Ibn ‘Abbas said...

Ibn ‘Abbas said: “The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, closed the doors of the mosque except the door of ‘Ali. So he (‘Ali) used to enter the mosque after having a seminal discharge before performing the purification bath. It (i.e. the mosque) was his pathway, and he had no other pathway except it .”[^2] Al-Hakim states: هذا حديث صحيح الإسناد This hadith has a sahih chain ^3 Imam al-Dhahabi (d.

748 H) agrees: صحيح Sahih ^4 If we accepted al-Hafiz’s understanding of the hadith , then there would be no value in it for ‘Ali. After all, if another Sahabi had fallen into a similar “predicament”, he would have been treated similarly “out of mercy”. Therefore, it would be an “ordinary” incident with no special significance to it. However, that theory lacks strength in many respects.

First, Ibn ‘Abbas, radhiyallahu ‘anhu , considered the hadith to be a “merit” of ‘Ali, in fact his “ exclusive merit”! This reveals very clearly that our Hafiz understood the reports very wrongly. Even though ‘Ali had only one door, that was NOT the reason he was allowed to open it. He certainly could have been ordered to relocate the door to the opposite side of his house; and he would have achieved that within hours. So, there was clearly a choice in the matter.

But, the Prophet deemed it unnecessary. In fact, it is obvious from Ibn ‘Abbas’ words that even if there had been many doors to the house of ‘Ali, he still would have been exempted from the closure order. After all, the Messenger purposely left open his door to highlight his “exclusive merit” over the rest of the Sahabah. Interestingly, Ibn ‘Umar also understood the incident as indicating a unique rank.

Al-Hafiz states: واخرج النسائي من طريق العلاء بن عرار بمهملات قال فقلت لابن عمر أخبرني عن علي وعثمان فذكر الحديث وفيه وأما علي فلا تسأل عنه أحدا وانظر إلى منزلته من رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم قد سد أبوابنا في المسجد وأقر بابه ورجاله رجال الصحيح الا العلاء وقد وثقه يحيى بن معين وغيره وهذه الأحاديث يقوي بعضها بعضا وكل طريق منها صالح للاحتجاج فضلا عن مجموعها And al-Nasai recorded through the route of al-‘Ala b.

‘Arar: “I said to Ibn ‘Umar: ‘Tell me about ‘Ali and ‘Uthman’.” Then he (al-Nasai) mentioned the hadith (as above), and added (that Ibn ‘Umar said), “As for ‘Ali, do not ask anyone about him. Just look at his status from the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him. He had closed our doors in the mosques and left his door open .” Its narrators are narrators of the Sahih except al-‘Ala, and Yahya b.