2442 – Jaʿfar b. ʿAbd Allah b. Yaʿqūb narrated to us; he said: Muḥammad b. ⦗1367⦘ Hārūn al-Ruwayyānī narrated to us; he said: Aḥmad b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān narrated to us; he said: my uncle narrated to me; he said: Yūnus informed me, from al-Zuhrī; he said: ʿAbd Allah b. Kaʿb b. Mālik informed me that Ibn ʿAbbās told him that ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib came out from the presence of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ during the illness in which he passed away. The people said, “O Abū al-Ḥasan, how is the Messenger of Allah ﷺ this morning?” He replied, “By the praise of Allah, he has awakened in good health.”

Then he took the hand of al-ʿAbbās b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib and said, “Do you not see? By Allah, three days from now you will be a follower, compelled to obey others. By Allah, I can see that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ will die in this very illness of his, and I recognize death in the faces of the sons of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib. So go in to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and ask him in whose hands this authority will rest. If it is to be among us, we shall know; and if it is to be with someone else, then you can advise him so that he may commend us to his care.”

ʿAlī added, “By Allah, if we ask the Messenger of Allah ﷺ for it and he refuses it to us, the people will never grant it to us afterwards. By Allah, I will not ask the Messenger of Allah ﷺ about it.”

Al-Bukhārī also recorded this report, through Aḥmad b. Ṣāliḥ, from Ibn Wahb.