Ibn Abi Najih, on the authority of Mujahid, said: “Quraysh was struck by a severe crisis, and Abu Talib had a large family. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said to his uncle al-ʿAbbas—who was well-to-do—‘Your brother Abu Talib has many dependents, and the people are facing what you can see. Come, let us lighten his burden by taking charge of some of his children.’ The Prophet then took ʿAli and brought him into his own household, where he remained with the Messenger of Allah until Allah commissioned him as a prophet; ʿAli thereupon followed him and believed in him.”

Al-Darawardi narrates, from ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd Allah, from Muhammad ibn Kaʿb al-Qurazi: “The first person to embrace Islam was Khadijah, and the first two men were Abu Bakr and ʿAli. Abu Bakr was the first to make his Islam public, whereas ʿAli concealed his faith for fear of his father, until his father met him and asked, ‘Have you entered Islam?’ He replied, ‘Yes.’ His father said, ‘Stand by your cousin and support him.’” He also stated, “ʿAli accepted Islam before Abu Bakr.”

Yunus reports from Ibn Ishaq: Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Husayn al-Tamimi told me that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “I never invited anyone to Islam without his first faltering, hesitating, and pondering—except Abu Bakr. The moment I mentioned it to him, he neither lingered nor wavered.”

Israel relates, from Ibn Ishaq, from Abu Maysarah, that whenever the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, went out, he would hear a caller addressing him, ‘O Muhammad!’ Whenever he heard the voice he would hasten away in fear. He confided this matter to Abu Bakr, who had been his close companion in the pre-Islamic era.”