I saw `Ali on the pulpit adjuring the companions of the Messenger of Allah, blessings and salutations of Allah on him, among them Abu Sa`id, Abu Hurayrah and Anas b. Malik, while they were around the pulpit. `Ali was on the pulpit and around it were twelve men and they were among them.

`Ali said: "I adjure you by Allah, did you hear the Messenger of Allah say: ‘Of whomsoever I am master (mawla), `Ali is his master?’" All of them stood up and said: "Yes indeed." One man was sitting. He said: "What prevents you from rising?" He said: "O Amir al-Mu’minin, I have become old and have forgotten."

He said: "O Allah, if he is lying, strike him with a good (hasan) trial.[1].

He said: He did not die before we saw a white spot between his eyes that the turban could not conceal.

It is a ‘gharib’ hadith of Talha, the lengthy version of which is only reported by Mis`ar; Ibn `Aishah has reported the like of it from Isma`il. Al-Ajlah and Hani' b. Ayyub have reported it from Talha in brief.

[1] Al-Amini said: The word ‘hasan’ is an addition made by the narrators or the transcribers because the blindness or leprosy that afflicted the man who, as supported by the other narration (on the subject), was Anas, was a punishment on him due to his untruthful claim that he had forgotten due to old age. It was not a good trial. How could it be so when it was intended to be a humiliation and he was accustomed to doing that?