and she said : "Who orders you to fast it ?" They said : Ali. She said : "He knows best the sunna that remains of it."

Masruq said : the knowledge of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, culminated in Umar, Ali and Abdallah.

Muhammad ibn Mansur at-Tusi said : I heard Ahmad ibn Hanbal say : no virtues reported of any Companion of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, equal those reported of Ali, may Allah be pleased with him.

Abu Ishaq said, from Amr ibn Maymun : I attended the sermon of Umar on the day he was stabbed ; he mentioned the story of the consultation. When they had left his presence, Umar said : were they to entrust it to the Ajluh, he would lead them on the straight path.

His son Abdallah said to him : "What prevents you ?" (that is, from appointing him commander). He said : "I hate to bear this burden, alive and dead."

The caliphate of Ali ibn Abi Talib

Sufyan ath-Thawri said, from al-Aswad ibn Qays, from Sa'id ibn Amr : Ali delivered a sermon before us and said : the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, left us no instruction concerning the command ; but we followed the opinion we formed. Abu Bakr was appointed : he rose and acted with rectitude. Then Umar was appointed : he rose and acted with rectitude. Then religion was struck by its calamities, and there were people who sought the lower world : whom Allah wills to punish, He punishes, and whom He wills to pardon, He pardons.

Ali ibn Zayd ibn Jud'an said, from al-Hasan, from Qays ibn Abbad : I heard Ali say : by Allah, the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, never bound me with any covenant that he did not bind the people with. But the people rushed upon Uthman and killed him ; the one who had been in my place would have done worse than me in situation and in deed. Then I saw that I was the most worthy of them for this matter, and I threw myself into it ; Allah knows better than we whether we acted rightly or erred.

I read before Abu al-Fahm ibn Ahmad as-Salami : Abu Muhammad Abdallah ibn Ahmad al-Faqih informs you, in the year six hundred seventeen ; he said : Abu al-Fath Muhammad ibn Abd al-Baqi informed us ; he said : Malik ibn Ahmad informed us, in the year four hundred eighty-four ; he said : Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Abdallah the moderate dictated to us, in the year four hundred six ; he said : Abu Ali Ahmad ibn al-Fadl ibn Khuzayma told us ; he said :

Abdallah ibn Ruh told us ; he said : Shabbaba told us ; he said : Abu Bakr al-Hudhali told us, from al-Hasan : when Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, arrived in Basra, Ibn al-Kuwa' and Qays ibn Abbad came to him and said : "Will you not inform us of this journey you undertook : you take charge of the community and you set some of them against others ; is there a covenant from the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, entrusted to you ? Inform us : you are the trustworthy one, the one in whom one feels safe." He said : "As for holding from the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, a covenant about that : no. By Allah, if I were the first to believe in him, I would not be the first to lie about him ; and had I held from the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, a covenant about it, I would not have left the brother of the Banu Taym ibn Marra nor Umar ibn al-Khattab standing upon his pulpit, and I would have fought them with my hand, even if I had found only this mat of papyrus. But the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, never killed anyone, and he did not die suddenly ; he lingered in his illness days and nights ; the muezzin would come to call him to prayer, and he would order Abu Bakr to lead the people in prayer, while he watched me ; then the muezzin would come to call him to prayer, and he would order Abu Bakr to lead the people in prayer, while he watched me.

He said : "A woman among his wives tried to turn him away from Abu Bakr, but he refused, grew angry, and said : You are the companions of Yusuf ; order Abu Bakr to lead the people in prayer." He said : "When Allah took His prophet, we examined our affairs and we chose, for our lower world, the one with whom the Prophet of Allah was pleased for our religion ; and prayer is the root of Islam, the greatest of matters, the pillar of religion. We pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr, and he deserved it : no two of us disagreed about him, none of us testified against another, and we did not withhold the declaration of innocence. I gave Abu Bakr his due, I acknowledged his obedience, I campaigned with him in his armies : I received when he gave, I campaigned when he sent me, and I struck the legal punishments before him with my whip. Then he was taken, and Umar succeeded him : he followed the sunna of his companion and what was known of his affair. We pledged allegiance to Umar, and no two of us disagreed about him, none of us testified against another, and we did not withhold the declaration of innocence. I gave Umar his due, I acknowledged his obedience, I campaigned with him in his armies : I received when he gave, I campaigned when he sent me, and I struck the legal punishments before him with

my whip. He said : "Then he was taken, and I recalled my kinship, my precedence and my merit, and I thought that none would equal me ; but I feared that the caliph after him might commit a sin that would follow him into his grave : so he removed himself from the matter, together with his son ; and had it been favouritism on his part, he would have preferred his son with him. The matter was then placed before six men of Quraysh, of whom I was one."

He said : "When the group met, I recalled my kinship, my precedence and my merit, and I thought they would not equal me. Abd ar-Rahman took our covenants, namely to hear and obey the one to whom Allah entrusted our affair ; then he took the hand of Ibn Affan and struck his hand upon his. I examined my affair : my obedience had preceded my oath, and my covenant had been taken for another. So we pledged allegiance to Uthman : I gave him his due, I acknowledged his obedience, I campaigned with him in his armies : I received when he gave, he sent me campaigning, and I struck the legal punishments before him with my whip."

He said : "Then he was struck down, and I examined my affair : the two caliphs who had received this charge by the covenant of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, up to them, in prayer, had passed away, and the one for whom the covenant had been taken had been struck down. The people of the two sanctuaries and the people of these two garrison towns pledged allegiance to me."

Ishaq ibn Rahawayh reported it in a similar way, from his client Sulayman : Abu al-Ala Salim al-Muradi told us : I heard al-Hasan ; he reported it in a similar way, adding at the end : then there threw himself into it one who is not like me, whose kinship is not my kinship, whose knowledge is not my knowledge, whose precedence is not my precedence ; and I was more worthy of it than he.

Both said : "Inform us, then, about these two men you fought" (meaning Talha and az-Zubayr. He said : "They pledged allegiance to me in Medina and broke it in Basra ; had a man who had pledged to Abu Bakr and to Umar broken it, we would have fought him."

Al-Jurayri reported it in a similar way, from Abu Nadra.

Abu Attab ad-Dallal said : Mukhtar ibn Nafi at-Taymi told us ; he said : Abu Hayyan at-Taymi told us, from his father, from Ali, may Allah be pleased with him : the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "May Allah have mercy on Abu Bakr : he gave me his daughter in marriage, he carried me to the house of the Hijra, and he freed Bilal. May Allah have mercy on Umar : he spoke the truth even when it was bitter ; truth has left him and turned to his friend. May Allah have mercy on Uthman : the angels themselves are modest before him. May Allah have mercy on Ali : O Allah, make truth follow him wherever he goes."

Isma'il ibn Raja' said, from his father, from Abu Sa'id : he heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, say : "Among you are men who will fight over the interpretation of the Quran as I fought over its revelation." Abu Bakr said : "Is it I ?" He said : "No." Umar said : "Is it I ?" He said : "No, but it is the one patching his sandal." Now Ali had been given sandals to patch.

I say : he thus fought the Khawarij, who turned the Quran according to their opinion and their ignorance.

Kharja ibn Mus'ab said, from Salam ibn Abi al-Qasim, from Uthman ibn Abi Uthman : some people came to Ali and said : "It is you." He said : "Who am I ?" They said : "It is you." He said : "Woe to you, who am I ?" They said : "You are our Lord." He said : "Go back", but they refused ; so he struck their necks, then dug a pit for them, and said : "O Qanbar, bring me a bundle of wood", and he burned them with fire. He said : "When I saw the matter become an outrage / I lit my fire and called Qanbar."

Abu Hayyan at-Taymi said : Mujammi'a told me that Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, would sweep the treasury and then pray in it, hoping that it would testify that he had never withheld wealth from the Muslims.

Abu Amr ibn al-Ala' said, from his father : Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, delivered a sermon and said : "O people, by Him other than whom there is no deity, I have taken nothing of your wealth, little or much, except this flask." He brought out a flask containing perfume, then said : "it was given to me as a gift by a villager."

Ibn Lahi'a said : Abdallah ibn Habira told us, from Abdallah ibn Zurayr al-Ghafiqi : I entered upon Ali on the day of the sacrifice, and he had a shoulder of meat served before us. I said : "Had you served us some of that fat tail, Allah has multiplied the good." He said : "I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, say : it is not lawful for the one entrusted with the wealth of Allah to take of the wealth of Allah but two bowls : a bowl from which he and his family eat, and a bowl which he sets before the people."

Sufyan ath-Thawri said : if a report comes to you from Ali, hold to it : he never built a brick upon a brick, nor a reed hut upon a reed hut ; and he carried his alms in a bag.

Ibbad ibn al-Awwam said, from Harun ibn Antara, from his father : I entered upon Ali at al-Khurnuq, and he was wearing a patched velvet cloak. I said : "O Commander of the Believers, Allah has allotted you and the people of your house a share of this wealth, and you do this with your own person !" He said : "By Allah, I reward you with nothing ; it is only my velvet cloak which I brought out of my house."

It is reported of Ali that he bought a shirt for four dirhams, wore it, then cut off from the sleeves whatever extended past his fingertips.

Jarmuz said : I saw Ali come out of the palace, wearing an izar reaching mid-calf and a tucked-up cloak, carrying a bag which he walked about with in the markets, enjoining the merchants fear of Allah and honest trade, saying : "Be exact in measure and weight, and do not swell the meat."

Al-Hasan ibn Salih ibn Hayy said : asceticism was discussed before Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, may Allah have mercy on him, and he said : the man most detached from the lower world is Ali ibn Abi Talib.

A man reported that he saw Ali ride a donkey, the flaps of his izar hanging down, and then say : "I am the one who humiliated the lower world."

Hashim said, from Isma'il ibn Salim, from Ammar al-Hadrami, from Abu Amr Zadhan : a man narrated a hadith to Ali, and Ali said : "I see you as one who has lied to me." The man said : "I have not." Ali said : "If you have lied, I shall pray against you." The man said : "Pray." So he prayed, and the man did not cease until he became blind.

Ata ibn as-Sa'ib said, from Abu al-Bakhtari, from Ali : "and I cool my heart when I am asked about what I do not know, by saying : Allah knows better."

Khaythama ibn Abd ar-Rahman said : Ali said : whosoever wishes to be equitable with people, let him love for them what he loves for himself.

Amr ibn Marra said, from Abu al-Bakhtari : a man came to Ali and praised him, though something about him had reached the man. Ali said : "I am not as you say, and I am above what is in your heart."

