where he displayed awe-inspiring exploits, among them the incident in which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said (1): “Tomorrow I will certainly hand the banner to a man who loves Allah and His Messenger, and whom Allah and His Messenger love.” The people spent [that night] discussing which of them would be given it. He then summoned ʿAlī—who was suffering from an eye inflammation—prayed for him, and spat into his eye; the ailment never returned. ʿAlī was cured, the Prophet handed him the banner, Allah granted victory through him, and he killed Marhab (2) the Jew.

Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq (3) relates—from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥasan, from a member of his household, from Abū Rāfiʿ—that a Jew struck ʿAlī, causing him to drop his shield. ʿAlī thereupon seized a gate near the fortress and used it as his shield, holding it until Allah granted victory through him; only then did he cast it aside. Abū Rāfiʿ said, “I, together with seven others [with me], strove to turn that gate over on its back on the day of Khaybar, but we were unable to do so.”

Layth narrates—from Abū Jaʿfar, from Jābir—that on the day of Khaybar ʿAlī hoisted the gate onto his back until the Muslims climbed over it and captured the fort; afterwards it took forty men to lift it.

Among his exploits as well was that he slew Marhab, the champion and bravest warrior of the Jews.

ʿAlī was present at ʿUmrat al-Qaḍāʾ, during which the Prophet ﷺ said to him (4): “You are of me, and I am of you.”

As for what many storytellers recount about ʿAlī (5) fighting the jinn at Biʾr Dhāt al-ʿIlm—a well near al-Juḥfah—there is no basis for it; it is a fabrication of ignorant chroniclers, so let no one be deceived by it (6).

He was present at the Conquest (of Mecca), at Ḥunayn, and at al-Ṭāʾif, where he fought fiercely. He performed ʿumrah from al-Jiʿrānah with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. When the Prophet ﷺ set out for Tabūk he appointed ʿAlī over Madinah. ʿAlī said, “O Messenger of Allah, are you leaving me behind with women and children?” He ﷺ replied (7): “Are you not pleased to stand in relation to me as Hārūn stood to Mūsā, except that there is no prophet after me?”

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ also dispatched him as commander and judge over Yemen, accompanied by Khālid ibn al-Walīd. Later, during the Farewell Pilgrimage, ʿAlī met the Prophet ﷺ in Mecca, driving sacrificial animals with him; he entered iḥrām with the same talbiyah as the Prophet ﷺ, who included him in his sacrificial offerings, and he continued