Sulaym said: “I was told by Hadhrat Ali ibn Abu Talib (AS). He said: “I was going somewhere in Medina with the Holy Prophet (SAW). We came towards a garden. I said to the Holy Prophet: O Prophet of Allah, how beautiful this garden is! He said: “Yes, it is very beautiful and in Paradise there will be a more beautiful garden for you.”
“Then we reached towards another garden and I said: “O Prophet of Allah, how beautiful this garden is!” He said: “Yes, it is beautiful and in Paradise there is a garden more beautiful than this for you.” Until we came across seven gardens, I kept on saying how beautiful each garden was and his reply was that there was a better garden for me in Paradise.
When we left the road, he hugged me and then started crying and said: “May my father be sacrificed on him who is a lone martyr.” I asked: “O Prophet of Allah why are you crying?” He replied: “My community’s hearts are filled with jealousy and they will show the jealousy after my death. That will be enmity of Badr and Ohad.”
I asked: “Will my religion remain intact?” He replied: “Yes it will remain intact and O Ali there is good tiding for you because your life and death is with me – you are my brother, my successor, my chosen one, my vizier, my inheritor, and a messenger from me, the payer of my debts, the fulfiller of my promises, completer of me responsibilities, payer of my amanah (what has been deposited in trust), the warrior on my tradition, with those who break the allegiance from my Ummah, and warrior with those who are oppressors and with those that run away from religion. You have the same status with me that Haroon had with Musa and you have Haroon’s footsteps in front of you at the time when his community thought he was weak and wanted to kill him.
So you have patience over the oppression of Quraysh and do not let them over power you because you have the same position to me that Haroon had to Musa and those people who obeyed him. They (the oppressors) are like the people who obeyed the calf. Musa commanded Haroon when the latter was made the Caliph, that if people deviate and if he has helpers, he should fight, and if he does not get helpers then he should restrain his hands, save his blood and not create disunity among them,
O Ali, whenever Allah sent a Prophet some people believed him whole- heartedly, some accepted him half-heartedly. So Allah made those who accepted him half heartedly over power the ones who whole-heartedly accepted him, and they (the oppressors) killed them so that their reward is increased.
O Ali, whenever any community has opposed after the death of their Prophet, then the wrong doers have over powered those who are on truth and Allah decided that this community also has opposition and disunity. If He wanted, then He would unite them all on guidance until not even two people from His creation would quarrel in any of His matters, and those with lower status would not deny the status of those who are higher. If He wanted, He would send His Punishment sooner and withdraw His Bounties until the oppressors would be proven at fault and the truth would be known with whom it is, but He has made the world a place for action and hereafter a place to stay in forever.
“That He may reward those who do evil according to what they do and (that) He may reward those who do good with goodness.” (Surah Najm: 3)
So I said: “Thanks be to All for His blessings, and may patience be on His trials – my head is bowed down in front of all His matters and I am pleased with His decisions.”