Muhammad ibn Bashir al-Asadi, who is a trustworthy narrator, said : Musa ibn Mutayr, who is a weak narrator, told us, from his father, from Sa'sa'a ibn Suhan : no assault brought us to him. We said to him : "Appoint a successor." He said : "If Allah wills good for you, He will place over you the best of you, as He willed good for us and placed over us Abu Bakr."

Al-Hasan ibn Amara reported it, from al-Hakam, from Abu Wail : Ali was told : "Will you not make a bequest ?" He said : "I make the bequest that the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, made ; but if Allah wills good for the people, He will gather them upon their best, as He gathered them after their prophet upon their best."

It has been reported by another chain, from ash-Sha'bi, from Abu Wail.

Abd al-Malik ibn Sulay' al-Hamdani reported it, from Abd Khayr, from Ali : Abu Bakr was appointed : he acted according to the conduct of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, and his sunna. Continuation of the hadith.

Al-A'mash said, from Salim ibn Abi al-Ja'd, from Abdallah ibn Sab' : I heard Ali say : "This beard shall be dyed with the blood of this head ; nothing awaits me but misfortune." They said : "O Commander of the Believers, inform us, so that we may know your offspring." He said : "I call you to witness by Allah : none shall be killed but my killer." They said : "Appoint, then, a successor over us." He said : "No ; I leave you to that unto which the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, left you." They said : "What will you say to your Lord when you meet Him ?" He said : "I shall say : O Allah, You left me among them as long as it pleased You, then You took me to Yourself while they are still there : if You will, You will amend them ; and if You will, You will corrupt them."

Al-A'mash said, from Habib ibn Abi Thabit, from Tha'laba ibn Yazid al-Hamani : I heard Ali say : I bear witness that the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said to me, smiling : "This beard shall be dyed with the blood of this head", that is, his beard with the blood of his head, "and none shall be able to hold back his misfortunes."

Sharik said, from Uthman ibn Abi Zara, from Zayd ibn Wahb : some people of Basra, Khawarij, came to Ali. Al-Ju'd ibn Buja said : "Fear Allah, O Ali : you are dead." Ali said : "Rather : slain. A blow upon this shall dye that : a covenant made and a decree pronounced ; and he has failed who forged the lie."

He said : and he reproached him over his clothing. Ali said : "What have you to do with my clothing ? It is further from excess, and it is more fitting that the Muslim take me as a model."

Fitr reported, from Abu at-Tufayl, that Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, used to recite :

"Steady your preparations before death / for death shall come to meet you,

and do not complain of slaughter / when it settles in your valley."

Ibn Uyayna said, from Abd al-Malik ibn Ayyin, from Abu Harb ibn Abi al-Aswad ad-Du'ali, from his father, from Ali : Abdallah ibn Salam came to me when I had set my foot in the stirrup ; he said to me : "Do not go to Iraq : I fear the fly of the sword may reach you there." I said : "By Allah, the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, has already told me of it." Abu al-Aswad said : I never saw, until this day, a fighter announce himself as he did.

Ibn Uyayna said : Abd al-Malik was a Rafidite.

Yunus ibn Bukayr said : Ali ibn Abi Fatima told me ; he said : al-Asbagh al-Hanthali told me : on the night Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, was struck, Ibn an-Nabah came to him at the rising of dawn to call him to prayer. He rose and made his ablutions ; upon reaching the small door, Abd ar-Rahman ibn Muljam leapt upon him and struck him. Umm Kulthum came out saying : "What have I to do with the morning prayer ? My husband was killed at the dawn prayer, and my father was killed at the dawn prayer."

Abu Jannab al-Kalbi said : Abu Awn ath-Thaqafi told me, concerning the night Ali was killed : al-Hasan ibn Ali said : last night the Commander of the Believers went out to pray, and he said to me : "O my son, I spent last night waking my family, for it is the night of Friday, the eve of the day of Badr, the seventeenth of Ramadan. My eyes were made subject to me, and the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, was shown to me in a dream. I said : O Messenger of Allah, what have I suffered from your community of deceptions and obstructions ! He said : Pray against them. I said : O Allah, replace them for me with one better than they, and replace me for them with one worse than I." Then Ibn an-Nabah came to call him to prayer : he went out, and I went out behind him. Two men laid an ambush for him : the blow of one fell upon the lintel, while that of the other struck his head.

Ja'far ibn Muhammad said, from his father : Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, would go out to prayer with a small bag in his hand to wake the people, and Ibn Muljam struck him. Ali said : "Feed him and give him drink : if I live, I am the master of my own blood."

Others reported it, adding : "and if I remain, I shall kill him or pardon him ; and if I die, kill him with a death like his, and do not transgress : Allah does not love the transgressors."

Muhammad ibn Sa'd said : Ibn Muljam met Shabib ibn Bujra al-Ashja'i and informed him of the killing of Ali he had resolved upon, and the latter accepted. They sat facing the exit by which Ali came out. Al-Hasan said : I saw him at dawn and sat near him. He said : "My eyes were made subject to me while I was sitting, and the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, was shown to me in a dream", and he mentioned the dream related above. He said : "He went out and I went out behind him, Ibn an-Nabah at his side. When he came out of the door, he called : O people, the prayer, the prayer !", and this is what he did every day, his little bag in hand to wake the people. The two men intercepted him : Ibn Muljam struck him on the crown of the head, and the sword of Shabib struck into the niche of the door. The people heard Ali say : "Let not the man escape you." They rushed upon them from every side : Shabib fled, Abd ar-Rahman was seized, and the sword of the latter was poisoned.

Ali lingered from Friday to Saturday, and died on the night of Sunday, with eleven nights remaining of Ramadan. When he was buried, Ibn Muljam was brought to him : the people gathered and came with naphtha and iron bars. Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya, al-Husayn and Abdallah ibn Ja'far ibn Abi Talib said : "Let us exact retaliation upon him." Abdallah cut off his hands and legs, and he did not complain nor speak ; kohl was applied to his eyes, and he did not complain, saying : "You apply kohl to the eyes of your uncle", and he recited : {Read, in the name of your Lord who created} (Surah al-Alaq, verse 1), until he had completed it, both his eyes flowing with tears. Then he ordered that he be operated upon to cut his tongue : he complained, and he was blamed for it. He said : "That is no complaint, but I hate to remain in this world babbling without mentioning Allah : cut his tongue." He was then burned in a kiln. He was brown-skinned, of a handsome face, wide-nosed ; his hair fell to the lobes of his ears, and on his forehead was the mark of prostration.

It is reported that Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, ordered them to burn him after the killing.

Ja'far ibn Muhammad said, from his father : al-Hasan prayed over Ali and buried him in Kufa, by the palace of the governorate, and his grave was levelled.

Abu Bakr ibn Ayyash reported : it was levelled so that the Khawarij would not dig him up.

Sharik and others said : al-Hasan ibn Ali transported him to Medina.

Al-Mubarred mentioned, from Muhammad ibn Habib : the first man to be moved from a grave to a grave is Ali.

Salih ibn Ahmad an-Nahwi said : Salih ibn Shu'ayb told us, from al-Hasan ibn Shu'ayb al-Farwi : Ali was placed in a chest, much camphor was spread over him, and he was carried on a camel towards Medina. When they reached the land of Tayyi', the camel went astray during the night : the Tayyi' seized it, thinking the chest held riches ; when they saw what it was, they feared pursuit, buried him, then slaughtered the camel and ate it.

Mutayn said : were the Rafidites to know which of these tombs visited on the outskirts of Kufa is the tomb of Ali, they would stone it : it is the tomb of al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba.

Abu Ja'far al-Baqir said : Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, was killed at the age of fifty-eight.

Another narration from him reports that he lived sixty-three years ; the same is reported from Ibn al-Hanafiyya, and it is the view of Abu Ishaq as-Suba'i and Abu Bakr ibn Ayyash ; and what Ibn Jurayj reports from Muhammad ibn Umar ibn Ali ibn Abi Talib points to that : he informed him that Ali died at sixty-three or sixty-four.

Ja'far as-Sadiq reported, from his father : Ali had led seventeen expeditions.

Abu Ishaq as-Suba'i said, from Habira ibn Yarim : al-Hasan ibn Ali delivered a sermon and said : "Yesterday there left you a man whom none preceded in knowledge but the very first, and whom the last shall not reach ; the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, would give him the banner, and he would not leave it until victory was granted ; he left neither gold nor silver, except seven hundred dirhams left over from his stipend, which he had set aside to procure a servant for his family."

Abu Ishaq said, from Amr al-Asamm : I said to al-Hasan ibn Ali : the Shiites claim that Ali will be raised before the Day of Judgment. He said : "They lied ; by Allah, those are not Shiites. Had we known he would be raised, we would not have married his widows, nor divided his inheritance." Sharik reported it from Abu Ishaq, from Asim ibn Damra, in place of Amr.

Were we to embrace all the reports of the Commander of the Believers, may Allah be pleased with him, the book would grow long.

The events of the caliphate of Ali ibn Abi Talib

The year thirty-six : the battle of the Camel.

When Uthman was slain unjustly, power fell into the hands of the Companions of the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, and they pledged allegiance to Ali. Then Talha ibn Ubaydallah, az-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, Umm al-Muminin Aisha, and those who followed them, judged that they would not redeem themselves from what they had fallen into, namely their slowness to aid Uthman, except by rising to demand his blood and to avenge him of his slayers. They went out from Medina without consultation with the Commander of the Believers Ali, and made for Basra.

Khalifa said : Talha, az-Zubayr and Aisha arrived at Basra, where Uthman ibn Hanif the Ansari stood as governor for Ali ; he feared and left the town. Then Ali set out from Medina, after appointing over it Sahl ibn Hanif, the brother of Uthman ; he sent his son al-Hasan and Ammar ibn Yasir ahead of him to Kufa to muster the people ; then he reached Basra.

Hakim ibn Jabala al-Abdi had gone out of the town before their arrival, with seven hundred men ; he was one of the chiefs who had risen against Uthman, as was said earlier. He met the army of Talha and az-Zubayr : Allah caused Hakim to die with a group of his people, and the leader of the other army, Mujashi' ibn Mas'ud as-Sulami, was also slain.

The two parties then agreed and ceased fighting, on condition that Uthman ibn Hanif keep the house of government and the prayer, and that Talha and az-Zubayr settle where they wished in Basra, until the arrival of Ali, may Allah be pleased with him.

Ammar said to the people of Kufa : "By Allah, I know that she, that is, Aisha, is the wife of your prophet in this world and the hereafter ; but Allah has tried you by her, to see whether you follow him, or follow her."

Sa'd ibn Ibrahim az-Zuhri said : a man of the Banu Aslam told me : we were with Ali, four thousand men of Medina.

Sa'id ibn Jubayr said : with Ali, on the day of the battle of the Camel, there were eight hundred Ansar and four hundred of those who had attended the pledge of ar-Ridwan. Reported by Ja'far ibn Abi al-Mughira, from Sa'id.

