2 of 6 · Rabi' al-Awwal, 1 AH · 622 CE · Makkah
'Ali ibn Abi Talib رضي الله عنه
In the Prophet's Bed ﷺ
On the night the leaders of Quraysh surrounded the Prophet's house ﷺ, planning to strike him down together at dawn, the Prophet ﷺ asked 'Ali to lie in his bed wrapped in his green cloak. 'Ali, then a young man in his early twenties, lay down knowing that the swords outside were meant for whoever was in that bed.
The Prophet ﷺ slipped away to join Abu Bakr. At first light the attackers rushed in — and found 'Ali. They had lost their quarry, and they left him alone.
The Prophet ﷺ had also left 'Ali a trust: to return to the people of Makkah the valuables they had deposited with him, for even his enemies kept their belongings with al-Amin, the Trustworthy. 'Ali stayed in Makkah for days to hand back every one, then set out for Madinah and joined the Prophet ﷺ at Quba'.
Courage and honesty went together: the same night that 'Ali risked his life, he was entrusted with returning his enemies' property in full.
Do you keep faith with people even when they have treated you as an enemy?
- Ibn Hisham, al-Sirah al-NabawiyyahHistorical report
- Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal (from Ibn 'Abbas)Grade not recorded here
- Ibn Kathir, al-Bidayah wa al-NihayahHistorical report
What the hadith grades mean
- Sahih (authentic): an unbroken chain of trustworthy, precise narrators, free of hidden flaws or contradiction. It is acted upon.
- Hasan (good): like sahih, but a narrator's precision is slightly lighter. It is also accepted and acted upon. "Hasan sahih" means it reaches sahih by its routes.
- Da'if (weak): a break in the chain or a narrator who is not reliable enough. It is not used to establish beliefs or rulings.
- Very weak (munkar, matruk): a seriously flawed chain or a narrator accused of lying. It is not relied on at all.
- Mawdu' (fabricated): falsely attributed to the Prophet ﷺ. It may not be narrated as his words except to warn against it.
- The two Sahihs: every hadith with a full chain in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim is accepted as sahih by the scholars of hadith.
- Historical report: biographies and histories (Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabari) record events with chains that are often incomplete. They are used for the story, not for rulings.
- Hadith scholars grade a narration; the four madhhabs do not. Where a hadith carries a ruling, the page shows which schools act on it.
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