‘Alī went out to meet them (1) and saw that they were wearing mantles.

Alī asked, “What is this?”

They replied, “So-and-so clothed us.”

He said, “What made you do this before you came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ so that he could dispose of them as he wished?” He then removed the mantles from them. When they later reached the Messenger of Allah ﷺ they complained of him for that, even though they had (2) already concluded a settlement with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Alī had only been sent to collect a specific, fixed jizyah.

I say: This version is nearer to the truth than that of al-Bayhaqī, for Alī had gone on ahead in order to perform the Ḥajj, driving with him sacrificial animals and entering the state of consecration with the same talbiyah as the Prophet ﷺ; the Prophet therefore instructed him to remain in that state of iḥrām. In the report of al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib, Alī said to him, “I have driven the sacrificial animals and combined the rites (qirān).”

The point is that a great deal of talk arose in that detachment about Alī because he had forbidden them to ride the charity camels and had taken back the mantles his deputy had given them. Alī was justified in what he had done, yet the rumors spread among the pilgrims. For that reason—Allah knows best—when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ returned from his pilgrimage, completed the rites, and was on his way back to Madinah, he stopped at Ghadīr Khumm (4), stood before the people, exonerated Alī, raised his rank, and drew attention to his virtue, so as to remove what had settled in many hearts. This will be set out in detail in its proper place, if Allah Most High wills.

Al-Bukhārī (5) said: Qutaybah related to us; ʿAbd al-Wāḥid related to us, from ʿUmārah ibn Shubruma; he said, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Nuʿm told me, “I heard Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī say:

Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib sent to the Prophet ﷺ from Yemen a small quantity of gold wrapped in tanned leather that had not yet been cleaned of its dust. The Prophet divided it among four (6) men: ʿUyaynah ibn Badr, al-Aqraʿ ibn Ḥābis, Zayd al-Khayl, and the fourth was either ʿAlqamah ibn ʿUlāthah or ʿĀmir ibn al-Ṭufayl.

A man from among his Companions said, “We were more entitled to this than they.”

When that reached the Prophet ﷺ he said,

“Will you not trust me, when I am the trustee of the One who is in heaven? The news of heaven comes to me morning and evening!”

Then a man stood up—deep-set eyes, prominent cheekbones, bulging forehead, a thick beard, shaven head, and his waist-wrapper girded high—and said, “O Messenger of Allah, fear Allah!”

He replied, “Woe to you! Who is more entitled than I to fear Allah?”

The man then turned away. Khālid ibn al-Walīd said, “O Messenger of Allah, shall I not strike his neck?”

He said, “No; perhaps he performs the prayer.”

Khālid said, “Many a person who prays says with his tongue what is not in his heart.”

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “I have not been commanded to probe people’s hearts or rip open their bellies.”

Then he looked at the man as he departed and said,

“From the loins of this one a people will arise who recite the Book of Allah with fluent tongues, yet it will not go beyond their throats. They will dart out of the religion as an arrow darts from its prey.”

I think he also said, “If I live to see them, I will kill them as Thamūd were killed.”