Talha (1). This is further evidence that the hadith is not authentic.
It also contains the statement attributed to Abbas: “If I wished, I could spend the night (2) in the Mosque.” Yet what is so remarkable about spending the night in the Mosque that he should boast of it?
It also contains the statement attributed to Ali: “I prayed six months before everyone else.” This is self-evidently false, for there was only a day or so between his acceptance of Islam and the acceptance of Islam (3) by Zayd, Abū Bakr, and Khadīja. How, then, could he have prayed six months before everyone else?
Moreover, he would not say, “I am the one who wages jihad,” when a very large number of people participated in it alongside him. *) (4)
As for the hadith, the response is that the hadith narrated by Muslim in his Sahīh (5) reads as follows: Al-Nu‘mān ibn Bashīr said: “I was beside the pulpit of the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—when a man said, ‘I would not mind performing no deed after embracing Islam other than providing water for the pilgrims.’ Another said, ‘I would not mind performing no deed after embracing Islam (6) other than maintaining
(1) All manuscripts read: “Shayba ibn Uthmān ibn Talha.” The correction to “Shayba ibn Uthmān ibn Abī Talha” is based on *al-Isāba* and *al-Isti'āb*. See Ibn Hajar, *al-Isāba*, 2/157. Ibn Sa'd narrated from Hawdha, from Awf, from a man of Medina, who said: “The Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him and his family—summoned Shayba ibn Uthmān and gave him the key to the Kaaba, saying, ‘Take this; you are Allah’s trustee over His House.’” Mus'ab al-Zubayrī said: “He entrusted it to him and to Uthmān ibn Abī Talha, saying, ‘Keep it, O sons of Talha, forever as a hereditary trust; none but an oppressor will take it from you.’” Al-Wāqidī stated that the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—gave it to Uthmān on the Day of the Conquest. Uthmān remained custodian until his death, after which Shayba assumed the office, and it remained among his descendants. See *al-Isti'āb*, printed in the margin of *al-Isāba*, 2/155–157.
(2) (ن), (م), and (ر): *labittu*.
(3) (ر), (ح), and (ي): “and between the acceptance of Islam by.”
(4) The text between the two asterisks is absent from (و).
(5) 3/1499, Book of Governance, chapter “The Merit of Martyrdom in the Cause of Allah Most High.”
(6) “Perform any deed after embracing Islam”: this is the wording in Muslim. In (ب): “perform a deed in Islam.” All other manuscripts read: *a'malu fī al-Islām* (“I perform deeds in Islam”).