Al-Zubayr ibn Bakkār said:

ʿAlī ibn al-Mughīrah related to me, from Muʿammar ibn al-Muthannā, who said:

The standard of the idol-worshippers on the Day of Badr was borne by Ṭalḥah ibn Abī Ṭalḥah, but ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib killed him. Concerning that al-Ḥajjāj ibn ʿAlāṭ al-Sulamī composed the following verses (in the kāmil metre):

By God! What sinner would abandon his fight—
I mean the son of Fāṭimah, noble and high-born?
Your hands dealt him a swift thrust,
Leaving Ṭulayḥah sprawling upon the dust, lifeless.
You charged a hero’s charge and routed them in truth
While they fell headlong, leaderless and confused.
You slaked your sword with blood and would never withdraw it—
Eager—until it had drunk its fill. (1)

He was present at the Pledge of Riḍwān, about which Allah the Exalted says: “Indeed, Allah was pleased with the believers when they pledged allegiance to you beneath the tree” (al-Fath 48:18). The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “No one who gave the pledge beneath the tree will enter the Fire.”

It is established in the authentic collections and elsewhere that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said on the day of Khaybar: “Tomorrow I shall hand the banner to a man who loves Allah and His Messenger, and Allah and His Messenger love him; he will not turn his back, and Allah will grant victory at his hands.” People passed the night debating (2) who would be given it, until ʿUmar said, “I never craved leadership except on that day.” When morning came, he gave it to ʿAlī, and Allah granted victory through him.

A number of scholars transmitted this ḥadith—among them Mālik, al-Ḥasan, Yaʿqūb ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, Jarīr ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd, Ḥammād ibn Salamah, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn al-Mukhtār, and Khālid ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Suhayl—from his father, from Abū Hurayrah; Muslim recorded it (3).

It was also narrated by Ibn Abī Ḥāzim [from Abū Ḥāzim] from Sahl ibn Saʿd; both al-Bukhārī and Muslim include it in their Ṣaḥīḥs (4). In his wording: “The Messenger of Allah called for him while his eyes were inflamed; he spat into his eyes and they were cured.”

The report was likewise transmitted by Iyās ibn Salamah ibn al-Akwaʿ, from his father, and by Yazīd ibn Abī ʿUbayd from his freedman Salamah; his narration too is found in the two Ṣaḥīḥs (5).

Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq said:

Buraydah told me, from Sufyān, from Abū Farwah al-Aslamī, from his father, from Salamah ibn ʿAmr ibn al-Akwaʿ, who said:

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ dispatched Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq with his banner to one of the forts of Khaybar; he fought, then returned without conquering it, though he was exhausted. He next sent ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb; he fought, then returned without conquering it and was exhausted. Thereupon the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Tomorrow I shall give the banner to a man who loves Allah and His Messenger, and Allah and His Messenger love him; through him Allah will grant victory …"