Amr bin Maymun reported,

I was sitting with Ibn Abbas when nine men came to him and said, "Abu Abbas, either you get up and come with us, or these people leave us alone with you."Ibn Abbas said, "No, I will get up and come with you."At that time he was still sound of sight, before he went blind. They began talking among themselves, and we could not make out what they said. Then he came back shaking out his garment and saying, "Ugh! Shame on them! They have slandered a man who has ten distinctions. They have slandered a man to whom the Prophet ﷺ said, 'I shall surely send out a man whom Allah will never disgrace, one who loves Allah and His Messenger.'"Those who hoped for the honor craned their necks toward it, but the Prophet asked, "Where is Ali?"They said, "He is at the mill, grinding."He said, "Could not one of you have done the grinding?"So Ali came, his eyes inflamed so that he could hardly see. The Prophet breathed into his eyes, then shook the banner three times and handed it to him. And Ali came back with Safiya bint Huyayy.Ibn Abbas continued, "Then he sent so and so with Surah Tawbah, but he sent Ali after him and took it from him, saying, 'No one shall carry it but a man who is from me and I am from him.'"He also said to his cousins, "Which of you will stand by me in this world and in the next?" Ali was sitting there with him. They all refused, but Ali said, "I will stand by you in this world and the next."The Prophet said, "You are my ally in this world and in the next."So he left him and turned to another of them and asked, "Which of you will stand by me in this world and in the next?" They refused, and again Ali said, "I will stand by you in this world and the next."He said, "You are my ally in this world and in the next."And Ali was the first of the people to accept Islam after Khadijah.The Messenger of Allah ﷺ took his garment and placed it over Ali, Fatimah, Hasan, and Husayn, and said, "Allah only wishes to remove impurity from you, people of the household, and to purify you completely" [Ahzab 33:33].Ali also sold his own life. He put on the Prophet's ﷺ garment and slept in his place. The idolaters used to pelt the Messenger of Allah ﷺ with stones. Abu Bakr came while Ali was lying there, and Abu Bakr thought he was the Prophet of Allah, so he said, "Prophet of Allah."Ali said to him, "The Prophet of Allah ﷺ has gone off toward the well of Maymun. Catch up with him."So Abu Bakr went and entered the cave with him. Meanwhile Ali was being pelted with stones just as the Prophet of Allah had been, and he writhed in pain, though he kept his head wrapped in the garment and would not uncover it until morning. Then he uncovered his head and they said, "You are a contemptible fellow. We used to pelt your companion and he never writhed, but you writhe. We find that strange of you."Then the Prophet set out with the people for the expedition to Tabuk, and Ali said to him, "Shall I go out with you?"The Prophet of Allah said, "No."Ali wept, so he said to him, "Are you not content to stand to me as Harun stood to Musa, except that you are not a prophet? It is not right for me to depart unless you are my deputy."And the Messenger of Allah said to him, "You are my ally over every believer after me."He also said, "Close up the doors of the masjid, all but Ali's door." Ali would pass through the masjid even when ritually impure, for that was his only way in, he had no other route.And the Prophet said, "Whoever's protector I am, Ali is his protector."Ibn Abbas went on, "Allah has informed us in the Quran that He was well pleased with them, with the companions of the tree, and He knew what was in their hearts. Has He told us anywhere that He later became angry with them?"And he said, "The Prophet of Allah ﷺ said to Umar, when Umar said, 'Give me leave to strike off his neck,' 'Would you really do that? And how do you know? Perhaps Allah has looked upon the people of Badr and said, "Do as you wish."'"

حدثنا أبو مالك كثير بن يحيى قال حدثنا أبو عوانة عن أبي بلج عن عمرو بن ميمون عن ابن عباس نحوه