Ibn Abī Ḥaythama relates from ʿAbd al-Razzāq, who said: "Once, when there was no one else present, I was standing before Maʿmar and he smiled at me. I asked him:
- What is it? He replied:
- I am astonished at the people of Kufa. It is as if the city of Kufa was founded upon the love of ʿAlī. Of all those I have spoken to among them, even the most moderate prefer ʿAlī over Abū Bakr and ʿUmar. One of them is Sufyān al-Thawrī."
- Did you see Sufyān al-Thawrī? (I asked this as if seeing him was a great event.)
- That is nothing: If someone were to say to me, "In my view, ʿAlī is superior to Abū Bakr and ʿUmar," I would not blame him. If he were to enumerate the virtues of Abū Bakr and ʿUmar and then say that ʿAlī is superior to them, I would not find it strange. If someone were to say, "In my view, ʿUmar is superior to Abū Bakr and ʿAlī," I would not rebuke him either."
ʿAbd al-Razzāq said: While we were sitting in a desolate place, I related this to Wakīʿ b. al-Jarrāḥ. He was astonished at my words, questioned how Sufyān could have said such a thing, and laughed. Then he said: "Sufyān would not go so far, but perhaps he explained things to Maʿmar that he did not explain to us."
I used to say to Sufyān: "O Abū ʿAbdillāh! What do you say if we prefer ʿAlī over Abū Bakr and ʿUmar?" Sufyān would remain silent for a while and then say: I fear that this would be to speak ill of Abū Bakr and ʿUmar. Therefore, we remain silent on this matter and say nothing."
ʿAbd al-Razzāq said: As for Ibn Tawmi, that is, Maʿmar, he said: I heard my father say: "The superiority of ʿAlī, son of Abū Ṭālib, is established by a hundred virtues. Moreover, he shares in their virtues as well. But I love ʿUthmān more than ʿAlī."
There is confusion in these statements. Perhaps Maʿmar mixed them up. For, according to the well-known reports transmitted from some of the people of Kufa, they considered ʿAlī superior to ʿUthmān, but never superior to Abū Bakr and ʿUmar. Only the most foolish would not know the superiority of Abū Bakr and ʿUmar over the other Companions (ṣaḥāba). How could the leading imams not know this? Indeed, many scholars such as Ayyūb and al-Dāraquṭnī have said: "Whoever prefers ʿAlī over ʿUthmān has belittled the Muhājirūn and the Anṣār." These are correct, sound, and fine statements.
Yaʿqūb b. Abī Sufyān relates from Abū Ṣāliḥ al-Ḥanafī, who said:
"I saw ʿAlī, son of Abū Ṭālib, take the Qur'an and place it on his head, so that I could hear the rustling of the pages of the muṣḥaf. Then ʿAlī said:
"O Allah, these people have prevented me from implementing the rulings of the muṣḥaf among the community. So grant me the reward of what is in this muṣḥaf. O Allah, I have wearied them, and they have wearied me. I have become angry with them, and they have become angry with me, and they have driven me beyond my character and nature. They have brought forth in me a character that is not my own. O Allah, bring me together with people better than them, and bring upon them someone worse than me. O Allah, dissolve their hearts as salt dissolves in water and destroy them." ʿAlī uttered these words concerning the people of Kufa.
Ibn Abī al-Dunyā relates that ʿAlī said: "This night, I saw the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) in a dream. I said to him:
- O Messenger of God, what is this crookedness and enmity I have seen from your community?
- Pray against them.
- O Allah, bring me together with people better than them, and bring upon them someone worse than me." On the day he saw this dream, ʿAlī left his house, and Ibn Muljam killed him." In his work "Kitāb al-Qadar," Abū Dāwūd relates: "During the war with the Khārijites, ʿAlī's companions would guard him every night in groups of ten. These guards would keep watch in the mosque at night, armed. When ʿAlī saw them, he asked:
- Why are you sitting here?
- We are keeping watch and protecting you.
- Are you protecting me from the inhabitants of heaven? What happens on earth is first decreed in heaven. Over me is a firm shield from Allah. Every person has a guardian angel. When an animal or anything else wants to attack that person, the angel says: "Beware, beware." But when fate (qadar) arrives, the guardian angel departs from that person. (In another narration, ʿAlī said: Every person has two angels protecting him. When fate arrives, those guardian angels leave him.) A servant cannot taste the sweetness of iman (faith) until he knows with certainty that whatever is to befall him will surely befall him, and that he will not encounter anything not written in his fate."
