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Companions · Fourth caliph · Gate of the city of knowledge

علي بن أبي طالب

Ali ibn Abi Talib

Raised in the Prophet's ﷺ house, slept in his bed on the night of the knives, carried the banner at Khaybar.

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The account

Ali ibn Abi Talib grew up in the household of the Prophet ﷺ and believed as a boy, among the very first. On the night of the Hijrah he lay in the Prophet's bed under the green cloak while the swordsmen watched the door, then stayed behind to return Makkah's deposits: the assassins' own valuables, held in trust by the man they wanted dead. He fought at Badr and Uhud, and at Khaybar the Prophet said: "Tomorrow I will give the banner to a man who loves Allah and His Messenger, and whom Allah and His Messenger love," then gave it to Ali. At Tabuk he heard the words that fixed his rank: "You are to me as Harun was to Musa, except that there is no prophet after me."

He married Fatimah; from them came al-Hasan and al-Husayn, the two masters of the youth of Jannah. His judgments made Umar seek him; his sermons trained the Arabic tongue. As fourth caliph he carried the community through its bitterest years, and was struck by a Kharijite's blade at Fajr in Kufa. Sunni and Shi'i memory both orbit him; the Codex records the love and the rank on which all agree.

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Tomorrow I will give the banner to a man who loves Allah and His Messenger, and whom Allah and His Messenger love.

Bukhari 3702 · Muslim 2407

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