The Messenger of Allah...

The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him and his progeny, asked him: ‘I ask you in the Name of Allah if you have told yourself when you approached that there is nobody among us better than or superior to you?' The man answered: ‘Indeed, I have,' and he came in to say his prayers. The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him and his progeny, asked who would be willing to kill the man, and Abu Bakr said he would.

When Abu Bakr entered, he found the man engaged in saying his prayers; so, he wondered how he could kill a man who was saying his prayers. When the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) asked him what he did, he answered: ‘I hated to kill him while he was saying his prayers, and you yourself had ordered us not to kill those who pray.' The Prophet (pbuh) asked for a volunteer, and this time ‘Umar responded.

‘Umar entered and found the man prostrating and said to himself that Abu Bakr was better than him; therefore, he went out. When the Prophet (pbuh) asked him if he did what he had promised to do, he told him that he had found the man placing his forehead on the ground prostrating to God.

The Prophet (pbuh) once more asked: ‘Who can kill this man?' ‘Ali answered in the affirmative, and when he entered looking for him, he found out that he had already left; so, he went back to the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) and told him that the man had already left.

It was then that the Prophet (pbuh) said: ‘Had this man been killed, no couple among my nation would have disputed with one another.'" This incident has been recorded by al-Hafiz Muhammad ibn Müsa al-Shirazi in his book wherein he combines the tafasir of Y’aqüb ibn Hayyan, ‘Ali ibn Harb, al-Sadi, Mujahid, Qatadah, Waki’, and Ibn Jurayh.

Its authenticity is considered common knowledge by trustworthy traditionists such as Imam Shihabud-Din Ahmad, who is better known as Ibn ‘Abd Rabbih al-Andalusi, who quotes it at the conclusion of his chapter on those who follow their own inclinations in the first volume of his book Al-’Iqd al-Farid . At the conclusion of this incident as he narrates it, he says that the Prophet (pbuh) has said: "This is the first horn [of the devil] coming out in my nation.

Had you killed him, no two men would have disputed with each other.