and oppose whoever opposes him.’

Our teacher al-Dhahabī said, “This is a ḥasan, gharīb ḥadīth.” Ibn Jarīr then transmitted it through Yaʿqūb ibn Jaʿfar ibn Abī Kathīr (1) from Muhājir ibn Mismār, citing the report and noting that the Prophet ﷺ halted until those who were behind caught up, ordered those who had gone ahead to return, and then addressed them … and so forth.

Abū Jaʿfar Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī also said, in the first volume of his book ‘Ghadīr Khumm’:

Our teacher Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Dhahabī states: “I found the following in a written copy from Ibn Jarīr: Muḥammad ibn ʿAwf al-Ṭāʾī (2) narrated to us; ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Mūsā narrated to us; Ismāʿīl ibn Nashīṭ (3) informed us, from Jamīl ibn ʿUmārah, from Sālim ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar. Ibn Jarīr said, ‘I think he also said “from ʿUmar,” though that is not in my copy.’ He related: ‘I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, while holding the hand of ʿAlī, declare: “Whomever I am his patron, this man is his patron. O Allah, befriend whoever befriends him and oppose whoever opposes him.”’

This ḥadīth is gharīb—indeed, it is munkar—and its chain is weak. Al-Bukhārī remarked about this Jamīl ibn ʿUmārah, ‘There is a problem with him.’

Al-Muṭṭalib ibn Ziyād narrated, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAqīl, that he heard Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh say: ‘We were at al-Juhfah, at Ghadīr Khumm, when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ came out to us from a tent or pavilion, took ʿAlī by the hand, and said, “Whomever I am his patron, ʿAlī is his patron.”’

Our teacher al-Dhahabī commented, ‘This is a ḥasan ḥadīth.’ Ibn Luhayʿah also transmitted it, from Bakr ibn Sawādah and others, from Abū Salamah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from Jābir with similar wording.

Imām Aḥmad (4) said: Yaḥyā ibn Ādam and Ibn Abī Bukayr related to us; both said: Israel narrated to us, from Abū Isḥāq, from Ḥubshī ibn Junādah—Yaḥyā ibn Ādam added that he had witnessed the Farewell Pilgrimage—who reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ declared: ‘ʿAlī is from me and I am from him, and none shall discharge my obligations except myself or ʿAlī.’

In the version of Ibn Abī Bukayr the wording is: ‘No one shall settle my debts on my behalf except myself or ʿAlī.’ Imām Aḥmad likewise transmitted it through Abū Aḥmad al-Zubayrī, from Israel.

Imām Aḥmad (5) also said: Al-Zubayrī narrated it to us; Shurayk related to us, from Abū Isḥāq, from Ḥubshī ibn Junādah with the same wording. I asked Abū Isḥāq, ‘Where did you hear this from him?’ He replied, ‘He rode up to us on horseback while we were seated in the cemetery of al-Sabīʿ.’

Aḥmad recorded it as well from Aswad ibn ʿĀmir and Yaḥyā ibn Ādam, from Shurayk. Al-Tirmidhī (6) narrated it through Ismāʿīl ibn Mūsā, from Shurayk, and Ibn Mājah (7) through Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah and Suwayd ibn Saʿīd,