We were sitting waiting for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ when he came out to us from one of his wives' houses. We rose and walked with him, but his sandal strap broke, so Ali stayed behind to repair it. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ continued on, and we walked with him. Then he stopped to wait for Ali, and we stopped with him.He said, "Among you is one who will fight over the interpretation of this Quran, just as I fought over its revelation."We craned our necks, and among us were Abu Bakr and Umar.He said, "No, it is the one mending the sandal."So we went to give Ali the good news, but it was as though he had already heard it.
كنا جلوسا ننتظر رسول الله ﷺ، فخرج علينا من بعض بيوت نسائه، قال: فقمنا معه، فانقطعت نعله، فتخلف عليها علي يخصفها، فمضى رسول الله ﷺ، ومضينا معه، ثم قام ينتظره وقمنا معه فقال: إن منكم من يقاتل على تأويل هذا القرآن، كما قاتلت على تنزيله. فاستشرفنا وفينا أبو بكر وعمر فقال: لا، ولكنه خاصف النعل. قال: فجئنا نبشره، قال: وكأنه قد سمعه.
Reported by Ahmad (11773) — this is his wording — Nasai in Kubra (8488), Abu Yaala (1086), and Tahawi in his Mushkil (4058), and Ibn Hibban graded it sahih (6937), as did Hakim (3/122–123), all of them through routes from Ismail bin Raja Zubaydi, from his father (that is, Raja bin Rabia), who said, I heard Abu Saeed Khudri say, then he related it. Its chain of transmission is hasan because of Ismail's father, Raja bin Rabia Zubaydi, whose hadith is hasan. Whoever thought that Ismail bin Raja is the discredited Hisni is mistaken. Rather, he is Ismail bin Raja bin Rabia Zubaydi, Abu Ishaq Kufi, who is trustworthy, and was deemed trustworthy by Ibn Main, Abu Hatim, Nasai, and others.His statement, "Among you is one who will fight over the interpretation of the Quran," contains an allusion to the fighting against the Khawarij, who are the worst of Allah's creation, because they took verses that were revealed concerning the disbelievers and applied them to the believers, as Ibn Umar said. This first emerged in the time of Ali bin Abu Talib , who fought them at Nahrawan until he killed many of them. It is said there were six thousand of them, and it is also said the number ranged from eight thousand to ten thousand, and fewer than ten of them survived. In this the miracle of what the Prophet ﷺ had foretold before it happened became manifest.It is reported from Rubai bin Harrash, who said, Ali bin Abu Talib narrated to us at Rahaba, saying, On the day of Hudaybiya, some of the polytheists came out to us, among them Suhayl bin Amr and other leading men of the polytheists. They said, "O Messenger of Allah, some of our sons, brothers, and slaves have come out to you, and they have no understanding of religion. They only left out of flight from our wealth and property, so send them back to us. If they lack understanding of religion, we will teach them." The Prophet ﷺ said, "O assembly of Quraysh, you will surely stop, or Allah will send against you one who will strike your necks with the sword over religion, one whose heart Allah has tested for faith." They said, "Who is he, O Messenger of Allah?" Abu Bakr said to him, "Who is he, O Messenger of Allah?" And Umar said, "Who is he, O Messenger of Allah?" He said, "He is the mender of the sandal," for he had given Ali his sandal to mend. Then Ali turned to us and said, "The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, 'Whoever deliberately lies about me, let him take his seat in the Fire.'"Reported by Tirmidhi (3715), Nasai in Khasais Ali (31), and Tahawi in Sharh Mushkil (4053), all of them through the route of Sharik bin Abdullah Nakhai Qadi, from Mansur bin Mutamir, from Rubai bin Harrash, who said, then he related it. Sharik bin Abdullah Qadi is a disputed narrator, and error predominates in his hadith except where he is corroborated.