Al-Muttalib ibn Ziyad said, from as-Sudi : with Ali on the day of the Camel there were one hundred thirty Badris and seven hundred Companions of the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him ; and thirty thousand men were slain between the two sides, and there was never a battle more deadly.

Ash-Sha'bi used to exaggerate, saying : of the Companions, none attended it but Ali, Ammar, Talha and az-Zubayr.

Salama ibn Kuhayl said : six thousand men went out from Kufa and joined Ali at Dhi Qar ; he marched with some ten thousand men until he reached Basra.

Abu Ubayda said : the cavalry of Ali on the day of the Camel was commanded by Ammar ; the infantry by Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr as-Siddiq ; the right wing by Alba ibn al-Haytham as-Sadusi, and it is said : Abdallah ibn Ja'far, and it is said : al-Hasan ibn Ali ; the left wing by al-Husayn ibn Ali ; the vanguard by Abdallah ibn Abbas ; and he handed the banner to his son Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya. As for the banner of Talha and az-Zubayr, it was with Abdallah ibn Hakim ibn Hizam ; the cavalry under Talha, the infantry under Abdallah ibn az-Zubayr, the right wing under Abdallah ibn Amir ibn Kurayz, and the left wing under Marwan ibn al-Hakam. The battle took place on a Friday, outside Basra, near the palace of Ubaydallah ibn Ziyad.

Al-Layth ibn Sa'd and others said : the battle of the Camel took place in Jumada al-ula.

Abu al-Yaqdhan said : that day, Ka'b ibn Sur al-Azdi went out with a Quran hung about his neck and a shield in his hand ; he seized the halter of the camel of Aisha, then a stray arrow came to him and killed him.

Muhammad ibn Sa'd said : Ka'b had shut himself in a house, with a window through which his food and drink were passed, to keep apart from the fitna. It was said to Aisha : if he goes out with you, none of the Azd will stay behind. She rode to him, called him and spoke to him, but he did not answer her. She said : "Do you not call me mother ? And you owe me a duty." He then spoke to her. She said : "I only wish to reconcile the people." It was then that he went out, unfurled the Quran, and walked between the two ranks calling them to what it contained, until an arrow came to him and killed him.

Husayn ibn Abd ar-Rahman said : Ka'b ibn Sur rose, unfurled a Quran between the two groups, and made them swear by Allah and by Islam concerning their bloods ; and he did not cease until he was slain.

Another said : the two groups deployed in ranks, and neither Talha nor Ali, the chiefs of the two groups, intended to fight : they only wished to speak so as to unite the word. But the low people of the two parties hurled arrows at one another ; the fire of war blazed and the souls grew hot. Talha kept saying : "O people, give ear !", while the fitna boiled. Then he said : "Fie, upon the wings of the fire and the ravening wolves !" And he said : "O Allah, take for Uthman from me today, until You are satisfied. We are, over Uthman, deceivers : yesterday we were one hand against all others, and this morning we are two mountains of iron, the one charging upon the other. There was in me, over Uthman, that of which I see no compensation but the shedding of my blood and the claiming of my blood."

Qatada reported, from al-Jarud ibn Abi Sabra al-Hudhali : Marwan ibn al-Hakam looked at Talha on the day of the Camel and said : "I shall seek my vengeance no more after this day" : he shot Talha with an arrow and killed him.

Qays ibn Abi Hazim said : I saw Marwan ibn al-Hakam at the moment he shot Talha that day with an arrow : it lodged in his knee and never ceased gnawing until his death. In some chains : he shot him with an arrow, saying : "This one avenges Uthman."

Yahya ibn Sa'id al-Ansari reported, from his uncle, that Marwan shot Talha, turned to Aban ibn Uthman and said : "We have avenged you a part of the slayers of your father."

Zayd ibn Abi Unaysa reported, from a man, that Ali said : "Announce the Fire to the slayer of Talha."

Ikrima reported, from Ibn Abbas : we went out with Ali towards the Camel, six hundred men, by the road of ar-Rabadha. His son al-Hasan came to him, wept before him and said : "Permit me to speak." He said : "Speak, and leave this widowed she-camel's wailing." Al-Hasan said : "I had counselled you to stay, and I counsel you so now : the Arabs have a stirring in them ; if their ambitions were to turn, they would bring their mounts to dig you out, though you were in the burrow of a lizard." Ali said : "Here I am, and I have no father for you : I was awaited as the spotted hyena is awaited." A similar report has been related by two other paths.

Ruh ibn Ubada said : Abu Na'ama al-Adawi told us ; he said : Humayd ibn Hilal told us, from Hujayz ibn ar-Rabi', that Imran ibn Husayn sent him to the Banu Adi, saying : "Go to them." He went ; he said : "He conveys to you the salam and says : I am your counsellor. He swears by Allah that, rather than be cast into either group by an arrow, he would prefer that, after him, a lame camel graze on the top of a mountain until it dies." They held back, may your father and mother be your ransom.

They said : "Leave us, for by Allah we shall not abandon the burden of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him." They fought, then, on the day of the Camel, and seventy men were slain around Aisha that day, all of them gatherers of the Quran ; and those who had not gathered the Quran were more numerous.

Al-Waqidi reported, from his narrators : Ya'la ibn Umayya at-Tamimi was the ally of the Banu Nawfal ibn Abd Manaf and the agent of Uthman over the army ; he arrived at the pilgrimage season in the year Uthman was slain.

Ibn Abi Mulayka reported : Ya'la ibn Umayya came to Aisha while she was on pilgrimage and said : "Your caliph, the one against whom you stirred, has been slain." She said : "I disavow before Allah his slayer."

Al-Waqidi reported, from al-Walid ibn Abdallah : Ya'la ibn Umayya said : "O people, whosoever goes out to demand the blood of Uthman, I shall equip his mount."

Ali ibn Abi Sayra reported : Ya'la brought four hundred thousand and spent it on equipping the fighters towards Basra.

Another reported : Ya'la ibn Umayya mounted Aisha upon a war camel and said : "Here are ten thousand dinars of the purest of my wealth, to strengthen whosoever demands the blood of Uthman." It reached Ali, who said : "Where does he get that ? He stole Yemen and then came ! By Allah, if I gain power over him, I shall take what he admits to having taken."

Yahya ibn Sa'id al-Ansari reported, from an uncle of his : on the day of the Camel, Ali called out to the people : "Hurl no arrow at anyone, and speak to the people : this is a station in which whosoever succeeds succeeds on the Day of Judgment." They drew near until the steel of iron reached them. Then the people cried out from the side of their adversaries : "O avengers of Uthman !" Ibn al-Hanafiyya was before us, the banner in hand. Ali stretched out his hands and said : "O Allah, dash the slayers of Uthman face down." Then az-Zubayr said to his horsemen : "Shoot, and do not hit", as if he only wished to kindle the fight. When our companions saw the arrows, they did not wait for them to fall to earth but charged : Allah routed them. Marwan shot Talha with an arrow, and Talha's leg was broken against the flank of his mount.

Abu Jur al-Mazni reported : I attended the face-to-face of Ali and az-Zubayr. Ali said to him : "O Zubayr, I call you to witness by Allah : did you hear the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, say to you : you will fight me while you are unjust toward me ?" He said : "Yes ; and I had not recalled it but at this post of mine." Then he turned back.

Al-Hasan al-Basri said, from Qays ibn Abbad : Ali said on the day of the Camel : "O Hasana, would that your father had died twenty years ago !" Al-Hasan said to him : "O my father, I already counselled you not to say that." He said : "O my son, I did not see the affair reach this point."

Ibn Sa'd said : Muhammad ibn Talha advanced and seized the halter of the camel. A man charged upon him : Muhammad said "I remind you of Ha-Mim", and he struck him and killed him. Then he declaimed concerning Muhammad :

"The believer firm in the verses of his Lord has been wounded / of little hurt, in what the eyes see, a Muslim.

The lance tore open the pocket of his shirt / how proud he lies, given to the two hands and the mouth.

He reminds me of Ha-Mim while the lance is planted / why did he not recite Ha-Mim before advancing ?

He had nothing to gain, save that he did not follow / Ali ; and whoso follows not the truth shall regret it."

Ali walked that night among the slain, with a fire lit ; he passed by Muhammad ibn Talha, slain, and said : "O Hasana, Muhammad is prostrate before the Lord of the Ka'ba." Then he said : "His father has met this fate ; and had it not befallen his father, he would not have gone out." Al-Hasan said : "What thrift would that have brought you !" He said : "What have I to do with you, O Hasana ?"

Sharik said, from al-Aswad ibn Qays : he who saw az-Zubayr on the day of the Camel told me : Ali called to him : "O Abu Abdallah !" He drew near until the necks of their mounts met. Ali said : "I call you to witness by Allah : do you remember the day I whispered with you, and the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, came to us and said : You whisper with him ? By Allah, he will fight you and he will be unjust toward you." He said : he had scarcely heard it before he struck the face of his mount and turned away.

Hilal ibn Khubbab reported, as related from him by Abu Shihab al-Hannat and others, from Ikrima, from Ibn Abbas : on the day of the Camel, he said to az-Zubayr : "O son of Safiyya, here is Aisha who owns Talha ; against what do you fight your kinsman Ali ?" Az-Zubayr turned back ; Ibn Jurmuz met him and killed him.

Yazid ibn Abi Ziyad said, from Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi Layla : az-Zubayr drew apart from Ali on the day of the Camel while they were in the ranks. His son Abdallah said to him : "What cowardice, what cowardice !" He said : "The people know I am no coward ; but Ali reminded me of a word I heard from the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, and I swore not to fight him." Then he declaimed :

"He abandons the affairs whose consequences he fears / to entrust oneself to Allah is better, in this world and in religion."

Waqi' reported, from Issam ibn Qadama, who is a trustworthy narrator, from Ikrima, from Ibn Abbas : the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "There shall come to you the owner of the long-eared camel : many a slain shall be slain around her, and she shall be saved after having all but perished."

It is said that the first slain that day was Muslim al-Juhani : Ali ordered him to carry a Quran ; he went round the people calling them to the Book of Allah, and he was slain. Seventy hands were cut off that day among the Banu Dubba with swords : each time a man seized the halter of the camel of Aisha, his hand was cut off, and another took his place, defying death, until a man cried : "Dispatch the camel !" A man, whose name is given variously, slaughtered it. The camel remained standing with the howdaj upon its back, like a hedgehog of arrows ; the howdaj was covered with coats of mail, and Umm al-Muminin was within it, urging on those who surrounded the camel. What Allah willed was, and what He did not will was not.

Then she, may Allah be pleased with her, regretted it, and Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, regretted also what had come to pass.

The year thirty-seven : the battle of Siffin.

Muhammad ibn Sa'd said : Muhammad ibn Umar informed us : when Uthman, may Allah be pleased with him, was slain, Na'ila, his wife, wrote a letter to Syria, to Mu'awiya, in which she described how they had entered upon Uthman and slain him, and she sent him his bloodstained shirt. Mu'awiya read the letter to the people of Syria, paraded the shirt among the soldiers of Syria, stirred them to demand his blood, and they pledged allegiance to Mu'awiya for demanding his blood.

When Ali received the pledge of allegiance for the caliphate, his son al-Hasan and Ibn Abbas said to him : "Write to Mu'awiya : confirm him over Syria and entice him with hopes ; he will be flattered, and he will suffice you, he and his region ; when the people have pledged you allegiance, you may confirm him or depose him." Ali said : "He will not be satisfied unless I give him the covenant of Allah the Most High and His pact, namely that I shall not depose him." Both said : "Do not give him that." It reached Mu'awiya, who said : "By Allah, I owe him nothing, and I shall not pledge him allegiance." He made it known in Syria that az-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam was marching against them and had pledged him allegiance. When the affair of the Camel reached him, he held back ; when the death of az-Zubayr reached him, he wept in compassion and said : "Had he come to us, we would have pledged him allegiance : he was worthy."

When Ali had departed from Basra, he sent Jarir ibn Abdallah al-Bajali to Mu'awiya. Jarir spoke to Mu'awiya, extolled the affair of Ali, his pledge of allegiance and the rallying of the people to him ; Mu'awiya refused to pledge him allegiance, and many words passed between him and Jarir. Jarir returned to Ali and informed him. Ali resolved upon the march to Syria. Mu'awiya sent Abu Muslim al-Khawlani to Ali with demands, among them that he hand over the slayers of Uthman : Ali refused, and correspondences passed between them.

Then each of them marched toward the other : they met at Siffin with seven nights remaining of Muharram, and war blazed between them at the beginning of Safar ; they fought for days.

Ibn Abi Sabra told me, from Abd al-Majid ibn Suhayl, from Ubaydallah ibn Abdallah, from Ibn Abbas : Uthman had entrusted me the pilgrimage ; I performed the pilgrimage for the people, then I returned while he had been slain and Ali had received the pledge. Ali said : "Go to Syria : I have entrusted it to you." I said : "That is not my view : Mu'awiya is the cousin of Uthman and his governor in Syria, and I am not assured he will not kill me on account of Uthman ; at the least he will imprison me." Ali said : "And why ?" I said : "Because of my kinship with you, and whosoever attacks you attacks me ; but write to Mu'awiya that he give you his promise." Ali refused and said : "No, by Allah, never that."

Abu Ubayd al-Qasim ibn Sallam reported, from one who told him, from Abu Sinan al-Ijli : Ibn Abbas said to Ali : "Send me to Mu'awiya : by Allah, I shall stretch out to him a rope whose middle will not snap." Ali said : "I am not of the schemers, nor of their scheming in anything, and I give him only the sword, until truth overcomes falsehood." Ibn Abbas said : "Something else ?" He said : "Like what ?" Ibn Abbas said : "Because he is obeyed and not disobeyed, whereas you, after a little while, are disobeyed and not obeyed." When the people of Iraq began to diverge before Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, he said : "What a man Ibn Abbas is : he looks upon the unseen through a thin veil."

Mujalid said, from ash-Sha'bi : when Uthman was slain, Umm Habiba bint Abi Sufyan sent word to the family of Uthman : "Send me the clothes of Uthman in which he was slain." They sent her his bloodstained shirt and the tuft of hair torn from his beard. She called an-Nu'man ibn Bashir and sent him to Mu'awiya with that and with her letter. Mu'awiya mounted the pulpit, gathered the people, spread the shirt before them, mentioned what had been done to Uthman, and called for demanding his blood. The people of Syria rose and said : "He is your cousin and you are his guardian, and we are with you the claimants of his blood", and they pledged him allegiance.

Yunus said, from az-Zuhri : when Mu'awiya learned of the death of Talha and az-Zubayr and the triumph of Ali, he called the people of Syria to fight with him, for consultation and for demanding the blood of Uthman, and they pledged him allegiance upon that as emir, and not as caliph.

Yahya al-Ja'fi mentions in "the Book of Siffin", with a chain of transmission, that Mu'awiya said to Jarir ibn Abdallah : "Write to Ali that he leave me Syria, and I shall pledge him allegiance." And he sent al-Walid ibn Uqba to say to him :

"O Mu'awiya, Syria is your Syria : hold fast to your Syria / and the serpents shall not reach you,

he guards it with bombards and lances / be not of frail arms nor wretched,

for Ali sees what you will answer him / send him a war that whitens the foreheads."

Yala ibn Ubayd told me, from his father : Abu Muslim al-Khawlani and a group said to Mu'awiya : "Do you dispute with Ali ! Or are you his equal ?" He said : "No : by Allah, I know that Ali is better than I and more worthy of the matter than I ; but do you not know that Uthman was slain unjustly, and I am his cousin ? I only demand his blood. Go, then, to Ali, and tell him to hand me the slayers of Uthman, and I shall pledge him allegiance." They came to Ali and spoke to him of it, but he did not hand them over.

Khallad ibn Yazid al-Ja'fi told me : Amr ibn Shamar told us, from Jabir al-Ja'fi, from ash-Sha'bi, or Abu Ja'far al-Baqir : Khallad was unsure. When the affair of Mu'awiya had emerged, Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, called a man and ordered him to march to Damascus, to tether his mount at the door of the mosque and to enter in travelling garb. The man did so ; Ali had counselled him what to say. He was asked : "Where do you come from ?" He said : "From Iraq." They said : "What is behind you ?" He said : "I left Ali who has massed against you, and he has filled the people of Iraq with ardour." It reached Mu'awiya, who sent Abu al-A'war as-Sulami to verify the matter. He came to him, questioned him, and he reported to him the news that circulated. The call was made : "The prayer is gathered !"

The people filled the mosque : Mu'awiya mounted the pulpit, bore witness, then said : "Ali has filled you with ardour over the people of Iraq : what, then, is the counsel ?" The people smote their chins upon their breasts, and none raised his voice to him. Dhu al-Kala' al-Himyari rose and said : "Yours the counsel, and ours the execution", meaning the deed. Mu'awiya descended, and the people were called : "Go out to your camps ; whoso lags after three days condemns himself." The messenger of Ali went out until he reached him and informed him. Ali ordered the call to be made : "The prayer is gathered !" The people gathered ; he mounted the pulpit, praised Allah and extolled Him, then said : "My messenger, whom I had sent to Syria, has come back to me and informed me that Mu'awiya has filled you with ardour over the people of Syria : what, then, is the counsel ?" The people of the mosque began to say : "O Commander of the Believers, the counsel is this, the counsel is that" ; but Ali did not grasp their words, given the great number of speakers and the din. He descended, saying : "To Allah we belong and unto Him we return : the man of hard livers has prevailed", meaning Mu'awiya.

Al-A'mash said : he who saw Ali, on the day of Siffin, striking his palms together and biting them, told me, saying : "How wondrous : Ali is disobeyed, and Mu'awiya is obeyed !"

Al-Waqidi said : they fought for days, until many men had been slain and wounded ; the people of Syria then raised the Qurans and said : "We call you to the Book of Allah and to judgment according to what it contains." That was a ruse of Amr ibn al-As, when he saw the triumph of the army of Ali. They agreed, then, upon arbitration, as has been said.

Az-Zuhri said : they fought a fight this community never knew the like of : the people of Iraq prevailed over the slain of the people of Homs, and the people of Syria prevailed over the slain of the people of Medina. Commanding the right wing of Ali : al-Ash'ath ibn Qays al-Kindi ; the left wing : Abdallah ibn Abbas ; the infantry : Abdallah ibn Badil ibn Warqa al-Khuza'i, slain that day. Among the commanders of Ali that day : al-Ahnaf ibn Qays at-Tamimi, Ammar ibn Yasir al-Ansi, Sulayman ibn Surad al-Khuza'i, Adi ibn Hatim at-Ta'i, al-Ashtar an-Nakha'i, Amr ibn al-Hamaq al-Khuza'i, Shabath ibn Ribi ar-Riyahi and Sa'id ibn Qays al-Hamdani ; the chief of the Hamdan was al-Muhajjir ibn Khalid ibn al-Walid al-Makhzumi ; then Qays ibn Mashshuh al-Muradi, Khuzayma ibn Thabit al-Ansari, and others.

Ali stood with fifty thousand men ; it is said : with ninety thousand ; it is said : a hundred thousand.

Mu'awiya stood with seventy thousand men ; his banner was with Abd ar-Rahman ibn Khalid ibn al-Walid al-Makhzumi ; the right wing under Amr ibn al-As, and it is said : his son Abdallah ibn Amr ; the left wing under Habib ibn Maslama

al-Fihri ; the cavalry under Ubaydallah ibn Umar ibn al-Khattab. Among his commanders that day : Abu al-A'war as-Sulami, Dhufar ibn al-Harith, Dhu al-Kala' al-Himyari, Maslama ibn Mukhallad, Busr ibn Arta'a al-Amiri, Habib ibn Sa'd at-Ta'i, Yazid ibn Hulayra as-Sakuni,

and others.

Amr ibn Marra said, from Abdallah ibn Salama : I saw Ammar ibn Yasir at Siffin ; he saw the banner of Mu'awiya and said : "This is the banner with which I fought, alongside the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, four times, and then he fought until he was slain."

Another said : al-Ash'ath ibn Qays advanced with two thousand men, and Abu al-A'war advanced against them with five thousand : they fought ; then al-Ash'ath prevailed over the water and drove them from it.

Then they met on Wednesday, the seventh of Safar, then on Thursday, on Friday and the night of Saturday. Then the people of Syria, seeing the retreat, raised the Qurans at the signal of Amr, called for peace and arbitration ; Ali accepted the arbitration of the two arbitrators : his army then diverged from him, and a group said : "No judgment but Allah's." They went out against him : these are the Khawarij.

Thowayr ibn Abi Fakhta said, from his father : twenty-five Badris were slain with Ali at Siffin.

Thowayr is an abandoned narrator.

Ash-Sha'bi said : Abdallah ibn Badil wore on the day of Siffin two coats of mail and carried two swords ; he went on striking the people of Syria, saying :

"There remains but patience and trust in Allah / then walk in the foremost troop,

as camels walk to the watering troughs / and Allah decrees what He wills and does."

He ceased not striking with his sword until he came to Mu'awiya and drove him from his stand. The companions of Mu'awiya stoned him until they battered him with blows and slew him. Mu'awiya drew near to him, and Abdallah ibn Amir cast his turban over him to cover him and wept in compassion.

Mu'awiya said to Abdallah : "We have given you his loss : this is the ram of the people and the lord of the Ka'ba. O Allah, grant victory over al-Ashtar and al-Ash'ath." By Allah, there is nothing like this man save what the poet says :

"Brother of war : if war bites him, he bites it / and if one day war unfolds, he unfolds."

"Kulayth Huzbur, who guarded his herds / death aimed at him, and his aim fell short."

Then he said : "Had the women of Kuza'a been able to fight me, all the more their men, they would have done so."

In "the Tabaqat" of Ibn Sa'd, from the hadith of Amr ibn Shirahil, from Hunach ibn Abdallah as-Sana'ani, from Abdallah ibn Zurayr al-Ghafiqi : "You have seen how we were on the day of Siffin : we and the people of Syria fought until I thought none would remain. Then I heard a crier crying : O assembly of people, Allah, Allah concerning the women and the children : who for the Byzantines, and who for the Turks ? Allah, Allah ! We met ; I heard a movement behind me : behold Ali running with the banner until he planted it. His son Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya followed him ; I heard him say : O my son, hold your banner, for I am ahead of the people. And I saw him strike with the sword until he opened a passage, then turn back to charge."

Khalifa said : there attended with Ali, among the Badris : Ammar ibn Yasir, Sahl ibn Hanif, Khawwat ibn Jubayr, Abu Sa'id as-Sa'di, Abu al-Yasar, Rifa'a ibn Rafi al-Ansari, and Abu Ayyub al-Ansari : with doubt over the last. He said : there attended with him Companions who had not attended Badr : Khuzayma ibn Thabit Dhu ash-Shahadatayn, Qays ibn Sa'd ibn Ubada, Abu Qatada, Sahl ibn Sa'd

as-Sa'di, Qurza ibn Ka'b, Jabir ibn Abdallah, Ibn Abbas, al-Hasan, al-Husayn, Abdallah ibn Ja'far ibn Abi Talib, Abu Mas'ud Uqba ibn Amr, Abu Ayyach az-Zuraqi, Adi ibn Hatim, al-Ash'ath ibn Qays, Sulayman ibn Surad, Jundab ibn Abdallah, and Jariya ibn Qadama as-Sa'di.

Ibn Sirin said : seventy thousand were slain on the day of Siffin, counted with reeds.

Khalifa and others said : they parted with sixty thousand slain ; it is said : seventy thousand, of whom forty-five thousand of the people of Syria.

Abd as-Salam ibn Harb said, from Yazid ibn Abd ar-Rahman, from Ja'far, I think : ibn Abi al-Mughira, from Abdallah ibn Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abza, from his father : we attended with Ali, eight hundred of those who had pledged ar-Ridwan : sixty-three men of them were slain, among them Ammar.

Abu Ubayda and others said : the banner of Ali was with Hashim ibn Utba ibn Abi Waqqas, and the cavalry under Ammar ibn Yasir.

Another said : access to the Euphrates was barred against Ali, for Mu'awiya had outdone him to the water ; al-Ash'ath drove them from it.

I say : then they parted, and appointed the day of the two arbitrators.

Slain with Ali were : Khuzayma ibn Thabit, Ammar ibn Yasir, Hashim ibn Utba, Abdallah ibn Badil, Abdallah ibn Ka'b al-Muradi, Abd ar-Rahman ibn Koulda al-Jumahi, Qays ibn Mashshuh al-Muradi, Abi ibn Qays an-Nakha'i, brother of

Alqama, Sa'd ibn al-Harith ibn as-Simma al-Ansari, Jundab ibn Zuhayr al-Ghamdi, and Abu Layla al-Ansari.

Slain with Mu'awiya were : Dhu al-Kala', Hushab Dhu Dhilim, Habib ibn Sa'd at-Ta'i, judge of Homs, Amr ibn al-Hadrami, Ubaydallah ibn Umar ibn al-Khattab al-Adawi, Urwa ibn Dawud, and Kurayb ibn as-Sabah al-Himyari, one of the heroes : a troop was slain that day, then he faced Ali in single combat and Ali slew him.

Nasr ibn Muzahim al-Kufi, the Rafidite, said : Umar ibn Sa'd told us, from al-Harith ibn Hushayra, that the son of Dhu al-Kala' sent to al-Ash'ath ibn Qays this message : Dhu al-Kala' has been struck, he is in the left wing ; do you permit us to bury him ? Al-Ash'ath said to his messenger : "Convey to him the salam and say : I fear the Commander of the Believers would blame me for it ; ask that of Sa'id ibn Qays al-Hamdani, for he is in the right wing." He went and informed Mu'awiya, who said : "What can I do ? The people of Syria were barred from entering the camp of Ali, lest they corrupt the people of the camp." Mu'awiya said to his companions : "I rejoice more at the slaying of Dhu al-Kala' than I would at the conquest of Egypt, had I opened it ; for Dhu al-Kala' used to oppose Mu'awiya in matters he commanded." The son of Dhu al-Kala' went out to Sa'id ibn Qays and asked his leave for his father : he granted it, and he was carried on a mule, already swollen.

There attended Siffin with Mu'awiya, of the Companions : Amr ibn al-As as-Sahmi and his son Abdallah, Fadala ibn Ubayd al-Ansari, Maslama ibn Mukhallad, an-Nu'man ibn Bashir, Mu'awiya ibn Hudayj al-Kindi, Abu Ghudayya al-Juhani, the slayer of Ammar, Habib ibn Maslama al-Fihri, Abu al-A'war as-Sulami, and Busr ibn Arta'a al-Amiri.

The arbitration of the two arbitrators :

Ikrima reported : Mu'awiya appointed arbitrator Amr ibn al-As. Al-Ahnaf ibn Qays said to Ali : "Appoint Ibn Abbas arbitrator : he is a man of experience." Ali said : "I shall do so." The Yemenites refused and said : "No : it must be a man from among us." Ibn Abbas came to Ali when he saw him resolved to appoint Abu Musa al-Ash'ari, and said to him : "Do you appoint Abu Musa arbitrator ? By Allah, you know his view concerning us ; by Allah, he did not aid us, while he hoped for that in which we are ; and now you let him into the knots of our affair, though he is not the man for it. If, then, you refuse to appoint me with Amr, appoint al-Ahnaf ibn Qays : he is a man of experience among the Arabs, and he is a match for Amr." Ali said : "I shall do so." The Yemenites refused as well. When he was compelled, he appointed Abu Musa. I heard Ibn Abbas say : I said to Ali, on the day of the two arbitrators : "Do not appoint Abu Musa arbitrator, for with him is a man wary, settled, disagreeable : he will undo every knot Abu Musa ties, and tie every knot he unties." Ali said : "O Ibn Abbas, what can I do ? I was given companions whose resolve is weakened and who have been tried by war : this al-Ash'ath ibn Qays says : there shall be no two arbitrators in this matter until one of them be a Yemenite." I excused him, and I knew he was coerced, and that his companions had no resolve.

Abu Salih as-Samman said : Ali said to Abu Musa : "Judge, even if it were upon the collar of my shirt."

Another said : Mu'awiya appointed arbitrator Amr, and Ali appointed Abu Musa, on condition that the one of the two entrusted with the caliphate would be the caliph, and that if they agreed upon his deposition he would be deposed. They appointed to meet in Ramadan, each of the two accompanied by a group of the notables of the Arabs. When the appointed time came, this one set out from Syria and that one from Iraq, until the two groups met at Dumat al-Jandal, the extremity of Syria on the side of the south-east.

Omar ibn al-Hakam reported : Ibn Abbas said to Abu Musa al-Ash'ari : "Beware of Amr : he only wishes that you speak first and say : you are the Companion of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, and older than I, speak before me ; he only wishes to make you speak first so that you depose Ali." Yet they agreed upon the matter : Amr went round Abu Musa, mentioned Mu'awiya to him, but Abu Musa refused and said : "Rather Abdallah ibn Umar." Amr said : "Tell me your view." Abu Musa said : "I see that we depose these two men, and make this matter a consultation among the Muslims, that they may choose for themselves the one they love." Amr said : "The view is as I have seen it."

He said : they drew near to the people, gathered at Dumat al-Jandal ; Amr said : "O Abu Musa, inform them that our views have united." He said : "Yes : our view has united upon a matter by which we hope Allah will set right the affair of the community."

Amr said : "True and sincere, and what a good adviser for Islam and its people ! Speak, then, O Abu Musa." Ibn Abbas came to him, took him aside and said : "You are in a trick : did I not tell you not to begin, but to follow him ? I fear he gave you an order apart, then withdraws it before the assembly of the people." He said : "Fear not that : we have united and agreed."

Abu Musa then rose, praised Allah and extolled Him, then said : "O people, we have examined this matter and the affair of this community, and we have seen nothing more healing for its affair, nor more uniting for its dispersion, than not to raise its affair, nor any part of it, until it be with the contentment of the community and its consultation. My companion and I have agreed upon one thing : the deposition of Ali and Mu'awiya ; the community reserves this matter to itself : it shall be a consultation among them, and they shall appoint the one they love. I have, then, deposed Ali and Mu'awiya : administer your affair as you see fit." Then he sat down.

Amr advanced, praised Allah and extolled Him, then said : "This one has said what you have heard and has deposed his companion ; I have deposed his companion and confirmed my companion Mu'awiya : he is the guardian of Uthman and the claimant of his blood, and the most worthy of the people of his post." Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas said : "Woe to you, O Abu Musa : what made you so weak before Amr and his tricks ?" He said : "What can I do against him ? He bound me to a matter, then withdrew it." Ibn Abbas said : "No fault is yours : the fault is his who made you speak first." He said : "May Allah have mercy on you : he betrayed me, what can I do ?" Abu Musa said : "O Amr, the man like you is like the dog : if you assault it, it pants ; or if you leave it, it pants." Amr said : "The man like you is like the donkey that carries the baggage." Ibn Umar said : "Where has the affair of this community gone ! To a man who cares not what he has done, and another who is weak."

Al-Mas'udi said in "the Meadows of Gold" : the meeting of the two arbitrators took place at Dumat al-Jandal, in Ramadan, of the year thirty-eight. Amr said to Abu Musa : "Speak." He said : "Rather, you speak." He said : "I would not : you have against me every claim due." Abu Musa praised Allah and extolled Him, then said : "Come, O Amr, to a matter by which Allah gathers the community." He called Amr to a sheet and said to the scribe : "Write" ; he was a young man of Amr. He said : "Speech has a beginning and an end : when we dispute in speech, we do not reach its end without forgetting its beginning ; write, then, what we say."

