1565 — Abu Muhammad Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Nājiya informed us. He said: Muhammad ibn Sulaymān Lūwayn narrated to us. He said: Ja'far ibn Sulaymān al-Duba'ī narrated to us. He said: Awf and Hishām narrated to us, from Ibn Sīrīn, from Abīda al-Salmānī, who said:

I was present with Ali ibn Abī Tālib—may Allah be pleased with him—at al-Nahr (the Canal). When the Kharijites had been killed, Ali—may Allah be pleased with him—said, “Among them is a man whose hand is incompletely formed—or stunted, or small and breast-like.”

They searched for him but could not find him. He repeated this three times, then said, “Search carefully and turn over the slain.” They then pulled out a dark-complexioned man whose right hand was small and breast-like, as though it were a woman’s breast. When Ali—may Allah be pleased with him—saw him, he faced the qibla, raised his hands, praised and extolled Allah, and thanked Allah for granting him the task of killing them and honoring him with the opportunity to fight them.

He then turned to face us and said, “Were it not that you might become conceited, I would tell you what the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—had already declared regarding the honor awaiting whoever killed these people.”

Abīda said: I asked, “O Commander of the Faithful, was this something that reached you from the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—or something you heard directly from him?” He replied, “Rather, I heard it myself—by the Lord of the Kaaba!”