Only a disbeliever could deny the courage and bravery of Sayyidina Ali (may Allah be pleased with him). Allah the Exalted had also granted him excellent strength. He was undoubtedly the Lion of Allah.
A true hero has no need for any false virtue or merit, but people have always had the habit of spreading false stories about the figure they favour, which often do not enhance that figure’s character but instead plant a false image of them in people’s minds.
A story of exactly this kind is also circulated about Sayyidina Ali (may Allah be pleased with him). It is that he single-handedly lifted and threw away the Khaybar gate, which many people together could not lift. Besides being unproven and unreliable, this account also creates the notion that Sayyidina Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) was a supernatural being.
In this regard there are four narrations in total: three in the books of Ahl al-Sunnah and one in the books of the Rawafid. Let us now conduct a researched review of all of them in the light of the principles of the muhaddithin.
Narration No. ➊
Attributed to Sayyidina Abu Rafi’, the freed slave of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ:
خرجنا مع على حين بعثه رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم برأيته، فلما دنا من الحصن؛ خرج إليه أهله فقاتلهم، فضربه رجل من يهود، فطرح ترسه من يده، فتناول على بابا كان عند الحصن، فترس به نفسه، فلم يزل فى يده وهو يقاتل، حتٰي فتح الله عليه، ثم ألقاه من يده حين فرغ، فلقد رأيتني فى نفر معي سبعة؛ أنا ثامنهم، نجهد علٰي أن نقلب ذٰلك الباب، فما نقلبه .
“We set out with Sayyidina Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) (towards the fortress of Khaybar) when the Prophet ﷺ had sent him with the banner. When we reached near the fortress, its people came out to him and he fought them. A Jew struck him, and his shield fell from his hand. He took a door near the fortress and used it as a shield for himself. It remained in his hand while he fought, until Allah granted him victory. After finishing, he threw it from his hand. I saw myself among a group of seven men, I being the eighth, straining with all our effort to turn that door over, but we could not turn it.”
Commentary:
This chain is “da’if” (weak), because in it there are:
بعض أهله people who are “unnamed” and “unknown”.
Sharia does not permit us to take religion from unidentified persons.
◈ Hafiz al-Haythami (may Allah have mercy on him) says:
رواه أحمد، وفيه راو لم يسم .
“Imam Ahmad narrated it, and in it there is a narrator whose name has not been mentioned.”
In the chain of Dala’il al-Nubuwwah, the intermediary Abdullah ibn Hasan has been dropped, for which reason:
◈ Hafiz Ibn Kathir (may Allah have mercy on him) says:
وفي هٰذا الخبر جهالة وانقطاع ظاهر .
“In this narration there is ignorance (of narrators) and an evident break (in the chain).”
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Narration No. ➋
Attributed to Sayyidina Jabir ibn Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him):
إن عليا حمل الباب يوم خيبر، حتٰي صعد المسلمون ففتحوها، وإنه جرب، فلم يحمله؛ إلا أربعون رجلا .
“Sayyidina Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) lifted the gate of the fortress on the day of Khaybar, until the Muslims stormed in and conquered it. An experiment was carried out, and it became known that only forty strong men could lift that gate.”
Commentary:
Its chain is “da’if” (weak), because:
In it is Layth ibn Abi Sulaym, who is “da’if” (weak, with poor memory) according to the majority of muhaddithin.
◈ Hafiz al-Iraqi (may Allah have mercy on him) writes:
ضعفه الجمهور . “The majority of muhaddithin have declared him weak.”
◈ Hafiz al-Haythami (may Allah have mercy on him) says:
وضعفه الـأكثر . “Most muhaddithin have called him weak.”
◈ Hafiz Ibn al-Mulaqqin (may Allah have mercy on him) writes:
ضعيف عند الجمهور . “He is weak according to the majority of muhaddithin.”
◈ Hafiz al-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him) writes:
فضعفه الجماهير . “The majority of muhaddithin have declared him weak.”
◈ Hafiz al-Busiri (may Allah have mercy on him) says:
ضعفه الجمهور . “The majority of muhaddithin have called him weak.”
◈ Allama al-Sindhi (may Allah have mercy on him) writes:
وفي الزوائد ليث بن أبي سليم، ضعفه الجمهور .
“In the Zawa’id it is said that in it is Layth ibn Abi Sulaym, and the majority of muhaddithin have declared him weak.”
◈ Hafiz al-Suyuti (may Allah have mercy on him) writes:
فإن ليث بن أبي سليم متفق علٰي ضعفه .
“There is consensus among the muhaddithin on the weakness of Layth ibn Abi Sulaym.”
◈ Imam Yahya ibn Ma’in, Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Imam Abu Zur’ah al-Razi, Imam Abu Hatim al-Razi, Imam Amr ibn Ali al-Fallas, Imam al-Daraqutni, Imam al-Nasa’i, Imam Ibn ‘Adi, Imam Ibn Khuzaymah, Imam al-Tirmidhi, Imam Ibn Hibban, Imam al-Bazzar, Imam Ibn Sa’d (may Allah have mercy on them) and the majority of muhaddithin have declared him “da’if” (weak).
