with the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—while I had to fasten a stone to my stomach from hunger; yet today the alms I pay from my wealth come to forty thousand.’ Shurayk related it from ʿĀṣim ibn Kulayb from him, and Aḥmad included it in his Musnad.

Al-Shaʿbī reported that ʿAlī said, ‘We possessed nothing but the hide of a ram: we would sleep on one side of it while Fāṭima kneaded dough on the other’—meaning that we lay on one surface of the skin and she worked the dough on the opposite surface.

ʿAmr ibn Murrah narrated, through Abū al-Bakhtarī, that ʿAlī said: ‘The Prophet, peace be upon him, sent me to Yemen when I was still a young man with no knowledge of adjudication. He struck me on the chest and said, “Go, for Allah will guide your heart and steady your tongue.” From that moment I never doubted any decision between two litigants.’

Al-Aʿmash related, from Ibrāhīm al-Taymī, from his father, that ʿAlī once addressed us, saying: ‘Whoever claims that we possess anything to be read apart from the Book of Allah and this scroll—containing the blood-money schedules for camels and a few rulings on bodily injuries—has spoken falsely.’

Sulaymān al-Aḥmasī reported from his father that ʿAlī said, ‘By Allah, not a single verse was revealed without my knowing for whom it was revealed, where it was revealed, and on what matter it was revealed. My Lord has granted me an intelligent heart and an articulate tongue.’

Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn said: ‘When the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, passed away, ʿAlī was slow to pledge allegiance…’