Al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī (1) said: al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Muqriʾ narrated to us; Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar al-Muṭayrī narrated to us; Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Muʾaddib in Sarr Man Raʾā narrated to us; al-Muʿallā ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān in Baghdad narrated to us; Shurayk narrated to us, from Sulaymān ibn Mihrān al-Aʿmash (2), [who said: Ibrāhīm narrated to us] (3), from ʿAlqamah and al-Aswad, who said:

We came to Abū Ayyūb al-Anṣārī on his return from Ṣiffīn and said: “O Abū Ayyūb! Allah honored you with the arrival of Muḥammad ﷺ and with his camel’s stopping—by Allah’s grace and in honor of you—at your door rather than anyone else’s. Yet now you have come with your sword on your shoulder, striking those who declare, ‘There is no god but Allah’?”

He replied, “My good man, the scout does not lie to his own people. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ commanded us to fight, alongside ʿAlī, three groups: the breakers (al-nākithīn), the unjust (al-qāsitīn), and the renegades (al-māriqīn). As for the breakers, we have already fought them—the people of the Camel, Ṭalḥah and al-Zubayr. As for the unjust, this is our return from them,”—meaning Muʿāwiyah and ʿAmr—“and as for the renegades, they are the people of al-Ṭarfawāt (4), al-Saʿīfāt, al-Nakhīlāt, and al-Nahrawānāt (5). By Allah, I do not know where they are now, but we must surely fight them, if Allah wills.”

He continued, “I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say to ʿAmmār:

‘O ʿAmmār, the transgressing faction will kill you, and from that moment you will be with the truth (6) and the truth will be with you. O ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir, if you see ʿAlī taking one valley and the people another, then follow ʿAlī, for he will never lead you into ruin nor take you out of guidance. O ʿAmmār, whoever girds a sword to aid ʿAlī against his enemy, Allah will gird him on the Day of Resurrection with two sashes of pearls; and whoever girds a sword to aid an enemy against ʿAlī, Allah will gird him on the Day of Resurrection with two sashes of fire.’

We said, ‘That is enough; may Allah have mercy upon you.’”

The apparent state of this chain shows that it is fabricated; its flaw lies with al-Muʿallā ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, for he is abandoned in ḥadīth—and Allah knows best (7).

Section (8)

Al-Haytham ibn ʿAdī said in his book which he compiled on the Khārijites—a work that is among the finest written on the subject—he said (9): and he mentioned