When I came to the Messenger of Allah...

When I came to the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him and his progeny, and the letter was read for him, I noticed anger in his eyes; therefore, I pleaded to him by saying: ‘This is the place for those who seek refuge; you have sent me with a commander and ordered me to obey him, and I have done just that.' The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him and his progeny, said: ‘Do not ever plot against ‘Ali, for he is of me and I am of him, and he is your wali after me.'"[^4] Al-Nisa'i has quoted the following words of the Prophet (pbuh) verbatim on page 17 of his Al-Khasa'is al-’Alawiyyah : "O Buraydah!

Do not try to make me dislike ‘Ali, for ‘Ali is of me, and I am of him, and he is your wali after me." Jarir, too, quotes Buraydah's statement verbatim thus: "The Prophet's face became red with anger, and he said: ‘To whomsoever I have been mawla , ‘Ali is his mawla ;' therefore, I forgot my own anger against ‘Ali and said that I would never speak ill of ‘Ali again."[^5] Al-Tabrani, too, has quoted this hadith in detail.

Among what he narrates is that when Buraydah came from Yemen and entered the mosque, he found a crowd standing by the room of the Prophet (pbuh). Upon seeing him, they stood up to greet him and ask him what news he had brought them. He said: "Good news.

Allah has rendered victory upon the Muslims." They asked him: "Then what brought you here?" He answered: "An incident regarding a slave-girl whom ‘Ali chose as his share of the khums , and I have come here to inform the Prophet about it." They said: "Inform him of it, do inform him, so that he may change his heart about ‘Ali," while the Prophet, peace be upon him and his progeny, was standing overhearing their conversation from within.

He, thereupon, came out angrily and said: "What is the matter with those who bear grudge against ‘Ali? Whoever hates ‘Ali hates me, too, and whoever abandons ‘Ali abandons me. ‘Ali is of me and I am of him; he has been created of my own mould, and my own mould is Ibrahim's (Abraham's), and I am even superior to Ibrahim,[^6] one progeny descending from another, and Allah is all-Hearing, all-Knowing. O Buraydah!

Have you not come to know that ‘Ali's share is a lot more than the slave-girl he took, and that he is your wali after me?"[^7] - There is no doubt about the authenticity of this hadith, and its narrators are quite nUmarous, and they are all reliable.