at the Companions and slandering them. May Allah deal with him as he deserves.

The hadith was also reported with a different wording through the chain of Muhammad ibn Jaʿfar al-Faydī, who said: Muhammad ibn Fuḍayl informed us, from al-Ajlaḥ, who said: Qays ibn Muslim and Abū Kulthūm informed us, from Ribʿī ibn Ḥirāsh, who said: I heard ʿAlī say, while he was in al-Madāʾin:

“Suhayl ibn ʿAmr came to the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—and said: ‘Some of our slaves have come out to you, but they have not embraced the religion out of devotion; so return them to us.’ Thereupon Abū Bakr and ʿUmar said: ‘He has spoken the truth, O Messenger of Allah!’ The Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—said: ‘You will not desist, O company of Quraysh, until Allah sends against you a man whose heart Allah has tested with faith. He will strike your necks while you flee from him as livestock flees in panic.’ Abū Bakr said: ‘Is it I, O Messenger of Allah?’ He replied: ‘No.’ Then ʿUmar said: ‘Is it I, O Messenger of Allah?’ He replied: ‘No; rather, it is the mender of the sandal.’ And ʿAlī had in his hand a sandal which he was repairing for the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him.”

It was recorded by al-Khaṭīb in al-Tārīkh (1/133–134 and 8/433), and by Ibn ʿAsākir (12/149/2).

I say: Its chain of transmission is good, if al-Faydī retained it accurately, for he has hadiths in which he was contradicted, as al-Ḥāfiẓ stated in al-Tahdhīb. He inclined to the view that he was not the man from whom al-Bukhārī narrated in his Ṣaḥīḥ, but rather al-Qawsī. For this reason, he did not declare him trustworthy in al-Taqrīb; instead, he described him as “acceptable”—that is, when corroborated. This indicates that he did not give weight to Ibn Ḥibbān’s inclusion of him among the trustworthy narrators. To the best of my knowledge, he has not been corroborated. And Allah knows best.

Then I found another chain from Ribʿī which strengthens it: Sharīk narrated it from Manṣūr, from him, from ʿAlī, who said: “Some men of Quraysh came to the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—and said: ‘O Muhammad, we are your neighbors and allies, and some of…”