He said : "Write nothing that one of us two orders you, until you have asked the other ; when he orders you, write." He wrote : "This is that upon which so-and-so and so-and-so contended." Then Amr said : "And Uthman was a believer." Abu Musa said : "It is not for that we sat." Amr said : "He is necessarily a believer or an unbeliever." He said : "He was a believer." Amr said : "Order, then, that it be written." He wrote. Amr said : "Slain unjustly, or unjust ?" Abu Musa said : "He was slain unjustly." Amr said : "Has Allah not given his guardian a power to demand his blood ?" Abu Musa said : "Yes." Amr said : "The killing falls, then, upon his slayer." He said : "Yes." Amr said : "Does Mu'awiya not have the right to demand his blood until he has exhausted every means ?" He said : "Yes." Amr said : "We establish, then, the proof that Ali slew him."

Abu Musa said : "We met only for Allah ; come, then, to that by which Allah sets right the affair of the community." Amr said : "And what is it ?" He said : "You know the people of Iraq never love Mu'awiya, and the people of Syria never love Ali : come, let us depose them both and appoint Abdallah ibn Umar" ; and Ibn Umar was married to the daughter of Abu Musa. Amr said : "Would Abdallah do that ?" He said : "Yes, if the people press him." Amr validated it, then said : "What have you to propose for Sa'd ?" and he mentioned to him a group, while Abu Musa would have none but Ibn Umar. Then Amr said : "Rise, that we may depose our two companions together, and name the one you appoint." Abu Musa rose, delivered a speech and said : "We have examined our affair and seen that what is most proper to spare the bloods and to gather the dispersion is to depose Mu'awiya and Ali. I have deposed them as I depose this turban of mine, and we have appointed a man who accompanied the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, with his own person, and who has a precedence : Abdallah ibn Umar." Then he invited him, and the people desired him.

Amr then rose and said : "O people, Abu Musa has deposed Ali, and he is more learned ; I have deposed him with him, and confirmed Mu'awiya over Ali and over you ; and Abu Musa has written in this sheet that Uthman was slain unjustly, and that his guardian has the right to demand his blood." Abu Musa rose and said : "Amr has lied : we did not appoint Mu'awiya, but we deposed Mu'awiya and Ali together."

Al-Mas'udi said : I found in a narration that they agreed and deposed Ali

and Mu'awiya, and made the matter a consultation ; Amr then rose, agreed upon the deposition of Ali and the confirmation of Mu'awiya. He said to him : "May Allah not grant you success : you betrayed and broke the pact." Shurayh ibn Hani al-Hamdani struck Amr with the whip. Abu Musa, cast down, made for Mecca and returned not to Kufa, swearing not to look upon the face of Ali as long as he lived. Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas and Ibn Umar made for Bayt al-Maqdis and girded themselves for pilgrimage. Amr went away without coming to Mu'awiya ; Mu'awiya came to him and prepared much food ; many words passed between them ; Amr asked for the dishes : the servants of Amr ate, then they rose that the servants of Mu'awiya might eat, and Mu'awiya ordered the doorkeeper to shut the door at the moment his servants ate. Amr said : "Have you done it ?" He said : "Yes, by Allah : pledge allegiance, or I slay you."

Amr said : "Egypt, then." He said : "It is yours as long as I live."

Al-Waqidi said : the people of Syria raised the Qurans and said : "We call you to the Book of Allah and to judgment according to what it contains : agree, then." They wrote between themselves a document stipulating to meet at the end of the year at Adhruh and there have two arbitrators judge. They did so, but no agreement came about : Ali returned with the divergence and the guile of his companions ; out of them came the Khawarij, who disapproved of his arbitration and said : "No judgment but Allah's" ; and Mu'awiya returned with affection and the uniting of the word upon him. Then the people of Syria pledged allegiance to Mu'awiya for the caliphate in Dhu al-Qi'da of the year thirty-eight. So he said.

Khalifa and others said : they pledged him allegiance in Dhu al-Qi'da of the year thirty-seven, which is more plausible, for that followed the return of Amr ibn al-As from the arbitration.

Muhammad ibn ad-Dahhak al-Hizami said, from his father : Ali rose upon the pulpit of Kufa and said, when the two arbitrators diverged : "I had forbidden you this arbitration, and you disobeyed me." A young man of fine stature rose and said : "By Allah, you did not forbid us : you commanded and ruined us ; when the affair became as you hate, you declared yourself innocent and laid the fault upon us." Ali said : "Away with you and this speech : may Allah disfigure you ! By Allah, the community stood, and I was among it, silent ; then when the fitna emerged, the stars of ingratitude were lit in it." Then he said : "To Allah belongs the station occupied by Sa'd ibn Malik and Abdallah ibn Umar. By Allah, if it be a sin, it is a small sin pardoned ; and if it be a good deed, it is a great deed rewarded."

I say : how fine a word, were it not of broken chain.

Az-Zuhri said, from Salim, from his father : I entered upon Hafsa and said to her : "The people have come to what you see, and nothing of the matter has been given me." She said : "Go, then, and join them : they wait for you ; and I fear your keeping apart from them may bring a schism." So he went.

When the two arbitrators diverged, Mu'awiya delivered a speech and said : "Whosoever wishes to speak of this matter, let his equal come forth before me : we are more worthy than he, and than his father, of this matter", alluding to Ibn Umar. Ibn Umar said : I loosened my reins and all but said : "More worthy is he who fought you and your father for Islam." But I feared to utter a word that would scatter the troop and spill the blood, and I recalled what Allah has prepared in the Gardens.

Jarir ibn Hazim said, from Yala, from Nafi : Abu Musa said : "I see none for it but Ibn Umar." Amr said to Ibn Umar : "Do you not wish that we pledge you allegiance ? Would you consent to receive a great wealth to leave this matter to one more ardent for it than you ?" Ibn Umar grew angry and rose. Reported by Ma'mar, from az-Zuhri.

That year, Ali dispatched Sahl ibn Hanif against the people of Persia : they resisted him. Ali sent Ziyad : they made peace and paid the land tax.

Abu Ubayda said : the people of Harura went out, twenty thousand men, under the lead of Shabath ibn Ribi. Ali spoke to them and argued against them : they returned.

Sulayman at-Taymi said, from Anas : Shabath ibn Ribi said : "I am the first who assumed the status of Haruri." A man said : "There is in this nothing for you to boast of."

Al-Mughira said : the first who uttered the word of the Harurism were Ibn al-Kuwa' and Shabath.

I say : the meaning of his word, the Harurism : this word became the byname of the Khawarij : Haruri is called he who goes out and says : "No judgment but Allah's."

Died that year :

Jahjaha ibn Qays, and it is said : ibn Sa'id, al-Ghifari, of Medina : he had the Companionship and attended the pledge of ar-Ridwan. During the expedition of al-Muraysi he was hired for Umar, and a quarrel broke out between him and Sinan al-Juhani : he cried : "O Muhajirun !", and Sinan cried : "O Ansar !"

Ata ibn Yasir reported, of Jahjaha, that he is the one who drank the milk of seven sheep before Islam ; once Muslim, the milk of a single sheep did not suffice him.

Ibn Abd al-Barr said : he is the one who seized the staff from the hand of Uthman, may Allah be pleased with him, as he delivered a speech, and broke it upon his knee, and the devourer fell into it ; and it was the staff of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him. He died a year after Uthman.

Habib ibn Sa'd at-Ta'i : he was judge of Homs in the time of Umar ; Abu Bakr had sent him to Syria,

and he was among the worshippers. Those who narrated from him : Jubayr ibn Nufayr. He was slain on the day of Siffin with Mu'awiya.

Dhu al-Kala' al-Himyari : his name is as-Sumayfi', and it is said : Sumayfi' ibn Nakur ; it is said : his name is Ayfah, and his kunya Abu Sharhabil.

He embraced Islam in the lifetime of the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, and it is said : he had the Companionship. Ibn Lahi'a reported, from Ka'b ibn Alqama, from Hassan ibn Kulayb, having heard Dhu al-Kala' say : I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, say : "Leave the Turks so long as they leave you."

Dhu al-Kala' was the lord of his people ; he attended the Day of the Yarmuk and the conquest of Damascus, and he commanded the left wing of Mu'awiya on the day of Siffin. Those who narrated from him : Umar and more than one other. Those who narrated from him : Abu Azhar ibn Sa'id, Zamil ibn Amr, and Abu Nuh al-Himyari.

The proof that he did not see the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him : Isma'il ibn Abi Khalid reported, from Qays, from Jarir : I was in Yemen and I met two men of Yemen : Dhu al-Kala' and Dhu Amr. I began telling them reports of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, and they walked with me ; when we were at a point of the road, a caravan came from the direction of Medina : we questioned them, and they said : the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, has died, and Abu Bakr has been appointed. The hadith is reported by Muslim.

Alwan ibn Dawud reported, from a man : my family sent me with a gift to Dhu al-Kala' ; I remained at his door a year unable to reach him ; then he came forth from the palace, and none remained around him but prostrated himself before him. He accepted my gift. Then I saw him afterwards in Islam : he had bought meat for a dirham and had it grilled upon his mount.

It is reported that when Dhu al-Kala' came to Mecca, he veiled his face, lest any be tried by his beauty. He carried great weight with Mu'awiya ; he would sometimes oppose Mu'awiya, and Mu'awiya would obey him.

Abdallah ibn Badil ibn Warqa ibn Abd al-Uzza al-Khuza'i, kunya Abu Amr.

Al-Bukhari reported in "his Tarikh" that he was among those who entered upon Uthman, whom the dagger struck at the temple, and that at-Tanukhi struck Uthman with the sword.

He embraced Islam with his father before the conquest, attended the conquest and what came after ; he was noble and honourable. He and his brother Abd ar-Rahman were slain on the day of Siffin with Ali, and he commanded the infantry.

Ash-Sha'bi said : Abdallah wore that day two coats of mail and two swords ; he advanced striking the people of Syria until he came to Mu'awiya : they rushed upon him and slew him. When Mu'awiya saw him lying, he said : "By Allah, had the women of Kuza'a been able, they would have fought us, all the more their men."

Abdallah ibn Ka'b al-Muradi : among the great soldiers of Ali ; slain on the day of Siffin ; and it is said : he had the Companionship.

Ubaydallah, son of the Commander of the Believers Umar ibn al-Khattab al-Qurashi al-Adawi al-Medinian.

He was born in the lifetime of the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him ; he heard his father and Uthman, and he is a relay transmitter over the Prophet. His kunya was Abu Isa ; he campaigned in the lifetime of his father. His mother was Umm Kulthum al-Khuza'iyya.

