It is narrated from Khaythamah bin Abd al-Rahman that he said: I heard Sayyiduna Sa'd bin Malik (Sayyiduna Sa'd bin Abi Waqqas, may Allah be pleased with him) say this when a man said to him that Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) says about you that you held back from supporting him. Sayyiduna Sa'd (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "By Allah! It was an opinion that I formed, and that opinion of mine proved wrong. Indeed, Ali bin Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him) was granted three distinctions such that, had I been given even one of them, it would have been dearer to me than the world and all its blessings." (The first is that) on the day of Ghadir Khumm, after praising and extolling Allah, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said concerning him: "Do you know that I have a greater claim over the believers than they have over themselves?" We said: Yes. So he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "O Allah! Whoever I am the mawla of, Ali is his mawla. O Allah! Befriend whoever befriends him, and be hostile to whoever is hostile to him." (The second is that) on the day of Khaybar he was brought while his eyes were sore and he could not see anything. He said: O Messenger of Allah! My eyes are sore. So he (peace and blessings be upon him) put his blessed saliva into his eyes and supplicated for him, and after that his eyes never became sore again until his martyrdom, and Khaybar was conquered at his hands. (The third is that) the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) ordered his uncle Sayyiduna Abbas and other people to leave the mosque (having their doors closed), and Sayyiduna Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) said: (O Messenger of Allah!) You are sending us out although we are your close kin and your uncles, while you allow Ali to stay in the mosque? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "It is not I who sent you out and settled him there; rather, it is Allah who commanded that you be sent out (of the mosque) and that he stay there." As for the matter of Abu Mas'ud al-Ansari and Abu Musa al-Ash'ari keeping aloof, the reality is that the Commander of the Believers (may Allah be pleased with him) sent his son Muhammad (bin al-Hanafiyyah) and Muhammad bin Abi Bakr to Kufah to take the pledge of allegiance. At that time Abu Musa al-Ash'ari and Abu Mas'ud were in Kufah, and Abu Musa refused to pledge allegiance. Then those two returned to the Commander of the Believers, so he sent his son Sayyiduna al-Hasan and Malik al-Ashtar.