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

`Alí said: "I adjure you by Alláh, did you hear the Messenger of Alláh say: ‘Of whomsoever I am master (mawlá), `Alí 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 Amír al-Mu’minín, I have become old and have forgotten."

He said: "O Allah, if he is lying, strike him with a good (<asan) 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 ‘gharíb’ <adíth of ^al<a, the lengthy version of which is only reported by Mis`ar; Ibn `Áishah has reported the like of it from Ismá`íl. Al-Ajla< and Háni' b. Ayyúb have reported it from ^al<a in brief.

[1] Al-Amíní said: The word ‘<asan’ 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?