Aban says that he heard Sulaym ibn Qays saying: “I heard from Abdul Rahman ibn Ganam al-Azdi-Ath-Thimali, who was the father in law of Ma’az ibn Jabal, and who was the most learned in jurisprudence in Shaam and his ljtihad was also great. He said: “Ma’az ibn Jabal died as a result of plague. I was present when he died and people were suffering from plague. When he was nearing his death there was no one except myself in the house, and this happened during the time of Umar ibn Khattab. I heard him (Ma’az) saying: “May I be doomed, may I be doomed, may I be doomed.” I thought to myself that people suffering from plague are delirious and say strange things. I asked him: “Are you delirious? May Allah have mercy on you.” He replied: “No”
I asked: “Why are you praying for bad things?” He replied: “Because I befriended God’s enemy who was the enemy of God’s friend.”
I asked him: “Who is he?“ He replied: “I befriended God’s enemies Atiq and Umar who were in opposition to the caliph of the Holy Prophet (SAW) and his successor, Ali ibn Abi Talib.”
I told him: “You are delirious.” He said: “O ibn Ganam, By God, I am not delirious. These are the Holy Prophet (SAW) and Ali ibn Abi Talib. They are both saying “O Ma’az ibn Jabal, good tidings of Hell be to you and your those companions who said ‘If the Holy Prophet passed away or got killed, then we will remove the caliphate from Ali, so he can never reach there. There were you, Atiq, Umar, Abu Ubaydah and Saalim.’
So I asked: “O Ma’az when did this happen?” He replied: “On the final pilgrimage. We said that we would defear Ali in such a manner that until we are alive Ali will not get caliphate. So when the Holy Prophet (SAW) passed away, I told the people I am sufficient for your work for my community, the Ansar, and you become sufficient for Quraysh. Then during the time of the Holy Prophet (SAW) we called Bashir ibn Sa’eed and Usaayd ibn Huzayr for the agreement we had made. The two paid allegiance to me on this matter.”
I asked: “O Ma’az are you delirious?” He replied: “Keep my cheeks on the earth.” He continued praying for his doom and destruction until he died.”
Sulaym said: “Ibn Ganam told me: “I have never told this to anyone before you, By God, except two people, because I was frightened of what I heard from Ma’az. I performed Hajj and met the man who arranged burial of Ubaydah ibn Jarra, and Saalim Mawla Abi Huzayfah.” I asked: “Did not Saalim get killed on the Day of Yamama?” He (ibn Ganam) replied: “Yes but we lifted him when there was a little life left in him.” He continued: “Both of them told me the same thing. No more, no less, both said the same thing that Ma’az had said.”
Abban says that Sulaym said: “I told Muhammad ibn Abu Bakr what ibn Ganam had told me. He said: “Keep this secret and I bear witness that my father also said what these people said at the time of his death, so Ayeshah said: “My Father is delirious.”
Muhammad said: “I met Abdullah ibn Umar during the caliphate of Uthman. I told him what my father had said at the time of his death and I took a promise from him that he keeps this a secret. Ibn Umar told me: “Keep my secret. By God, my father also said what your father said – no more nor less.” Then Abdullah ibn Umar twisted and was frightened that I might say this to Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS) because he knew that I love Ali and visit him. He said: “My father was also delirious.”
I went to Amirul Mumineen (AS) and told him what I had heard from my father and what ibn Umar had told me having heard from his father. Amirul Mumineed (AS) said: “I have been told this by him who is more truthful than you and ibn Umar concerning his father, your father, Abu Ubeydah, Saalim and Ma’az.” So I asked: “Who is that person, O Amirul Mumineen?” He replied: “Some people who narrated to me.” I understood whom he meant so I said: “O Amirul Mumineen, you have said truth. I thought some human being might have told you although when my father was saying that, nobody except myself was present there.”
Sulaym said: “I asked Abdul Rahman ibn Ganam that Ma’az died of plague, how did Abu Ubeydah ibn Jarra die?” He replied: “A minor type of plague.”
Sulaym continued: “I met Muhammad ibn Abu Bakr and asked him: “Were you present at the time of your fathers death? Were your brother Abdul
Rahman, Ayeshah and Umar not present?” He replied: “No” I asked: “Did they also all hear what you heard?” He replied: “They heard a little bit and started crying and said he was delirious but they did not hear as much as I heard.”
I asked: “What did they hear from him?” He replied: “He prayed for his doom and destruction, so Umar told him ‘O caliph of the Holy Prophet (SAW) what has happened to you that you are praying for doom and destruction?’ He replied: “These are Muhammad and Ali who are infoming me about Hell and he had that paper on which we had agreed in the Ka’abah, and the Holy Prophet is saying: “You have been faithful to the agreement and you and your companions over powered the Trustee of Allah. So good tidings be to you of Hell in its deepest level.” So when Umar heard it he went out saying: “He is delirious.” Abu Bakr said: “By God, I am not delirious, where are you going?” Umar replied: “You are the second one of the two when you both were in the cave.” Abu Bakr said: “Even now? Did I not mention to you that Muhammad (and he did not say Messenger of Allah) told me when I was with him in the cave: ‘I can see the boat of Ja’afer and his companions sailing in the sea.’ I requested: ‘Make me see it.’ He put his hand on my face and I saw the boat. I became definite at that time that he was a magician, so I informed you of this at that time in Medina. You and I both agreed that he is a magician.”
