ʿAlī—an expression that shows ʿĀʾishah considered the report about the Kharijites, and in particular the affair of Dhū al-Thudayyah (the maimed one), to be something extraordinary, as was noted earlier. We have cited all of these transmission lines only so that anyone who examines them will realize that the story is sound and true, and that it counts among the greatest proofs of Prophethood, as more than one leading Imām has observed. Allah, exalted is He, knows best.

He went on to say: “Thereafter I asked ʿĀʾishah (may Allah be pleased with her) about the report of Dhū al-Thudayyah, and she verified it through several independent chains.”

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Bakr al-Bayhaqī said in Dalāʾil an-Nubuwwah (1): “Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ narrated to us; al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿĀmir al-Kindī in Kūfah, from the original record of his audition, narrated to us; [Aḥmad ibn] Muḥammad ibn Ṣadaqah al-Kātib narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn Abān narrated to me, and I read in it: al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥurr narrated to me. He said: al-Ḥakam ibn ʿUtaybah and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī as-Safar narrated to us, from ʿĀmir al-Shaʿbī, from Masrūq, who said:

‘ʿĀʾishah asked me, “Have you any knowledge of Dhū al-Thudayyah whom ʿAlī struck down among the Ḥarūriyyah (Harurite Kharijites)?” I replied, “No.” She said, “Then write for me the testimony of those who witnessed them.”

So I returned to Kūfah, which in those days was divided into seven districts (asbāʿ). I wrote down the testimony of ten men from each district, then brought their attestations to her. She read them and asked, “Did all these men actually see him?” I said, “I questioned them, and they informed me that every one of them had seen him.” She thereupon said, “May Allah curse so-and-so; he wrote to me claiming that Dhū al-Thudayyah was killed near the Nile in Egypt.”

Then she lowered her eyes and wept, and when her tears subsided she said, “May Allah have mercy on ʿAlī; he was upon the truth, and nothing ever passed between him and me except what may occur between a woman and her in-laws.”’

Another narration, this time from two Companions (5): al-Haytham ibn ʿAdī said in his book al-Khawārij: “Sulaymān ibn al-Mughīrah narrated to me, from Ḥumayd ibn Hilāl, who said: Two men from the Ḥijāz set out until they reached Iraq. They were asked, ‘What has brought you to Iraq?’ They replied, ‘We hoped to meet those people about whom the Messenger of Allah ﷺ informed us.’ But we found that ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib had already preceded us to them—meaning the people of Nahrawān (7).”