Thus, his words, “I am the young man,” mean “the young man of the Arabs”; his words, “son of the young man,” mean Abraham, the Close Friend of Allah—may Allah’s blessings be upon him—as in His words:

“We heard a young man speaking of them, called Abraham.”

[Surah al-Anbiyā’: 60]

His words, “brother of the young man,” mean ‘Alī. This is also the meaning of Gabriel’s statement on the day of Badr, when he ascended to heaven rejoicing and saying:

“There is no sword but Dhū al-Fiqār, and no young man but ‘Alī.”

This hadith (1) is among the false and fabricated hadiths, by unanimous agreement of the hadith experts (2). Its falsity is also evident, quite apart from its chain of transmission, in several respects.

One is that the word “young man,” in the Book, the sunnah, and the Arabic language, is neither a term of praise nor a term of disparagement. Rather, it is like the term (3) “youth,” “middle-aged man,” “old man,” and the like. Those who said of Abraham, “We heard a young man speaking of them, called Abraham,” were disbelievers, and they did not intend thereby to praise him. A “young man” simply means a youth of tender years (4).