explicitly designated ʿAlī, the Ansār would have had no right in the matter, and there would have been no doubt about that.
(Chapter) (1)
The Rāfidī (2) said:
“He also said as he lay dying: ‘If only my mother had never given birth to me! If only I (3) had been a piece of straw in a mud brick,’ even though they [had] (4) related that the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said: ‘No one on the verge of death dies without seeing his place in Paradise and the Fire’ (5).”
The response is that his saying this at the time of death is not known. Rather, it is undoubtedly false. What is authentically established from him is that when death approached him and ʿĀʾisha recited this line of poetry in his presence:
By your life, riches will not avail a man
when one day the death rattle comes and his breast grows tight.
He uncovered his face and said, “That is not so. Rather, say:
‘The throes of death bring the truth: that is what you sought to evade.’ [Surah Qāf: 19].”
(1) (Y) reads: “Chapter Eighteen”; the word “Chapter” is omitted from (N), (M), (R), and (H).
(2) In (K), p. 133 (M).
(3) (H) and (B) read: “If only I…”
(4) “Indeed” is not in (K).
(5) (K) reads: “or Hellfire.” I found no hadith with this wording, but I found one conveying the same meaning. Its text appears in *Sahīh al-Bukhārī*, 2/99–100 (Book of Funerals, Chapter: The Deceased Is Shown His Place Morning and Evening), narrated from Abd Allah ibn Umar—may Allah be pleased with them both—that the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said: “When one of you dies, his place is shown to him morning and evening. If he is among the people of Paradise, then his place will be among the people of Paradise; and if he is among the people of Hellfire, then his place will be among the people of Hellfire. He will then be told: ‘This is your place until Allah resurrects you on the Day of Resurrection.’” The hadith also appears in *Sahīh al-Bukhārī*, 4/117 (Book of the Beginning of Creation, Chapter: What Has Been Related Concerning the Description of Paradise and That It Has Already Been Created), and 8/107 (Book of Heart-Softening Narrations, Chapter: The Agonies of Death). It is also found in *Sahīh Muslim*, 4/2199 (Book of Paradise and the Description of Its Bliss and Its Inhabitants, Chapter: The Deceased Being Shown His Place in Paradise or Hellfire).