Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿArūbah (1) transmitted—through Qatādah, from al-Ḥasan, from Qays ibn ʿUbādah—that on the Day of the Camel ʿAlī said, “O Ḥasan, would that your father had died twenty years ago.” Ḥasan replied, “Father, I had indeed tried to stop you from this.” ʿAlī answered, “My son, I never imagined the affair would reach this point.”
Mubārak ibn Faḍālah reported—from al-Ḥasan ibn Abī Bakrah—that when the fighting on the Day of the Camel grew fierce and ʿAlī saw heads being struck off (2), he pulled his son Ḥasan to his chest and said, “We belong to Allah, O Ḥasan! What good can be hoped for after this?”
When the two armies mounted and stood facing one another (3), ʿAlī called for Ṭalḥah and al-Zubayr so that he might speak with them. They came together until the necks of their horses touched, and it is said that he told them: “I see you have gathered horses, men, and equipment. Have you prepared an excuse (4) for the Day of Resurrection as well? So fear Allah and do not be like her who unravels her yarn after it has been spun strong. Was I not your brother in faith—my blood forbidden to you as yours is forbidden to me? What word has now made your brother’s blood lawful to you (5)?”
Ṭalḥah retorted, “It was you who incited the people against ʿUthmān.” ʿAlī replied, “On that Day Allah will repay them in full their just recompense” (Quran 24:25). Then he added, “May Allah curse the killers of ʿUthmān.
“O Ṭalḥah! Have you brought the wife of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to fight while you have hidden your own wife in the house? Did you not pledge allegiance to me?”
Ṭalḥah answered, “I pledged allegiance to you with the sword at my neck.”
ʿAlī then said to al-Zubayr, “What drew you out?” He replied, “You—and I do not consider you more entitled to this affair than I.” ʿAlī said, “Do you not remember the day I was walking with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ among Banū Ghanm, and he looked at me and smiled, and I smiled back? You remarked, ‘Ibn Abī Ṭālib never leaves off his pride,’ and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to you, ‘He is not proud; you will surely fight him while you are in the wrong (6)(7).’”
Al-Zubayr exclaimed, “O Allah—yes! Had I remembered that, I would never have set out as I have. By Allah, I will not fight you.” (There is, however, room for scrutiny regarding this entire chain of transmission.)
The sound portion preserved from it is the ḥadīth as recorded by the ḥāfiẓ Abū Yaʿlā al-Mawṣilī (8). He said: “Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm al-Dawraqī (9) narrated to us; Abū ʿĀṣim narrated to us, from ʿAbd Allah ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Muslim al-Raqāshī, from his grandfather ʿAbd al-Malik, from Abū Jarūʾ al-Māzinī, who said: I was present with ʿAlī and al-Zubayr when they faced one another—meaning on the Day of the Camel—and ʿAlī said to him, “O Zubayr! I adjure you by Allah, did you hear …”