Qatadah replied, “We slaughtered them while pursuing your father on the Day of Badr. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ had told us, ‘After my time you will face favoritism.’”
Muʿawiyah asked, “And what did he order you to do?”
He answered, “He ordered us to be patient.”
Muʿawiyah said, “Then be patient.” ⦗1⦘
It is also reported that ʿAli pronounced seven takbirs over Abu Qatadah, but Abu Bakr al-Bayhaqi commented, “This is a mistake, for Abu Qatadah outlived ʿAli.” ⦗2⦘
Al-Waqidi said, “Among Abu Qatadah’s children and the people of our city I have never heard any disagreement that he died in Medina. The people of Kufa, however, narrate that he died there and that ʿAli led his funeral prayer.”
Yahya ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Abi Qatadah, al-Madaʾini, Saʿid ibn ʿUfair, Ibn Bukayr, Shabbab, and Ibn Numayr all stated: “Abu Qatadah died in the year 54 AH.”
Maʿmar narrated—from Qatadah, from ʿAbd Allah ibn Rabah, from Abu Qatadah—who said: “We were with…"
(1) Reported by Abd al-Razzaq in his Musannaf (no. 19909) and by Ahmad (5/304) through Abd al-Razzaq’s chain in abridged form.
Abd Allah b. Muhammad: al-Hafiz says in al-Taqrib that he is truthful though somewhat lenient, and some say his memory declined toward the end of his life.
As for the phrase, “You will meet athara after me,” it means that certain people will appropriate the spoils for themselves, giving others preferential shares over you.
(2) Al-Bayhaqi cites this in al-Sunan al-Kubra, 4/36, and Ibn al-Turkmani critiques the chain, concluding that the narrators of Ali’s report—stating he led the funeral prayer for Abu Qatada and pronounced seven takbirs—are trustworthy.
Ibn Abi Shayba likewise transmits it in his Musannaf from Abd Allah b. Numayr and Waki, who both narrate from Ismail b. Abi Khalid, from Musa b. Abd Allah b. Yazid that Ali …
Abu Umar records in al-Istiab that several routes, through Musa b. Abd Allah b. Yazid al-Ansari and al-Shaʿbi, agree that Ali prayed over Abu Qatada and said seven takbirs.
Al-Shaʿbi adds that Abu Qatada had fought at Badr. Al-Hasan b. Uthman dates Abu Qatada’s death to the year 40 AH, while al-Kalabadhi quotes Ibn Saʿd—on the authority of Haytham b. Adi—that he died in Kufa while Ali was present and that Ali himself led the funeral prayer. As noted earlier in the chapter on the manner of sitting in the first and second tashahhud, this is the sound view; the claim that Abu Qatada died in 54 AH is untenable.