Every night, ʿAlī would enter the mosque and pray there. On the night he was to be killed, he was somewhat distressed and unwell. He gathered his family and spoke with them. As he went to the mosque at dawn, geese cried out in his face. The people tried to silence them. ʿAlī said: "Leave them; they are mourning for me." When he entered the mosque, Ibn Muljam struck him, and the events previously described took place. The people asked:
- O Commander of the Faithful! Shall we kill all the members of the Murād tribe?
- No, only imprison Ibn Muljam and treat him well while he is detained. If I die, then kill him. If I live, then there is retaliation for wounds."
Upon this event, ʿAlī's daughter Umm Kulthūm began to say: "Alas for the dawn prayer! My husband, the Commander of the Faithful ʿUmar, was killed at the dawn prayer, and my father, the Commander of the Faithful ʿAlī, was struck at the dawn prayer!"
When he was struck, they asked ʿAlī:
- Will you not appoint a successor after you?
- No. I leave you without a successor, just as the Messenger of God left you without a successor. If Allah wills good for you, He will unite you to choose the best among you as caliph, just as you united to choose the best among you after the Messenger of God."
This was, in the last moments of his life, ʿAlī's acknowledgment of the virtue and superiority of Abū Bakr.
It is established by tawātur (mass transmission) that ʿAlī, during his caliphate in Kufa, delivered a sermon in the governor's palace, saying:
"O people! After the prophets, the best of this community is Abū Bakr, then ʿUmar. If I wished to name the third, I would do so."
It is reported that as ʿAlī descended from the pulpit after delivering this sermon, he said: "After ʿUmar, the best of this community is ʿUthmān, and again, ʿUthmān."
When ʿAlī died, his family washed and buried him. His son Ḥasan led the funeral prayer and pronounced four takbīrs. In another narration, more than four takbīrs were pronounced. ʿAlī was buried in Dār al-Ḥufāfāʾ in Kufa. In another narration, he was buried in a room in the house of ʿĀlī Jaʿda b. Hubayra, which is in line with Bāb al-Warrāqīn, at the qibla of the mosque of Kufa. Another narration states that ʿAlī was buried outside Kufa. There are also reports that he was buried in Kunāsa or in the desert.
Sharīk al-Qāḍī and Abū Nuʿaym Faḍl b. Dukayn said: "After making peace with Muʿāwiya, Ḥasan, the son of ʿAlī, transferred his blessed body from Kufa to Medina and buried it in al-Baqīʿ cemetery, next to the grave of Fāṭima, the daughter of the Messenger of God."
ʿĪsā b. Dāb said: "They placed the blessed body of ʿAlī in a coffin and loaded it onto a camel. As they were transporting it from the land of the Ṭayy tribe, they lost the camel carrying the coffin. The Ṭayy tribe, thinking there was property in the coffin, seized it. When they opened it and found a body inside, they buried it in their land, and the location of the grave has remained unknown until now."
According to the well-known report, as related by ʿAbd al-Malik b. ʿImrān, the grave of ʿAlī is still in Kufa. Also, according to ʿAbd al-Malik b. ʿImrān, during the caliphate of Hishām, the Umayyad governor Khālid b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Qasrī demolished some houses to build new buildings, and in one of the demolished houses he found a grave. When he opened it, he saw a body with white hair and beard and realized it was ʿAlī's. He wanted to burn it, but the people said: "O governor! The Umayyads do not want you to commit all these evils; why do you do this?" So he wrapped ʿAlī's body in a cloth and reburied it there. It is said that until ʿAlī's body was moved elsewhere, no one lived in the house where his grave was. Ibn ʿAsākir has reported such a narration.
