“O people, I am your wali.” They said, “You have spoken the truth, O Messenger of Allah.” He then took Ali’s hand and raised it, saying: “This is my wali; he will discharge my debt on my behalf. I am the ally of whoever allies himself with him, and the enemy of whoever is hostile to him.”

Al-Nasa'i recorded it in The Characteristics of Ali (p. 3), as did al-Bazzar in his Musnad (p. 266). He said: “We know of no narration from Aishah bint Sa'd from her father except through this route, and we know of nothing that al-Muhajir narrated from Aishah bint Sa'd from her father except this.”

I say: Its narrators are trustworthy, except that Musa ibn Ya'qub, al-Zumai, had poor retention, as al-Hafiz stated in al-Taqrib.

I say: When this is combined with the preceding report, the hadith rises, by virtue of them both, to the rank of good, if Allah Most High wills.

Note: None of these routes specifies the place where he, peace and blessings be upon him, uttered this hadith, except for what is found in Sa'd’s hadith—that it was “on the day of al-Juhfah”—and in one narration recorded by Ibn Asakir (12/150/2), through Jubayr ibn Harun: Muhammad ibn Humayd informed us; Hakkam informed us, from Anbasah, from Abu Ishaq, from Habashi, with his previously mentioned hadith, adding at its end: “He said this during the Farewell Pilgrimage.”

I say: This is a rejected addition, since this route alone reports it, to the exclusion of the preceding routes from Abu Ishaq. It contains Muhammad ibn Humayd, al-Razi, who is weak because of his poor retention. As for Jubayr ibn Harun, I have found no biographical notice for him. Nor do I consider it unlikely that this addition resulted from al-Razi’s poor retention, for in the previously cited narration of Isra'il recorded by Ahmad there is another addition worded: