ʿAbbās had been at Badr, no one among the people would have surpassed him in judgment or intelligence.’

Abū Isḥāq related from Arqam ibn Sharḥabīl: I heard Ibn ʿAbbās say, ‘The Messenger of Allah ﷺ passed away without leaving any testament.’

Ṭalḥah ibn Muṣarrif said: I asked ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Awfā, ‘Did the Messenger of Allah ﷺ leave a bequest?’ He replied, ‘No.’ I said, ‘Then why did he command people to make a bequest?’ He answered, ‘He bequeathed the Book of Allah.’ Ṭalḥah added: Huzayl ibn Sharḥabīl remarked, ‘Abū Bakr is acting as leader over the man who claims to be the Prophet’s executor. Abū Bakr would have wished he had found a written covenant from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ; he would have gladly put a nose-ring through his own nose in submission to it.’ This narration is recorded by both al-Bukhārī and Muslim.

Hammām narrated from Qatādah, from Abū Ḥassān, that ʿAlī said, ‘The Messenger of Allah ﷺ entrusted nothing to me exclusively, except what is written in this scroll…’—and the ḥadīth continues.

As for the report that claims the Prophet ﷺ bequeathed, ‘O ʿAlī, a believer has three hallmarks: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving,’ it is a lengthy fabricated narration, uniquely transmitted by Ḥammād ibn ʿAmr—who was a known liar—from al-Sarī ibn Khālid, from Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq, from his forefathers. The Rāfiḍah circulate further falsehoods asserting that ʿAlī was personally designated.

Ibn Isḥāq said: Ṣāliḥ ibn Kaysān told me, from al-Zuhrī, from ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ made no testament at his death except for three matters: he allocated one hundred wasqs of dates from Khaybar to the Rahāwiyyūn, one hundred wasqs to the Dāriyyūn, one hundred wasqs to the Shanīyyūn, and one hundred wasqs to the Ashʿariyyūn; he ordered that Usāmah’s expedition be dispatched; and he commanded that no two religions be allowed to co-exist in the Arabian Peninsula. This is an interrupted (mursal) report.