Aslam reported that Umar struck his son Ubaydallah with the staff and said : "Do you threaten me with Abu Isa ? And had Isa then a father !"

We have already mentioned that when Umar was slain, Ubaydallah took his sword, fell upon al-Hurmuzan and slew him, then slew Jafina and Lulu'a, the daughter of Abu Lulu'a. When Uthman received the pledge, they wished to slay him, but Uthman pardoned him. Ali had counselled Uthman to kill him ; and when Ali received the pledge, Ubaydallah fled from him to Syria. He was at the head of the army of Mu'awiya on the day of Siffin and was slain that day. It is said : Ammar ibn Yasir slew him ; it is said : a man of the Hamdan. Some lamented him with a fine poem.

Abu Fadala al-Ansari, a Badri, slain with Ali on the day of Siffin : this saying rests on a single man, Muhammad ibn Rashid, from Abdallah ibn Muhammad ibn Aqil, and neither of the two makes proof.

Abu Amra al-Ansari : Bashir ibn Amr ibn Muhsin al-Khazraji an-Najjari ; it is said : the name of Abu Amra was Bashir ; it is said : Tha'laba ; it is said : Amr.

A great Badri, he has a narration in an-Nasa'i. Those who narrated from him : his son Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi Amra, and Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya. Slain on the day of Siffin with Ali : so says Ibn Sa'd.

The year thirty-eight :

That year, Mu'awiya sent from Syria Abdallah ibn al-Hadrami with an army to Basra to take it ; and there stood Ziyad ibn Abih on the side of Ali. Ibn al-Hadrami camped among the Banu Taym, and Ziyad went over to the Azd and camped at Sabra ibn Shayman al-Hadani. He wrote to Ali, who sent Ayn ibn Dhubi'a al-Mujashi'i : Ayn slew Ghayla in his bed. Ali then dispatched Jariya ibn Qadama as-Sa'di, who besieged Ibn al-Hadrami in the house where he was, then set fire to it.

The affair of the Khawarij :

In Shaban, the Khawarij rose and went out against Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, disapproving that he had entrusted judgment to the two arbitrators. They said : "You have had men judge the religion of Allah, whereas Allah says : {Judgment belongs but to Allah} (Surah al-Anam, verse 57)" ; and they declared him unbeliever, resting upon His word : {Those who judge not by what Allah has sent down, those are the unbelievers} (Surah al-Maida, verse 44). Ali argued against them, then sent them Abdallah ibn Abbas, who set out to them the falsehood of their likeness, expounded it to them, and rested upon the word of the Most High : {that two equitable men among you may judge thereby} (Surah al-Maida, verse 95), and upon His word : {Send, then, an arbitrator from his family and an arbitrator from her family} (Surah an-Nisa, verse 35). A great number of them returned to rectitude, and the others marched : they came upon Abdallah ibn Khabbab ibn al-Aratt, with his wife. They said : "Who are you ?" He gave them his lineage. They questioned him concerning Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali : he praised them all. They slaughtered him, then slew his wife : she was with child, and they opened her belly. He was among the lords of the sons of the Companions.

That year, the Khawarij marched to war against Ali, and there took place between them "the engagement of an-Nahrawan". The chief of the Khawarij was Abdallah ibn Wahb as-Saba'i : Ali routed them, slew most of them, and slew Ibn Wahb. Twelve men among the companions of Ali were slain.

As for their name "Haruriyya", it comes from that they went out against Ali from Kufa and camped in a village near Kufa called "Harura" ; and Ali declared lawful their killing after what they did to Ibn Khabbab and his wife.

The engagement took place in Shaban of the year thirty-eight ;

it is said : in Safar.

Ikrima ibn Ammar said : Abu Zumayl told me that Ibn Abbas said : when the Khawarij had gathered in their abode, six thousand men or thereabouts, I said to Ali : "O Commander of the Believers, defer the prayer : I wish to go to these people, for I fear them for you." He said : "No." Ibn Abbas put on two garments among the finest of clothes, and he was eloquent and handsome. He said : I came to the people ; when they saw me, they said : "Welcome to Ibn Abbas ! But what is this garment ?" I said : "Why do you marvel at that ? I saw upon the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, a garment among the finest of clothes." Then I recited to them : {Say : Who has forbidden the adornment of Allah which He brought forth for His servants ?} (Surah al-A'raf, verse 32).

They said : "What brings you ?" I said : "I come from the Commander of the Believers and the companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, and I see among you none of them ; I shall convey to you what they said, and convey to them what you say : what do you reproach the cousin of the Messenger of Allah and his son-in-law with ?" They looked at one another and said : "Do not speak with him : Allah says : {But they are a quarrelsome people} (Surah az-Zukhruf, verse 58)." Some said : "What prevents us from speaking with him ? He is the cousin of the Messenger of Allah, and he calls us to the Book of Allah." He said : they said : "We reproach him with three things : the first, he had men judge the religion of Allah, and what have men to do with the judgment of Allah ? The second : he fought without taking captives nor plunder : if he deemed it lawful to fight them, he deemed it lawful to take them captive ; otherwise, no. The third : he erased from himself the title of Commander of the Believers : if he is not Commander of the Believers, he is commander of the polytheists." I said : "Is there aught else ?" They said : "This suffices us."

I said : "What do you say if I draw from the Book of Allah and the sunna of His messenger that which makes you return ?" They said : "And why not ?" I said : "As for your word that he had men judge the affair of Allah : I heard Allah the Most High say in His Book : {that two equitable men among you may judge thereby} (Surah al-Maida, verse 95), and that concerning the price of the game of a hare or the like, whose value is a quarter of a dirham : Allah entrusted that judgment to men ; and had He willed to judge, He would have judged. And He said : {If you fear a breach between the two, send an arbitrator from his family} (Surah an-Nisa, verse 35). Have I gone out of this ?" They said : "No."

I said : "As for your word : he fought without taking captives : the plunder would be your mother, all of you ; for Allah says : {and his wives are their mothers} (Surah al-Ahzab, verse 6). If you claim she is not your mother, you are unbelievers ; and if you claim she is your mother, their capture is not lawful : you are thus between two errors. Have I gone out of this ?" They said : "No."

I said : "As for your word that he erased his name of Commander of the Believers : I shall inform you of that. Do you not know that the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, on the day of al-Hudaybiya, had the document written between him and Suhayl ibn Amr, and said : 'O Ali, write : This is that upon which Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, has agreed.' They said : 'Had we known that you are the Messenger of Allah, we would not have fought you ; but write your name and the name of your father.' He said : 'O Allah, You know that I am Your messenger.' Then he took the document and erased it with his hand, then said : 'O Ali, write : This is that upon which Muhammad ibn Abdallah has agreed.' By Allah, that did not take him out of prophethood. Have I gone out of this ?" They said : "No."

He said : a third of them returned, a third went away, and the rest were slain in error.

Awf said : Abu Nadra told us, from Abu Sa'id : the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "My community will split into two groups : a bandit between them, slaying both, and the nearer of the two groups to the truth." Likewise reported Qatada and Sulayman at-Taymi, from Abu Nadra.

Ibn Wahb said : Amr ibn al-Harith informed us, from Bukayr ibn al-Ashajj, from Busr ibn Sa'id, from Ubaydallah ibn Abi Rafi : when the Haruriyya went out

against Ali and said : "No judgment but Allah's", Ali said : "A word of truth by which falsehood is intended. The Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, described people whose description I know in these : they speak truth with their tongues, but it passes not beyond them" ; and he pointed to his throat ; "the most execrable of Allah's creation : among them a man with a black wrist, like the foreleg of a sheep or the tip of a breast." When Ali fought them, he said : "Search" : they found nothing. He said : "Return : by Allah, I have not lied, nor was I belied." Then they found him in a ruin, carried him, and laid him before him. Ubaydallah said : I was present at that affair and at the word of Ali concerning them.

Yahya ibn Sulaym said, from Ibn Khuthaym, from Ubaydallah ibn Iyad : Abdallah ibn Shaddad ibn al-Had entered upon Aisha, and we were with her, in the nights of the killing of Ali. She said : "Inform me of those whom Ali fought." He said : "When Ali had concluded the document with Mu'awiya and the two arbitrators had judged, eight thousand reciters of the people went out against him, that is, their worshippers, and camped in the territory of Harura, on the side of Kufa, and said : you have stripped off the garment with which Allah clothed you, you have had men judge the religion of Allah, and there is no judgment but Allah's. When Ali knew what they reproached him with, he gathered the people of the Quran, called a large copy of the Quran, set it before him, and began turning it with his hand, saying : O Quran, inform the people. The people called to him : What do you seek ? It is but ink and paper, and we speak of what we have retained of it : what do you want ? He said : your companions who went out : between me and them stands the Book of Allah the Most High ; He says in His Book : {Send, then, an arbitrator from his family and an arbitrator from her family} (Surah an-Nisa, verse 35) : the community of Muhammad is greater in right and in inviolability than a man and a woman." He mentioned the hadith like that which preceded, and said : four thousand of them returned, among them Ibn al-Kuwa', and the others marched. Aisha said : "Why did he kill them ?" He said : "They cut the roads, declared lawful the protected people, and shed blood."

The year thirty-nine :

That year, the engagement with the Khawarij took place at Harura, at an-Nakhila. Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, fought them, broke them, and slew their chiefs, and prostrated in thanksgiving to Allah the Most High when the man wounded in the head was carried to him slain. The chiefs of the Khawarij were Zayd ibn Husayn at-Ta'i and Shurayh ibn Awfa al-Absi, commanding the two wings ; their chief was Abdallah ibn Wahb as-Saba'i, and the chief of their infantry Harqus ibn Zuhayr.

That year, Mu'awiya sent Yazid ibn Shajara ar-Rahawi to preside over the pilgrimage ; Qutham ibn al-Abbas barred him and disputed it with him,

and he was on the side of Ali. Abu Sa'id al-Khudri and others intervened between them : they agreed that Shayba ibn Uthman al-Abdari, the doorkeeper of the Ka'ba, would preside over the pilgrimage season.

It is said : there died that year Umm al-Muminin Maymuna and Hassan ibn Thabit al-Ansari : they will come.

Ali had made his preparations to march against Mu'awiya, then turned back, busied by the war of the Khawarij Haruriyya : these are the worshippers and reciters among the companions of Ali who had strayed out of Islam ; excess in religion had led them to declare unbelievers the sinners for their sins, and to slay women and men, save him who acknowledged to them the unbelief (of the sinner) and renewed his Islam.

