8. ʿAbd Allāh narrated to us; Abū al-Ḥusayn al-Wāsiṭī Khalaf ibn ʿĪsā narrated to us; Yaʿqūb ibn Muḥammad al-Zuhrī narrated to us; he said: Mujāshiʿ ibn ʿAmr narrated to us, from Ibn Luhayʿa, from Ibn Hubayra, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Zurayr, from ʿAlī, who said:

I asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ about the abdāl (the spiritual “substitutes”). He replied, “They are sixty men.”

I said, “Messenger of Allah, describe them to me.”

He said, “They are neither overzealous, nor innovators, nor seekers of luxury. What they have attained was not achieved through abundant fasting, prayer, or charity, but through generosity of spirit, purity of heart, and sincere counsel to their leaders. O ʿAlī, within my community they are rarer than red sulfur.”