Muḥammad ibn ʿAqīl related—on the authority of Faḍālah ibn Abī Faḍālah al-Anṣārī, whose father Abū Faḍālah ⦗1⦘ had fought at Badr—that he said:
“I went out with my father to visit ʿAlī while he was suffering from an illness that had grown severe. My father said to him, ‘Why do you stay in this dwelling? If death should overtake you here, only the Bedouins of Juhaynah—or others like them—would tend to you. Allow yourself to be carried to Madinah; if your appointed time comes there, your Companions will take charge of your burial and perform the funeral prayer over you.’
ʿAlī replied, ‘The Messenger of Allah ﷺ entrusted to me that I would not die until I had been given authority, and that thereafter this—meaning his beard—would be drenched with blood from this—meaning the crown of his head.’
The narrator continued: ʿAlī was later killed, and Abū Faḍālah was slain fighting alongside him on the day of Ṣiffīn.
This narration is unique to Aḥmad.
Al-Bayhaqī also transmitted it in Dalāʾil ⦗2⦘ through al-Ḥākim, al-Aṣamm, al-Ḥasan ibn Makram, and Abū al-Naḍr Hāshim ibn al-Qāsim with the same chain.
[Another chain from him]
Al-Bazzār ⦗3⦘ said: “Aḥmad ibn Abān al-Qurashī narrated to us; Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah narrated to us; a Kufan known to us as ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Aʿyan narrated to us, from Abū Ḥarb ibn Abī al-Aswad, from his father, who said:
‘I heard ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib say: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām said to me—when I had already placed my foot in the stirrup, sword in hand—“By Allah, you have indeed uttered it, and the Prophet ﷺ uttered it as well when going forth to fight. Do not relate this to anyone besides yourself.”’ ”
Al-Bazzār then commented: “We know of no one who has reported this with this chain except ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, nor anyone who narrated it from Abū Ḥarb except ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Aʿyan, and no one who transmitted it from him except Ibn ʿUyaynah.” Such were his words, yet I have encountered several other chains that differ from this.
Al-Bayhaqī ⦗4⦘, after mentioning some of those variants, said: “We have also recorded in the Sunan, with a sound chain, from Zayd ibn Aslam, from Abū Sinān ad-Duʾalī, from ʿAlī, that the Prophet ﷺ foretold his martyrdom.”
[Another report on the same matter]
Al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī ⦗5⦘ said: “ʿAlī ibn al-Qāsim al-Baṣrī informed me; ʿAlī ibn Isḥāq al-Mādarāʾī narrated to us [and said]: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq aṣ-Ṣaghānī informed us; Ismāʿīl ibn Abān al-Warrāq narrated to us; Abū ʿAbd Allāh narrated to us …”