al-Muḥallimī, from Simāk, from Jābir ibn Samurah, who said:
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to ʿAlī, “Who was the most wretched among the earlier peoples?”
He replied, “The man who hamstrung the she-camel.”
He then asked, “And who will be the most wretched among the later peoples?”
I said, “Allah and His Messenger know best.”
He said, “Your killer.”

[Another ḥadīth conveying the same meaning]

Al-Bayhaqī ⦗1⦘ also transmitted—through both Faṭr ibn Khalīfah and ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Siyyāh, each from Ḥabīb ibn Abī Thābit, from Thaʿlabah al-Ḥammānī—who said: I heard ʿAlī on the minbar saying, “By Allah, this is part of the covenant that the Unlettered Prophet ﷺ made with me: this community will betray you after me.”

Al-Bukhārī ⦗2⦘ remarked: “There is some question regarding Thaʿlabah ibn Yazīd al-Ḥammānī in this ḥadīth.”

Al-Bayhaqī ⦗3⦘ said: “We have also narrated it with another chain back to ʿAlī—if it is preserved.”

Abū ʿAlī ar-Rawdhbārī informed us; Abū Muḥammad ibn Shawdhab al-Wāsiṭī narrated to us there; Shuʿayb ibn Ayyūb narrated to us; ʿAmr ibn ʿAwn narrated to us; from Hushaym, from Ismāʿīl ibn Sālim, from Abū Idrīs al-Azdī, from ʿAlī, who said: “Among the matters which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ covenanted to me is that the community will betray you after me.”

Al-Bayhaqī said: “If this report is authentic, it may—Allah knows best—refer to those who rose against him and then to his being killed.”

Al-Aʿmash narrated—from ʿAmr ibn Murrah, from ⦗4⦘ ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Hārith, from Zuhayr ibn al-Arqam—who said:

ʿAlī addressed us on a Friday and said, “I have been informed that Busr has entered Yemen, and by Allah I think these people will overcome you. They will only defeat you because you disobey your leader while they obey theirs; because you are treacherous while they are trustworthy; because you corrupt your land while they set theirs right. I sent so-and-so and he betrayed and acted treacherously; I sent so-and-so and he betrayed and acted treacherously; and I sent wealth to Muʿāwiyah. If I were to entrust one of you with nothing more than a cup, he would steal its handle. O Allah, I am weary of them and they are weary of me; I dislike them and they dislike me. O Allah, relieve them of me and relieve me of them.”

He said: He did not lead the next Friday prayer before he was killed—may Allah be pleased with him and grant him contentment.

[The manner of his martyrdom—may Allah be pleased with him]

Ibn Jarīr ⦗5⦘ and a number of scholars of history, biography, and the chronicles relate that three men from the Khārijites—ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAmr, known as Ibn Muljam al-Ḥimyarī, then al-Kindī, an ally of Banū Ḥanīfah ⦗6⦘ from Kindah, an Egyptian—