Ali Ibn Abi Talib - Volume 1 of 2

294 'Ali ibn Abi Talib at the time of the Rightly Guided Caliphs
lips. Allah (@) supported Islam by means of his becoming Muslim,
and his migration was a support and help to the faith. Allah (s)
instilled fear of him in the hearts of the hypocrites and instilled love
for him in the hearts of the believers.
"'Who do yon know who is like them? May Allah have mercy
on them, and may AUah help us to follow their path. No one can
attain what they attained except by following in their footsteps and
loving them. So whoever loves me, let him love them; whoever does
not love them hates me, and I have nothing to do with him. Had I
already explained my position regarding them to you, I would have
given the harshest punishment for this, but I should not punish
anyone before explaining and warning. After today, if anyone is
brought to me who says this, I shall carry out on him the punishment
of the fabricator. Verily the best of this Ummah after its Prophet are
Abu Bakr and 'Umar, and if I wished, I could name the third one. 1
ask AUah for forgiveness for me and for
3.6.3. "This is 'UthmSn ibn 'Ali;
I named him after ' U M ibn 'Affgn"
It was narrated from Abu Sa'eed al-Khudri: "I saw a young,
prepubescent boy with braided hair down to his shoulders, and AUah
(s) knows that I had my doubts about him; I did not know whether
he was a boy or a girl. Then 1 passed by one who was even better than
him, who was sitting beside 'Ali (&). I said: 'May AUah bless you,
who is this young man beside you? He said: 'This is 'Uthmin ibn
'Ali. I named him after 'Uthmsn ihn '-, and I named another of
my sons after 'Umar ibn al-KhatJib, another after 'Abbis, the
paternal uncle of the Messenger of Allah (gJ, and another after the
best of creation Mu&nnmad. As for al-Hasan, al-Husayn and
~$sin"~, they were named by the Messenger of Allah (g), who
offered a sacrifice for them, shaved the hair on their headsza0 and