of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ change, and he said,

“O Buraydah, am I not closer to the believers than they are to themselves?”

I replied, “Indeed, O Messenger of Allah.” He then said,

“For whomever I am master, ʿAlī is his master.”

Imam Aḥmad (1) said: Ibn Numayr narrated to us; al-Ajlaḥ al-Kindī narrated to us, from ʿAbdullāh ibn Buraydah, from his father Buraydah, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ dispatched two detachments to Yemen—one under ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and the other under Khālid ibn al-Walīd—and said, “If you come together, ʿAlī is in command of the people; but if you separate, each of you commands his own troops.” We encountered the Banū Zayd of Yemen and fought; the Muslims prevailed over the polytheists. [We killed the fighting men and took the women and children captive, and ʿAlī selected a slave-girl from the spoils for himself.] Buraydah said: Khālid ibn al-Walīd sent a letter with me to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ informing him of that. When I reached the Messenger of Allah I handed him the letter and it was read to him, and I saw anger in his face. I said, “O Messenger of Allah, I seek refuge; you sent me with a man and ordered me to obey him, and I have merely conveyed what I was sent with.” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said,

“Do not speak ill of ʿAlī, for he is from me and I am from him, and he is your guardian after me.”

This wording is objectionable. Al-Ajlaḥ was a Shīʿī, and someone like him is not accepted when he alone transmits such a report. Moreover, he has been followed in it by someone even weaker than he; Allah knows best.

What is reliably preserved on this issue is the narration of Aḥmad (2): from Wakīʿ, from al-Aʿmash, from Saʿd ibn ʿUbādah, from ʿAbdullāh ibn Buraydah, from his father, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said,

“For whomever I am master, ʿAlī is his protector.”

Aḥmad (3) also recorded it, as did al-Ḥasan ibn ʿArafah, both through al-Aʿmash with this chain. Al-Nasāʾī (4) likewise narrated it: from Abū Kurayb, from Abū Muʿāwiyah, with the same chain.

Aḥmad (5) said: Rūḥ narrated to us; ʿAlī ibn Suwayd ibn Manjūf narrated to us, from ʿAbdullāh ibn Buraydah, from his father, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ sent ʿAlī to Khālid ibn al-Walīd to collect the khums (the one-fifth share). The next morning his head was dripping (from ghusl). Khālid said to Buraydah, “Do you not see what this man is doing?” When I returned to the Messenger of Allah I informed him of what ʿAlī had done—and at that time I hated ʿAlī. He said,

“O Buraydah, do you hate ʿAlī?”

I replied, “Yes.” He said,

“Do not hate him; rather love him, for he is entitled to receive from the khums more than that.”

Al-Bukhārī also narrated this at length in his Ṣaḥīḥ (6) from Bundār, from Rūḥ.

Aḥmad (7) said: Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd narrated to us; ʿAbd al-Jalīl narrated to us. He said: I came to a gathering in which were Abū Mujliz and the two sons of Buraydah. ʿAbdullāh ibn Buraydah said, “My father Buraydah told me: I hated ʿAlī with a hatred I had never felt toward anyone,” and he continued