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On citing the report which indicates that the Prophet ﷺ, while returning from the Farewell Ḥajj, delivered a sermon at a site between Mecca and Madinah, near al-Juhfah, called Ghadīr Khumm. In that address he clarified the merit of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and cleared his honor of what some of those who had accompanied him in Yemen had said, after they had misconstrued his equitable conduct toward them as unfairness, stringency, or miserliness—whereas the truth was with him. When the Prophet ﷺ had completed teaching the rites and was on his way back to Madinah, he explained the matter en route, delivering a momentous sermon on the eighteenth of Dhū al-Ḥijjah of that year—which fell on a Sunday—at Ghadīr Khumm beneath a tree there. In it he set forth a number of matters and spoke of ʿAlī’s virtue, trustworthiness, fairness, and closeness to him, thereby removing what lingered in many people’s hearts.

We shall present the choicest of the ḥadīths transmitted on this occasion, indicating what is sound and what is weak, with Allah’s help, strength, and aid. Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, author of the Tafsīr and the History, devoted two volumes to this ḥadīth, collecting its chains and wordings, including both worthless and valuable reports, sound and unsound, as is the habit of many ḥadīth scholars who cite whatever reaches them in a given chapter without distinguishing the authentic from the weak. The eminent ḥāfiẓ Abū al-Qāsim Ibn ʿAsākir likewise recorded many reports on this sermon. We shall quote the cream of what has been related, making it clear that the Shīʿah have no case or proof therein—a point we shall set out and clarify.

So we say, and Allah is the One sought for help:

Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq said—in his narrative of the Farewell Ḥajj—Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī ʿAmrah related to me, from Yazīd ibn Ṭalḥah ibn Yazīd ibn Rukānah, who said:

When ʿAlī returned from Yemen to meet the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in Mecca, he hastened ahead to the Prophet ﷺ and left in charge of the troops a man from among his companions. That man took it upon himself to clothe every soldier with a mantle from the garments that were with ʿAlī. When the army drew near, ʿAlī came out to meet them and found them wearing the mantles.

He said, “Woe to you! What is this?”

The man replied, “I dressed the men in them so they might appear well when they entered among the people.”

ʿAlī said, “Woe to you! Remove them before you reach the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.”

So he stripped the mantles from the men and returned them to the supplies, and the troops voiced their complaint about what ʿAlī had done to them.

Ibn Isḥāq continued: ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Maʿmar ibn Ḥazm told me, from Sulaymān ibn Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb ibn ʿUjrah, from his aunt Zaynab bint Kaʿb—who was married to Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī—who narrated from Abū Saʿīd:

The people complained about ʿAlī, so the Messenger of Allah ﷺ stood among us and addressed us. I heard him say, “O people, do not complain about ʿAlī, for by Allah…”