Then Ḥasan, the son of ʿAlī, brought ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Muljam out of prison and brought him to him. People brought wood and naphtha to burn him. The children of ʿAlī said: "Let us take our revenge on him." So his hands and feet were cut off, yet he never showed impatience. Even in this state, he did not cease to perform dhikr (remembrance of God). His eyes were pierced, yet he continued to perform dhikr and recited Sūrat al-ʿAlaq from beginning to end, with tears streaming down his cheeks. Then they wanted to cut out his tongue. Only then did he begin to moan and show impatience. When asked the reason, he replied: "I fear to remain idle for even a moment in this world without performing dhikr of Allah." While saying this, he was killed and burned with fire. May Allah destroy him.
Muḥammad b. Saʿd said: "Ibn Muljam was a dark-skinned, handsome man with a radiant left side, and his hair reached his earlobes. There was a mark of prostration on his forehead."
The scholars said: They did not wait for ʿAlī's son ʿAbbās to reach puberty before killing Ibn Muljam, for he was a child on the day his father was killed.
They said: They did not wait for ʿAbbās to reach puberty, because Ibn Muljam was killed not in retaliation (qiṣāṣ) but as a war criminal. Allah knows best.
ʿAlī was struck on Friday, the seventeenth day of Ramadan in the fortieth year of the Hijra. There is no disagreement about this. Some say he died on the day he was struck, while others say he died on Sunday, the nineteenth of Ramadan.
Fallas said: ʿAlī was struck on the twenty-first night of Ramadan and died on the twenty-fourth night. He was fifty-some or fifty-eight years old at his death. Some say he died at sixty-three. This is the well-known report. Muḥammad b. al-Ḥanafiyya, Abū Jaʿfar al-Bāqir, Abū Isḥāq al-Sabīʿ, and Abū Bakr b. Iyās hold this view. Others say he died at sixty-four or sixty-three. Abū Jaʿfar al-Bāqir said he died at sixty-five.
ʿAlī's caliphate lasted four years and nine months. Some say it lasted four years, eight months, and twenty-three days. May Allah be pleased with him.
Jarīr relates from Mughīra, who said: "Muʿāwiya, while sleeping with his wife Fāḥita bint Qurṭa on a summer day, received news of ʿAlī's death. He got up from his bed and said: 'Indeed we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we will return.' (inna lillāhi wa inna ilayhi rājiʿūn). He began to weep. His wife Fāḥita said to him:
- Look at you! Yesterday you were fighting ʿAlī, and today you weep for his death.
- Woe to you! I weep for the loss of ʿAlī's forbearance, knowledge, virtue, his precedence in Islam, and his goodness."
In his book "The Stratagems of Satan," Ibn Abī al-Dunyā said: "One of Muʿāwiya's commanders from Syria became angry with his son one night and expelled him from the house. The son left but did not know where to go, so he sat at the door. After a while, he slept and, upon waking, saw a wild black cat scratching at the doors, and when the house cats came to the door, the wild cat said to the one inside:
- Woe to you, open the door.
- I cannot.
- Woe to you! Bring me something to eat. I am hungry and tired, just arrived from Kufa. Tonight a great event occurred there. ʿAlī, son of Abū Ṭālib, was killed.
- By Allah, everything in the house has been named with the basmala in Allah's name by my masters. Only a skewer on which meat is cooked remains. The owner cooks meat on that skewer.
- Bring me that skewer.
The house cat brought the skewer to the wild cat at the door. The wild cat licked the skewer, satisfied its need, and left. The son, sitting at the door, saw this scene and heard the conversation between the cats. He got up and knocked on the door. His father came and asked:
- Who is it? The son replied:
- Open the door.
- Woe to you! What is the matter?
- Open the door.
The father opened the door, the son entered, and told his father what he had seen. The father said:
- Woe to you! Was this a dream?
- No, by Allah.
- Woe to you! Have you gone mad after me?
- No, by Allah. It is exactly as I told you. Now go to Muʿāwiya and tell him what I have told you, and preserve my words."
The father left the house and went to Muʿāwiya's palace. He asked for permission to enter, was granted it, and told Muʿāwiya what his son had related. They recorded the date and waited for the post to arrive. When the post came, they found that events had occurred as described." Abū al-Qāsim, ʿAmr b. Asamm, relates:
"I said to Ḥusayn, the son of ʿAlī:
- The Shīʿa claim that ʿAlī will return to this world before the Day of Resurrection.
- They lie. They are not truly his followers. If we knew that he would return before the Day of Resurrection, we would not have married off his wives to others, nor divided his property."