Abū Sahl ibn Ziyād al-Qaṭṭān narrated to us; Ismāʿīl ibn [Isḥāq] related to us; Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Uways told us, saying: my brother reported to me from Sulaymān ibn Bilāl, from Saʿd ibn Isḥāq ibn Kaʿb ibn ʿUjrah, from his aunt Zaynab bint Kaʿb ibn ʿUjrah, from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, who said:

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ dispatched ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib to Yemen. Abū Saʿīd continued: I was among those who went out with him. When he took charge of the camels collected as alms-tax, we asked him to let us ride some of them so we might rest our own mounts—for we had noticed weakness in our animals—but he refused and said, “Your share in them is only the same as that of the rest of the Muslims.”

When ʿAlī had finished his mission and set out (1) from Yemen on the return journey, he appointed someone over us and hastened on ahead, reaching the Hajj. After he had completed the pilgrimage, the Prophet ﷺ said to him:

“Return to your companions until you rejoin them.”

Abū Saʿīd said: We had asked the man he left in charge for the very thing ʿAlī had denied us, and he granted it. When ʿAlī later learned that the alms-camels had been ridden and saw the marks left by the riders, he censured (2) the man he had placed in authority and reproached him.

I said, “By Allah, when I reach Madinah I will certainly inform the Messenger of Allah ﷺ of the harshness and restriction we encountered.” Once we arrived in Madinah I went early to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ intending to fulfil my oath. I met Abū Bakr coming out from the presence of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. When he saw me he stopped, welcomed me, asked about my condition and I asked about his. He said, “When did you arrive?” I replied, “I arrived last night.” He returned with me to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, entered, and said, “This is Saʿd ibn Mālik, the son of the martyr.” He ﷺ said, “Admit him.” I entered, greeted the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and he returned my greeting. He turned toward me, asked about me and my family, and questioned me in detail. I said, “O Messenger of Allah, we suffered from ʿAlī harshness, poor companionship, and constraint.”

The Messenger of Allah moved slightly aside (3), and I continued enumerating what we had suffered, until, when I was midway through my words, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ struck his hand on my thigh—I was sitting close to him—and said:

“O Saʿd ibn Mālik, son of the martyr, enough! Restrain some of what you say about your brother ʿAlī. By Allah, I know that he is rough in the cause of Allah.”

I said to myself, “May your mother lose you, Saʿd ibn Mālik! It seems I have been engaged in something detestable from this day on, without realizing it. By Allah, I shall never mention him with any evil again, whether in private or in public.”

This chain of transmission is good according to the criteria of al-Nasāʾī, and none of the authors of the six canonical collections (4) recorded it.

Yūnus (5) reported from Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq—he said: Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī ʿAmrah related to me, from Yazīd ibn Ṭalḥah ibn Yazīd ibn Rukānah, who said: The resentment felt by the troops who had been with ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib in Yemen arose because, when they set out on their return, he left a man in charge of them and hurried on to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. That man then clothed every one of them in a mantle; when they drew near, he came out