“Am I that man, O Messenger of Allah?”

He answered, “No! Rather, it is the one who is mending the sandal,”—for he had handed his sandal to ʿAlī to stitch.

Imam al-Bayhaqī (1) also recorded this ḥadīth, through al-Ḥākim, from al-Aṣamm, from Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār, from Abū Muʿāwiyah, from al-Aʿmash, with the same wording.

Imam Aḥmad (2) transmitted it as well, through Wakīʿ and Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad, from Fuṭr ibn Khalīfah, from Ismāʿīl ibn Rajāʾ, with the same content.

Al-Bayhaqī further narrated it via Abū Nuʿaym, from Fuṭr ibn Khalīfah, from Ismāʿīl ibn Rajāʾ, from his father, from Abū Saʿīd, with the same wording. It was also related by Fuḍayl ibn Marzūq, from ʿAṭiyyah, from Abū Saʿīd, and it is reported directly from ʿAlī himself.

We have already cited (3) this ḥadīth in its proper place while discussing ʿAlī’s combat against the rebels and the Kharijites—praise be to Allah. We likewise mentioned the report in which ʿAlī told al-Zubayr that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had said to him, “You will fight me while you are in the wrong.” Al-Zubayr thereupon withdrew on the Day of the Camel, yet was killed later in Wādī al-Sabāʿ.

We have also detailed his patience, resolve, and bravery on the Days of the Camel and Ṣiffīn; his valour and merit on the Day of Nahrawān; and the aḥādīth that extol the virtue of his contingent who slew the Kharijites. In addition, we cited the report—through a different chain—from ʿAlī, Abū Saʿīd, and Abū Ayyūb stating that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ commanded him to fight the renegades (al-māriqīn), the unjust (al-qāsitīn), and the oath-breakers (al-nākithīn). They interpreted the oath-breakers as the people of the Camel, the unjust as the Syrians, and the renegades as the Kharijites; however, the ḥadīth is weak.

Section: A glimpse of his just conduct, noble way, admonitions, decisive judgments, complete sermons, and maxims that reach the heart

ʿAbd al-Wārith narrated, from Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlāʾ, from his father, who said:

ʿAlī once addressed the people, saying, “O people! By Allah, besides whom there is no deity, I have not taken from your wealth, whether little or much, except for this—” he then produced a small vial of perfume from the sleeve of his shirt—“it was a gift from the dehqān,” (4) in another version the dāl is given a ḍammah. They add that he then went to the public treasury and said, “Take it,” and began to recite (5):

Successful is the one who owns a little basket,
From which he eats a date each day.

Another variant reads: “…once a day,” and yet another: “Blessed is he who owns a little basket.”