Sayyiduna Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: In the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) there was a man whose devotion and effort in worship impressed us. We mentioned him by name to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), but the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not recognise him. We described his features, but he did not recognise him. While we were speaking about him, the man appeared before us. We said: "This is he." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "You have told me about a man on whose face there is a mark (or stamp) of Satan." The man came and stopped by them, and he did not give the greeting of peace. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to him: "I adjure you by Allah: when you came and stopped by this gathering, did you think to yourself that there is no one among these people more virtuous than you?" He replied: "By Allah, yes." Then the man went in and began to pray. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) asked: "Who will kill this man?" Sayyiduna Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "I will." Sayyiduna Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) went to him and found him standing in prayer. He thought: "Subhan Allah (Glory be to Allah)! Shall I kill a man who is praying, when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) has forbidden killing those who pray?" He came out. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) asked: "What did you do?" He said: "I disliked killing him because he was praying, and you have forbidden killing those who pray." Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "I will do it." He went in and found the man with his forehead placed on the ground (that is, in prostration). Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) thought: "Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) is more virtuous than me (if he did not kill him, neither will I)." Then he came out. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) asked: "What happened?" He said: "I found that he had placed his forehead (on the ground), so I disliked killing him." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) asked: "Who will kill him?" Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "I will." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "You will do it, if you reach him." The narrator says: Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) went in and found that the man had already left. Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) returned to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) asked: "What happened?" He said: "I did not find him." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Had this man been killed, not even two men of my Ummah would have differed; he would have been the first of them and the last." The narrator Musa says: I heard Muhammad bin Ka'b say: He is the one whom Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) killed, Dhu al-Thudayyah.
Abu Ya'la recorded it. Its chain contains a narrator, Musa bin Ubaydah, who is matruk (abandoned).
Al-Bazzar recorded it in abridged form, and its narrators have been declared reliable despite weakness in some of them. This narration also has another route, longer than this one, which will come in the chapter on trials (fitan).
Hadith Referenceمجمع الزوائد ومنبع الفوائد / كتاب قتال أهل البغي / 10402
Hadith Gradingمحدثین:إسنادہ صحیح
Hadith Takhrij«اخرجه البزار فى المسند (1851) اخرجه أبو يعلى فى المسند (3668 و 2215) ، أخرجه إتحاف الخيرة المهرة بزوائد المسانيد العشرة برقم: 3454/1»