Ibn Sa'd said : Muhammad ibn Umar informed us ; he said : Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi al-Muwali told us, from Abdallah ibn Muhammad ibn Aqil : I heard Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya say : my father wished to march on Syria : he would tie his banner, then swear not to untie it until

he marched ; the people refused, their opinion spread against him, they grew cowardly : he untied it and expiated his oath. He did that four times. I saw their state, and I saw what did not please me. I spoke that day to al-Musayyab ibn Mukhrama and said : "Will you not speak to him ? Where will you march with these people ? By Allah, I see no ploughed lands among them." He said : "O Abu al-Qasim, he marches for a matter already pressing : I spoke to him and saw he would have none but the march." Ibn al-Hanafiyya said : when he saw of them what he saw, he said : "O Allah, I have grown weary of them and they of me ; I have conceived hate for them and they for me : replace them for me with better than they, and replace me for them with worse than I."

The year forty :

That year, Mu'awiya sent to Yemen Busr ibn Abi Arta'a al-Qurashi al-Amiri with troops : the governor of Ali, Ubaydallah ibn Abbas, withdrew. Ali was informed and equipped for Yemen Jariya ibn Qadama as-Sa'di. Busr leapt upon the two sons of Ubaydallah ibn Abbas, two children, slaughtered them with the knife and fled ; then Ubaydallah returned upon Yemen.

Ibn Sa'd said : it is said : three Khawarij bound themselves one to another : Abd ar-Rahman ibn Muljam al-Muradi, al-Burak ibn Abdallah at-Tamimi and Amr ibn Bukayr at-Tamimi. They met at Mecca, promised one another and conspired to slay these three : Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him, Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan and Amr ibn al-As, and to relieve the worshippers of them. Ibn Muljam said : "Ali for me." Al-Burak said : "Mu'awiya for me." The third said : "I shall suffice you for Amr." They promised one another not to recoil, and appointed for the night of the seventeenth of Ramadan. Then each of them made for the town where his target was. Ibn Muljam came to Kufa,

met his Kharijite companions and confided in them : he visited them and they visited him. Qattam bint Chajna, of the Banu Taym ar-Ribab, saw Ibn Muljam, whereas Ali had slain her father and her brother on the day of an-Nahrawan : she pleased him. She said : "I shall not marry you until you give me three thousand dirhams and slay Ali." He said : "You have it." He met Shabib ibn Bujra al-Ashja'i, informed him and invited him to be with him : he accepted.

Ibn Muljam remained, on the night he had resolved to slay Ali, in confidence with al-Ash'ath ibn Qays in his mosque, until dawn was near. Al-Ash'ath said to him : "The morning has smiled." He and Shabib rose, took their swords, came, and sat facing the exit by which Ali went out. The slaying of Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, has already been mentioned : when he was slain, they seized Abd ar-Rahman ibn Muljam, tortured him, and slew him.

Hajjaj ibn Abi Mani'a said : my grandfather told me, from az-Zuhri, from Anas : three men of Iraq conspired to slay Mu'awiya, Amr ibn al-As and Habib ibn Maslama, and came forward after Mu'awiya received the pledge.

Died that year : al-Harith ibn Khuzayma ibn Adi, Abu Bashir al-Ansari al-Achhali.

He attended Badr and every battle, and he was an ally of the Banu Abd al-Achhal. He died in Medina in the year forty, at sixty-seven years. Khuzayma : with two fatha ; Ibn Makula declined it so.

Kharja ibn Hudhafa ibn Ghanm.

Ibn Makula said : he had the Companionship, he attended the conquest of Egypt ; he was commander of the fourth of the reinforcements with which Umar ibn al-Khattab succoured Amr ibn al-As ; he was chief of the police of Egypt under the caliphate of Umar and under that of Mu'awiya. Amr ibn Bukayr the Kharijite slew him in Egypt, while he believed him to be Amr ibn al-As.

Abdallah ibn Abi Marra reported one hadith from him.

Sharhabil ibn as-Samt ibn al-Aswad al-Kindi, Abu Yazid, and it is said : Abu as-Samt.

He had the Companionship and transmission. He reported also from Umar and Salman al-Farisi. Those who narrated from him : Jubayr ibn Nufayr, Kathir ibn Murra, and a group.

Al-Bukhari said : he governed Homs, and he is the one who opened it ; he was a knight, a hero, courageous ; it is said : he attended al-Qadisiyya. He had prevailed over al-Ash'ath ibn Qays for the honour of the Kinda, and Mu'awiya had him come before Siffin to consult him.

Ash-Sha'bi said : Umar had appointed Sharhabil ibn as-Samt governor over the cities and his father governor of Syria ; the latter wrote to Umar : you order that captive women and their children not be separated, whereas you have parted me and my son. Umar rejoined him to his son.

Yazid ibn Abd Rabbih al-Himsi said : Sharhabil died in the year forty.

Abd ar-Rahman ibn Muljam al-Muradi, the slayer of Ali, may Allah be pleased with him.

A Kharijite slanderer. Ibn Yunus mentions him in "the History of Egypt" and says : he attended the conquest of Egypt, settled there with the notables, was among those who recited the Quran and the jurisprudence, and was one of the sons of Tadul and their knight in Egypt. He recited the Quran before Mu'adh ibn Jabal, and he was among the worshippers ; it is said : he is the one who sent Subaygh at-Tamimi to Umar, who questioned him concerning what he asked him of the Quran recited by a non-Arab.

It is said : Umar wrote to Amr ibn al-As : draw near the house of Abd ar-Rahman ibn Muljam to the mosque, that he may teach the people the Quran and the jurisprudence ; the site of his house was enlarged for him, and it stood beside the house of Abd ar-Rahman ibn Adis al-Balawi, that is, one of those who had aided the slaying of Uthman. Then Ibn Muljam was among the partisans of Ali in Kufa : he went to join him in Kufa and attended Siffin with him.

I say : then the end overtook him and he did what he did ; among the Khawarij, he is the best of the community ; and the Nassirites likewise exalt him.

The jurist Abu Muhammad ibn Hazm said : they say that Ibn Muljam is the best of the people of the earth : the spirit of divinity was drawn out from the darkness of the body and its murk.

Marvel, then, O Muslims, at this madness.

Over Ibn Muljam declaims Imran ibn Hattan the Kharijite :

"O blow dealt by a devout one who sought thereby / to reach the contentment of the Lord of the Throne ;

I mention him at times and deem him / the most faithful of creatures to Allah in the weighing."

And Ibn Muljam is, in the eyes of the Rafidites, the most wretched of creatures in the hereafter. He is, according to us, the people of the sunna, one for whom we fear the Fire, and it is possible that Allah pass over him : not as the Khawarij and the Rafidites say of him ; and his case is that of the slayer of Uthman, the slayer of az-Zubayr, the slayer of Talha, the slayer of Sa'id ibn Jubayr, the slayer of Ammar, the slayer of Kharja, the slayer of al-Husayn : of all these we disavow ourselves and we hate them for Allah, and we commit their affairs to Allah, the Mighty, the Majestic.

The dead of the caliphate of Ali, made precise and approximate, in alphabetical order :

Rifa'a ibn Rafi ibn Malik ibn al-Ajlan, Abu Mu'adh al-Ansari az-Zuraqi, brother of Malik and of Khallad.

He attended Badr, he and his brother Khallad ; his father was one of the notables of the Ansar ; he has hadiths. Those who narrated from him : his two sons Ubayd and Mu'adh, the son of his uncle Yahya ibn Khallad, and others. He has many descendants in Medina and in Baghdad.

He died around the year forty.

Ibn Sa'd said : he died at the beginning of the caliphate of Mu'awiya.

Safwan ibn Assal al-Muradi : he campaigned with the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, in twelve expeditions, and he has hadiths. Those who narrated from him : Zarr ibn Hubaych, Abdallah ibn Maslama al-Muradi, Abu al-Gharif Ubaydallah ibn Khalifa, and Abu Salama ibn Abd ar-Rahman. He settled in Kufa.

Qurza ibn Ka'b al-Ansari al-Khazraji :

one of the jurists of the Companions ; he is one of the ten whom Umar sent to Kufa to teach the people ; he attended afterwards the conquest of Rayy in the time of Umar, and Ali appointed him over Kufa ; then he marched to the Camel with Ali, then attended Siffin.

He died in Kufa, and Ali prayed over him according to the sound report ; he was the first over whom lamentation was made in Kufa ; it is said : he died after Ali.

Al-Qa'qa ibn Amr at-Tamimi : it is said he attended the death of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him. He had a great share in the fighting against the Persians at al-Qadisiyya and elsewhere, and he was one of the heroes mentioned. It is said that Abu Bakr said : the voice of al-Qa'qa in the army is better than a thousand men. He attended the Camel with Ali and was the messenger on the day of peace between the two groups ; he settled in Kufa.

Suhaym Abd Banu al-Hashas : a skilful poet, of accomplished speech ; he has no Companionship.

Ma'mar reported, from Sa'id ibn Abd ar-Rahman, from as-Sa'ib : it was said to Umar, may Allah be pleased with him : here is Abd Banu al-Hashas reciting poetry. He called him and said to him : "How did you say it ?" He said :

"O my guide of the Banu Salima, if you make ready to depart / grey hair and Islam suffice a man as warner."

He said : "That suffices you : you have spoken truth, you have spoken truth." This hadith is authentic.

And here is a resounding qasida he declaims :

"Madness has seized me in the chain we hung / a chain of love that neither hides nor withers :

nights that hunt men by a glowing coal / you see her tender, of delicate growth, sound,

and well-built like the breast of the gazelle, without flaw / of pearls and rubies she has become precious,

as if the Pleiades hung above her throat / and a coal of eyes the wind made burning.

When she slips into the gown and the mantle / and casts over the crown of the head a Yemenite tail,

she shows you, at the morn of parting, a palm and a wrist / and a face like the dinar of the mints, pure.

Were I a rose in hue, she would have loved me / but my Lord distinguished me with black.

Were I to murmur, you murmur with me to the reed / a greeting from him taken captive in love of you,

walking with the gait of the partridge I follow her / in secret, fearing her family, without speech to her.

She said to him : Woe to you, you who are not he : / I have heard among them words that drip with blood."

Of this qasida he has :

"Though you meet not death today, know / that you are bound to meet it tomorrow.

I have seen the deaths : they left not Muhammad / nor anyone : for him death keeps watch."

It is said : when Suhaym multiplied love for the women of the quarter, they resolved to slay him ; a woman at whom jibes were thrown wept, and he declaimed :

"Far are you, O Sumayya, from the tears of the eye shed / would that what comes from you had been known before today.

Wealth is your wealth, and the slave your slave / is your torment, then, today, turned from me ?

As if, the day she turned from us, she ceased to speak / a gazelle of Assafan, with lowered eye and soothed."

Then he was slain : may Allah pardon him.