the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—for if he meant alliance, he would not have needed to say “after me”; and if he meant governance, he should have said, “a ruler over every believer.”

As for his statement to Alī, “You are of me, and I am of you,” it is authentic (1), though it occurs in a different hadith. It is established that “he said this to him during the year of the umrah stipulated by the treaty, when Alī, Jafar, and Zayd ibn Hāritha disputed over the custody of Hamza’s daughter. The Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—awarded custody of her to her maternal aunt, who was married to Jafar. He said, ‘A maternal aunt is like a mother.’ He said to Jafar, ‘You resemble me in appearance and character’; to Alī, ‘You are of me, and I am of you’; and to Zayd, ‘You are our brother and our freedman.’” (2)

In the two Sahīh collections, he is also reported to have said:

“When the Asharīs run out of provisions on a journey, or there is a shortage (3) in the provisions of their families (4) in Medina, they gather whatever they have into a single cloth and divide it equally among themselves. They are of me, and I am of them.” (5)

Thus, he said of the Asharīs, “They are of me, and I am of them,” just as he said to Alī, “You are of me (and I am of you)” (6). He also said of Julaybīb (7), “This man is of me, and I am of him” (8). It is therefore known that this expression does not signify the imamate, nor does it mean that the person to whom it was said was the best of the Companions.