he relates this among the people? If someone objects to these claims, is he considered to be enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong, or not? Give us your ruling—may you be rewarded—and provide us with a clear and thorough explanation.

He replied:

Praise be to Allah, Lord of all worlds. As for the claim that the Commander of the Faithful, “Alī ibn Abī Tālib”—may Allah be pleased with him—instructed that, upon his death, he should be placed on his mount, that it should be let loose, and that he should be buried wherever it knelt, and that this was done to him: this is a fabricated lie, by agreement of the scholars. Alī gave no such instructions, nor was anything of the kind done to him. No one known for learning and integrity has mentioned this; it is related only by those who transmit accounts from certain liars.

It is not permissible to do this to any deceased Muslim, nor is it permissible for anyone to leave instructions to this effect. Rather, this is an indignity inflicted on the deceased, and there is no benefit in it. If the purpose is to conceal the location of his grave, then once the she-camel kneels, a grave must still be dug for him and he must be buried in it. A grave could therefore be dug and he could be buried in it without this disgraceful treatment: leaving his dead body on the back of an animal roaming through the wilderness.

The scholars have differed over “the location of his grave.” The generally accepted account among scholars is that he was buried in the governor’s palace in Kufa, and that his grave was concealed so that the “Khārijites,” who declared him an unbeliever and regarded killing him as lawful, would not exhume him. Indeed, the man who killed him was one of the Khārijites, namely Abd al-Rahmān