and Ismāʿīl ibn Mūsā—these three all relate it from Shurayk. Al-Nasā’ī (1) likewise transmitted it through Aḥmad ibn Sulaymān, from Yaḥyā ibn Ādam, from Isrā’īl. Al-Tirmidhī judged it ḥasan, ṣaḥīḥ, and gharīb.

Sulaymān ibn Qarm—who has been declared unreliable—also narrated it from Abū Isḥāq, from Ḥubshī ibn Junādah, who heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on the Day of Ghadīr Khumm say:

‘Whoever regards me as his patron, ʿAlī is his patron. O Allah, befriend those who befriend him and oppose those who oppose him.’ … and he mentioned the rest of the report.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Yaʿlā al-Mawṣilī said: Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah told us; Shurayk told us, from Abū Yazīd al-Awdi, from his father. He related: Abū Hurayrah entered the mosque and the people gathered around him. A young man stood up and said, ‘I adjure you by Allah—did you hear the Messenger of Allah say, “Whoever regards me as his patron, ʿAlī is his patron. O Allah, befriend those who befriend him and oppose those who oppose him”?’ He replied, ‘Yes.’

Ibn Jarīr reported the same through Abū Kurayb, from Shadhān, from Shurayk. It was corroborated by Idrīs al-Awdi, from his brother Abū Yazīd—whose name is Dāwūd ibn Yazīd—with the same wording. Ibn Jarīr also related it from Idrīs and Dāwūd, from their father, from Abū Hurayrah, and mentioned it in full.

As for the ḥadīth transmitted by Ḍamrah, from Ibn Shawdhub, from Maṭar al-Warrāq, from Shahr ibn Ḥawshab, from Abū Hurayrah: when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ took ʿAlī by the hand he said, ‘Whoever regards me as his patron, ʿAlī is his patron.’ Thereupon Allah Most High revealed: “Today I have perfected your religion for you and completed My favour upon you …” (al-Māʾidah 5:3). Abū Hurayrah added, ‘It was the Day of Ghadīr Khumm; whoever fasts on the eighteenth of Dhū al-Ḥijjah will receive the reward of sixty months’ fasting.’

This report is highly munkar—indeed fabricated—for it contradicts what is authentically established in the two Ṣaḥīḥs from the Commander of the Believers ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, that the verse was revealed on a Friday, the Day of ʿArafah, while the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was standing there, as explained earlier.

Likewise unsound is the claim that fasting on the eighteenth of Dhū al-Ḥijjah, the Day of Ghadīr Khumm, equals sixty months of fasting; for it is established in the Ṣaḥīḥ (2) that fasting the month of Ramadan is equivalent to ten months. How, then, could fasting a single day equal sixty months? This is untenable.

Our teacher, the ḥāfiẓ Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Dhahabī, after citing this narration, said, ‘This ḥadīth is highly munkar.’

It was also reported by Ḥabshūn al-Khallāl and Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad al-Nayrī—both reliable—through ʿAlī ibn Saʿīd al-Ramlī, from Ḍamrah. He added: ‘The same report is transmitted—through weak chains—from ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, Mālik ibn al-Ḥuwayrith, Anas ibn Mālik, Abū Saʿīd, and others.’

He continued: ‘The opening clause of the ḥadīth is mutawātir; I am certain that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ uttered it. As for: “O Allah, befriend …”