from Abū al-Zubayr, from Jābir, who said:
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ summoned ʿAlī on the day of Ṭāʾif and withdrew to speak with him privately (1). The people said, “He has prolonged his confidential conversation with his cousin.” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ replied, “It was not I who chose him for private counsel; rather, Allah chose him.”
He then said: This is a ḥasan gharīb ḥadith; we do not know it (2) except through the narration of al-Ajlaḥ, and others besides Ibn Faḍīl have related it from al-Ajlaḥ.
The meaning of his words, “but Allah chose him,” is that Allah commanded me to confer with him in private. [I say: It may also be that he meant, “Allah ordered me to converse with him” (3). Allah knows best.]
[Another hadith]
Al-Tirmidhī (4) said: Muḥammad ibn Bashshār, Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm, and more than one other narrated to us; Abū ʿĀṣim narrated to us, from Abū al-Jarrāḥ, from Jābir ibn Ṣubḥ (5). Umm Shurāḥīl (6) narrated to me, and Umm ʿAṭiyyah narrated: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ dispatched an army in which ʿAlī served. I then heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, raising his hands (7), supplicating, “O Allah, do not let me die until You allow me to see ʿAlī.” He then said: This is a ḥasan [gharīb; we know it only through this chain] ḥadith.
[Another hadith]
Imam Aḥmad (8) said: ʿAlī ibn ʿĀṣim narrated to us; Ḥuṣayn informed us, from Hilāl ibn Yasāf, from ʿAbd Allah ibn Ẓālim al-Māzinī, who said: When Muʿāwiyah left Kūfa he appointed al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah as governor. He then set up preachers who vilified ʿAlī. I was standing beside Saʿīd ibn Zayd ibn ʿAmr (9) ibn Nufayl; he became angry, rose, took me by the hand and I followed him (10). He said, “Do you not see this man who wrongs his own soul, commanding that a man from the people of Paradise be cursed (11)? I testify concerning nine that they are of the people of Paradise, and were I to testify regarding the tenth I would not be sinful.”
I asked, “Who are they?”
He said: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: ‘Stand firm, O Ḥirāʾ, for upon you there is none but a Prophet, a ṣiddīq (truthful one), or a martyr.’” I asked, “Who are they?” He replied: “The Messenger of Allah, Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, ʿAlī, al-Zubayr, Ṭalḥah, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf,”