Another ḥadīth praising ʿAlī (may Allah be pleased with him) for his combat against the Kharijites (1)

Imām Aḥmad (2) said: Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad narrated to us; Fiṭr (3) narrated to us, from Ismāʿīl ibn Rajāʾ ibn Rabīʿah al-Zubaydī, from his father, who said:

I heard Abū Saʿīd say: We were sitting, awaiting the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, when he came out to us from the apartment of one of his wives. We rose to accompany him. The strap of his sandal snapped, so ʿAlī stayed behind to mend it. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ walked on and we walked with him; then he halted and we halted with him. He said, “Among you is one who will fight for the interpretation of the Quran just as I fought for its revelation.” We all stretched our necks toward that distinction, and among us were Abū Bakr and ʿUmar. He then said, “No, it is the one who is mending the sandal.” We went to give him the glad tidings, and it was as though he had already heard them.

Aḥmad (6) also related this ḥadīth through Wakīʿ and Abū Usāmah, from Fiṭr ibn Khalīfah.

As for the ḥadīth cited by al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Yaʿlā (7): “Ismāʿīl ibn Mūsā narrated to us; al-Rabīʿ ibn Sahl narrated to us, from Saʿīd ibn ʿUbayd, from ʿAlī ibn Rabīʿah, who said: I heard ʿAlī on this very pulpit of yours say: ‘The Prophet ﷺ charged me to fight the breakers (al-nākithīn), the unjust (al-qāsitīn), and the renegades (al-māriqīn).’”

Abū Bakr ibn al-Muqriʾ also transmitted it through al-Jadd ibn ʿUbādah al-Baṣrī, from Yaʿqūb ibn ʿAbbād (8), from al-Rabīʿ ibn Sahl al-Fazārī. It is a strange and disapproved report; all the various chains—whether from ʿAlī or from others—contain some weakness.

By “the breakers” is meant the people of the Camel; by “the unjust,” the people of Syria (for a qāsit is an oppressive tyrant); and the “renegades” are the Kharijites, because they defected from the religion.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Aḥmad ibn ʿAdī also mentioned it in his al-Kāmil (9) through Aḥmad ibn Jaʿfar al-Baghdādī, from Sulaymān ibn