Umar said: “O people your father is delirious. Keep this a secret and also keep secret what you are hearing from him so that Ahlulbayt do not belittle you.” Then he went away so that they could perform abultion for prayer, so he told me such things that they did not hear.”
When I was left alone with him I told him: “O father, say LA ILAHA ILLALLAH.” He said: “I will never say that nor do I have power to say it until I go to Hell and am made to enter the coffin.” When I remembered the coffin, I thought he was delirious, so I asked him “Which coffin?” He replied: “The coffin of fire which is locked by Fire in which there will be twelve people. Myself and my this companion.” I asked “Umar?” He said: “Yes, who else do I mean? And ten will be in the Well of Hell on which there will be a stone. When Allah wills that the Fire of Hell flares up, the stone will be lifted.” I asked him: “Are you delirious?” He said: “By God, I am not delirious. May Allah curse ibn Sahhak (Umar). He is the one who stopped me from the dhikr when I had understood it. He is a very bad companion. May Allah curse him. Put my cheeks on the earth.” I made his cheeks touch the earth. He continuously prayed for his doom and destruction until I closed his eyes.
Then Umar came to me when I had already closed his eyes so he asked: “Did he say anything after I went away?” I told him what he said. Umar said: “May Allah have mercy on the caliph of the Messenger of Allah. Keep it confidential because this is crazy and you are of that family in which to be delirious in illness is well known.” Ayeshah said: “You have said truth.” Everyone told me: “No one from your people should hear anything of this otherwise ibn Abi Talib and his Ahlulbayt will belittle you.”
Sulaym says he asked Muhammad: “What is your opinion as to who told Amirul Mumineed what these six people said?” Muhammad replied: “The Holy Prophet (SAW) because he (Ali AS) sees him (SAW) in his dreams every night and his mentioning to him in dreams is the same as if he told him during his lifetime and while he was awake because the Holy Prophet (SAW) has said: ‘Whoever sees me in dreams, he has seen me myself because Shaytan, be it in sleep or awake, cannot come in my or my successor’s disguise until the Day of Judgment.”
Sulaym says: “I asked Muhammad: “Who mentioned this hadith to you?” He replied: “Ali (AS)” So I said: “I have also heard the way you heard it.”
Sulaym says: “I asked Muhammad: “Is it possible that an angel from angels has told him?” He asked: “Is it possible?” I enquired: “Do angels talk to others apart from Prophets?” He said: “Do not you recite Quran? ‘We did not send before you any apostale or a prophet, but when he desired, the Shaytan made a suggestion respecting his desire,’ (Surah Hajj: 52)
So I said to him: “Do angels speak to Amirul Mumineen (AS)?” He said: “Yes, and Fatimah (AS) was also Muhadithah (the one with whom angles talk) although she was not a prophet. Maryam was a Muhadithah but not a prophet and the mother of Musa (AS) was not a prophet but was a Muhadithah and Sarah the wife of Ibrahim (AS) saw angels, so angels gave her good tidings of Ishaq and after him Yaqoob, though she was not a prophet.”
Sulaym says: “When Muhammad ibn Abu Bakr was martyred in Egypt and when the news of his death reached, I gave my condolences for his death to Amirul Mumineen and talked to him alone and told him what Muhammad had told me, and also told him what Abdul Rahman ibn Ganam had informed me. He said: “Muhammad said truth. May Allah have mercy on him. He is a martyr and is alive and is getting subsistence. O Sulaym, my eleven successors who will be from my children are such Imams who are guides and are guided and are all Muhadith.”
I asked: “O Amirul Mumineen, who are they all?” He replied: “My this son Hasan, after him my this son Husayn, then my this son (and he held the hand of his grandson, Ali Ibnul Husayn, who was still an infant), then eight from his children, one after another, and these are those people about whom Allah has sworn and said: ‘And (the mystic ties) Of Parent and Child’ (Surah Balad: 3)
Here walid is the Holy Prophet (SAW) and myself and wa ma walad means these eleven successors, Slawatullah Alay him.”
I asked: “O Amirul Mumineen, can two Imams be present at the same time?” He said: “Yes, but one will keep silent and will not say anything util the first one passes away.”
This is what Aban has written with his own hands through Sulaym’s tongue.
‘Surely the community and that Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Talhah, Zubayr, Anaas, Sa’ad, Abdul Rahman ibn Awf – these people at the time of their death bore witness against their own selves that they have died in the manner that their ancestors died during the time of infidelity.’