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Yūnus ibn Bukayr, quoting Ibn Isḥāq (1), relates: Once the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had finalized his preparations and firmly resolved to depart, he set out on a Thursday and pitched his camp at Thaniyyat al-Wadāʿ with more than thirty thousand men. ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ubayy—the enemy of Allah—set up his own camp lower down, and, as they claimed, his contingent was not smaller than the Prophet’s. When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ moved on, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ubayy remained behind with a party of hypocrites and the doubtful.

Ibn Hishām (2) states: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ appointed Muḥammad ibn Maslamah al-Anṣārī as his deputy over Madinah.

He also notes that al-Darāwardī reported the Prophet to have placed Sibaʿ ibn ʿUrfaṭah in charge of the city during the year of Tabūk.

Ibn Isḥāq (3) adds: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ left ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib with his family and ordered him to remain with them. The hypocrites then spread rumors, saying, “He left him behind only because he finds him burdensome and wishes to be rid of him.” When ʿAlī heard this, he armed himself and went after the Messenger of Allah ﷺ until he reached him at al-Jurf and informed him of what they were saying. The Prophet replied:

“They have lied. I left you behind only because of what I have left behind me. Go back and take my place among my family and yours. Are you not pleased, O ʿAlī, to hold toward me the rank of Aaron to Moses—except that there is no prophet after me?”

ʿAlī then returned, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ continued on his journey.

Ibn Isḥāq (4) further said: Muḥammad ibn Ṭalḥah ibn Yazīd ibn Rukānah narrated to me, from Ibrāhīm ibn Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, from his father Saʿd, that he heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ address these words to ʿAlī.

Al-Bukhārī and Muslim (5) have transmitted this ḥadīth through Shuʿbah, from Saʿd ibn Ibrāhīm, from Ibrāhīm ibn Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, from his father.

Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī records in his Musnad (6): Shuʿbah narrated to us, from al-Ḥakam, from Muṣʿab ibn Saʿd, from his father, who said: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ left ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib behind during the expedition to Tabūk. ʿAlī said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, will you leave me with the women and children?’ He replied,

‘Are you not content to be to me as Aaron was to Moses, except that there is no prophet after me?’”

The two Imams likewise transmitted it through several chains from Shuʿbah to the same effect, and al-Bukhārī also cited it in suspended form through Abū Dāwūd, from Shuʿbah.