◈ Hafiz al-Nawawi writes:
اتفق العلماء علٰي ضعفه، واضطراب حديثه، واختلال ضبطه .
“There is consensus among the scholars on his weakness, the disturbance (idtirab) of his hadith, and the poor state of his memory.”
◈ Imam Muslim (may Allah have mercy on him) narrated from him only as a supporting narration (mutaba’ah), not as a primary narration (usul).
Therefore, due to his being “da’if” and “mukhtalit” (his memory having deteriorated), no objection arises against Sahih Muslim.
◈ Hafiz Ibn Hajar (may Allah have mercy on him) writes:
ما علمت أحدا صرح بأنه ثقة .
“To my knowledge, no one has explicitly stated that he is thiqah (reliable).”
◈ Hafiz al-Dhahabi (may Allah have mercy on him) declared this narration “munkar”.
◈ Ibn Kathir (may Allah have mercy on him) says:
وفيه ضعف أيضا . “There is also weakness in it.”
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Narration No. ➌
It is attributed to Sayyiduna Jabir bin Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) himself:
إن عليا لما انتهٰي إلى الحصن؛ اجتبذ أحد أبوابه، فألقاه بالـأرض، فاجتمع عليه بعده منا سبعون رجلا، فكان جهدهم أن أعادوا الباب .
“When Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) reached the fort, he uprooted one of its gates and threw it on the ground. After that, seventy men from among us gathered around it and, with great effort, managed to put the gate back in its place.”
Commentary:
Its chain is extremely “weak” (da’if), because:
Its narrator Haram bin Uthman is extremely “weak” (da’if) and discredited (majruh).
◈ Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal, Imam al-Bukhari, Imam Ya’qub bin Sufyan al-Fasawi, Imam al-Daraqutni, Imam Ibn Hibban, Imam Ibn Sa’d, Imam Yahya bin Ma’in and Allamah al-Jawzajani
(may Allah have mercy on them) have declared him “weak” (da’if).
◈ Hafiz al-Dhahabi (may Allah have mercy on him) says about him:
متروك باتفاق، مبتدع .
“He is, by unanimous agreement, an abandoned (matruk) and innovator narrator.”
◈ Imam al-Bayhaqi (may Allah have mercy on him) himself declared him “weak” (da’if).
◈ The historian of Islam, Hafiz Ibn Kathir (may Allah have mercy on him), also declared him “weak”.
Note: In Dala’il al-Nubuwwah by al-Bayhaqi, forty men are mentioned instead of seventy.
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Narration No. ➍
It is attributed to Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq (may Allah have mercy on him), who narrates from his forefathers that Amir al-Mu’minin, Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him), wrote a letter to Sahl bin Hunayf:
والله، ما قلعت باب خيبر، ورميت به خلف ظهري أربعين ذراعا بقوة جسدية ولا حركة غذائية، لٰكني أبدت بقوة ملكوتية نفس بنور ربها مضية، وأنا من أحمد كالضوئ من الضوء .
“By Allah! The gate of Khaybar that I uprooted and threw behind me a distance of forty cubits was not through physical strength nor through the power of food, but it was a heavenly and luminous power that my Lord had granted me. My relation to Ahmad (ﷺ) is the same as light’s relation to light.”
Commentary:
This is a heap of lies, because:
① The forefathers of Imam Ja’far are unknown and “unidentified” (majhul).
② Muhammad bin Muhsin al-Asadi al-Ukkashi is, by the unanimous agreement of the muhaddithin, not trustworthy (ghayr thiqah), “munkar al-hadith” (narrates rejected hadiths), “matruk” (abandoned), “kadhdhab” (liar) and “wada'” (fabricator).
③ The life details of Yunus bin Zabyan could not be found in the Ahl al-Sunnah books, and there is criticism of him in the Shi’i books of biographical evaluation (rijal) as well.
④ No authentication (tawthiq) of Ali bin Ahmad bin Musa bin Imran Daqqaq could be found in the Ahl al-Sunnah or Shi’i books of rijal.
⑤ Muhammad bin Harun al-Madani is also “unidentified” (majhul).
⑥ No authentication of Abu Bakr Ubaydullah bin Musa Khabbaz Hibal al-Tabari is mentioned in the Ahl al-Sunnah or Shi’i books of rijal; therefore he is “unidentified” (majhul).
◈ Allamah al-Maqrizi (may Allah have mercy on him, d. 845 AH), the historian of Egypt, writes:
وزعم بعضهم أن حمل باب خيبر لا أصل له .
“Some muhaddithin say that the story of Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) lifting the gate of the fort of Khaybar has no reality at all.”
Allamah al-Sakhawi (may Allah have mercy on him, 831–902 AH) writes:
بل كلها واهية، ولذا أنكره بعض العلماء .
“All the narrations on this matter are weak, which is why some scholars have declared this incident munkar.”
Summary: This incident is not established through reliable chains, and virtue is only that which is established through chains worthy of acceptance.
