It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas, may Allah be pleased with them both, that he said: I asked Sayyiduna Uthman, may Allah be pleased with him: Why did you decide to combine Surah Al-Anfal, which is among the Mathani surahs, and Surah At-Tawbah, which is among the Mi'in surahs, and you did not write the line of "Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Raheem" between them, and you included them among the seven long surahs? What is the reason for this? Sayyiduna Uthman, may Allah be pleased with him, said: Sometimes it would happen that for a long period no revelation would descend upon the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and sometimes several surahs would be revealed at once. In any case, when revelation would descend upon the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, he would call the scribe and say to him: Write these verses in the surah in which such-and-such matters are mentioned. If another verse was revealed, he would again say: Write this verse in the surah in which such-and-such is mentioned. Now, Surah Al-Anfal is the surah that was revealed at the beginning in Madinah, and Surah At-Tawbah is among the last surahs revealed in the Noble Qur'an, while their subject matter is similar. Meanwhile, the Noble Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, passed away, and he did not clarify to us (about these two surahs). Therefore, I thought that Surah Al-Anfal is a part of Surah At-Tawbah, so I combined the two and did not write the line of "Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Raheem" between them, and I placed them among the seven long surahs.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Bakr Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) sent him as the leader of Hajj and also entrusted him with the responsibility of announcing to the people of Makkah the declaration of disassociation, that after this year no polytheist will be able to perform Hajj, no man will circumambulate the Ka‘bah naked, only that person will enter Paradise who is a Muslim, and if anyone had a treaty with the Prophet of Islam (peace and blessings be upon him) for a specific period, it will remain valid until its term ends, and that Allah and His Messenger are free from the polytheists. When Sayyiduna Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) set out with this message and had covered a distance of three days, the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him): Go after Abu Bakr, bring him back to me, and you are to make this announcement. So he did as instructed, but when Sayyiduna Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) returned, tears were flowing from his eyes and he said: O Messenger of Allah! Has any new command come regarding me (that I was called back)? The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Only good can come to you; the real matter is that this message should be delivered either by myself or by a man from my family.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) that when ten verses of Surah Bara’ah were revealed, the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) called Sayyiduna Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) and gave him these verses, sending him to recite them before the people of Makkah. Then he called me (Ali) and said: Go and join Abu Bakr; wherever you meet him, take this message from him and then go and recite it before the people of Makkah. So I met Sayyiduna Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) at Juhfa and took the letter from him. Then when Sayyiduna Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) returned to the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), he asked: O Messenger of Allah! Has any command been revealed regarding me? The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) replied: No, there is no command regarding you, but Jibreel (peace be upon him) came to me and said that the message should either be delivered by you yourself or by someone from your family.

(Second chain) It is narrated from Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) that when the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) sent him to proclaim Surah Bara’ah, he said: O Prophet of Allah! I am neither very eloquent nor a preacher. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: There is no alternative except that I go myself, or you go. He said: If there is no alternative, then I will go. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: You go, Allah Almighty will keep your tongue firm and guide your heart. Then the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) placed his blessed hand on the mouth of Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him).

It is narrated from Zaid bin Asiyah, a resident of Hamdan, who says: We asked Sayyiduna Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, with what he was sent on the day when the Noble Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, sent him with Sayyiduna Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, for Hajj? He said: I was sent with four things: (1) Only a believing man will enter Paradise, (2) No naked man will perform Tawaf of the House of Allah, (3) Whoever has a treaty with the Noble Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, his treaty will remain valid until its term, and (4) After this year, polytheists and Muslims will not perform Hajj together.

Narrated from Sayyiduna Nu’man bin Bashir (may Allah be pleased with him), he says: I was sitting on one side of the pulpit of the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), when a man said,“After accepting Islam, I do not care about any deed except giving water to the pilgrims.”Another said,“After accepting Islam, I do not care about any deed except maintaining the Sacred Mosque.”Another spoke and said,“What you are saying, better and superior to that is striving in the path of Allah.”Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) scolded them and said,“Do not raise your voices near the pulpit of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him).”It was the day of Jumu’ah. When I had performed Jumu’ah, I went to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and asked him about the disagreement of those people. Then Allah the Exalted revealed this verse: {اَجَعَلْتُمْ سِقَا یَـۃَ الْحَاجِّ وَ عِـمَارَۃَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ کَمَنْ اٰمَنَ بِاللّٰہِ وَالْیَوْمِ الْاٰخِرِ وَجٰہَدَ فِیْ سَبِیْلِ اللّٰہ ِ لَا یَسْتَوٗنَ عِنْدَ اللّٰہِ وَاللّٰہُ لَایَہْدِی الْقَوْمَ الظّٰلِمِیْنَ۔} (Surah At-Tawbah: 19)“Do you consider the providing of water to the pilgrims and the maintenance of Al-Masjid Al-Haram as equal to the one who believes in Allah and the Last Day and strives in the cause of Allah? They are not equal in the sight of Allah. And Allah does not guide the wrongdoing people.”

Narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Sa'id (may Allah be pleased with him), he says: Once the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was distributing the spoils of war when Abdullah bin Dhil Khuwaisirah Tamimi came and said: O Messenger of Allah! Be just. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Woe to you, if I do not act justly, then who will act justly? Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: Allow me, I will strike off his neck. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Leave him, he will have companions such that one of you will consider his own prayer insignificant compared to their prayer, and his own fasting insignificant compared to their fasting. These people will go out of the religion just as an arrow passes through the prey. If you look at its feathers, you find nothing, then you look at its tip, you find nothing, then you look at its shaft and the part between the tip and the feathers, you find nothing, although it has passed through blood and dung. Their sign will be that among them there will be a man whose one hand or one breast will be like a woman's breast, or he said, like a piece of flesh, and it will move. They will emerge at the time of division among the people. Abu Sa'id said: I bear witness that Sayyiduna Ali killed these people, I was with him, at that time one of them was brought who matched exactly the description given by the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Regarding these people, this verse was revealed: {وَمِنْہُمْ مَّنْ یَّلْمِزُکَ فِی الصَّدَقٰتِ فَاِنْ اُعْطُوْا مِنْہَا رَضُوْا وَاِنْ لَّمْ یُعْطَوْا مِنْہَآ اِذَا ہُمْ یَسْخَطُوْنَ۔} (Tawbah: 58) "And among them are those who criticize you concerning the [distribution of] charities. If they are given some of it, they are pleased; but if they are not given any of it, at once they become angry."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Sa'id Khudri, may Allah be pleased with him, who says: In the time of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, those people who were given wealth for the sake of winning their hearts were four individuals: Alqamah bin Alathah Ja'fari, Aqra' bin Habis Hanzali, Zaid Khail Ta'i, and Uyainah bin Badr Fazari. Sayyiduna Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, brought some gold from Yemen which was still mixed with earth (i.e., it had not been purified). The Noble Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, distributed it among them.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Umar bin Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, that when Abdullah bin Ubayy, the hypocrite, died, the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, was called for his funeral prayer. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, came, and when he intended to perform the prayer, I turned and stood before him and said: O Messenger of Allah! Upon the enemy of Allah? Will you perform the funeral prayer for Abdullah bin Ubayy? He said such and such on such and such a day, and I began to count each day on which he had plotted against Islam, while the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, was smiling. When I insisted further, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: O Umar! Step back. I have been given the choice to pray or not to pray the funeral prayer, and I have chosen to pray. It has been said to me: {اسْتَغْفِرْ لَہُمْ أَ وْ لَا تَسْتَغْفِرْ لَہُمْ إِنْ تَسْتَغْفِرْ لَہُمْ سَبْعِینَ مَرَّۃً فَلَنْ یَغْفِرَ اللّٰہُ لَہُمْ} … (Whether you ask forgiveness for them or do not ask forgiveness for them, even if you ask forgiveness for them seventy times, Allah will never forgive them.) And if I knew that if I sought forgiveness for him more than seventy times, he would be forgiven, I would seek forgiveness for him that many times. Then the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, performed his funeral prayer and also walked to his grave. When the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, finished, I was greatly astonished at my boldness before the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, but in any case, Allah and His Messenger know best. But by Allah! Only a little time had passed when these two verses were revealed: {وَلَا تُصَلِّ عَلَی أَ حَدٍ مِنْہُمْ مَاتَ أَ بَدًا وَلَا تَقُمْ عَلٰی قَبْرِہِ إِنَّہُمْ کَفَرُوْا بِاللّٰہِ وَرَسُولِہِ وَمَاتُوْا وَہُمْ فَاسِقُونَ} … And never pray the funeral prayer for any of them who dies, nor stand at his grave. Surely, they disbelieved in Allah and His Messenger and died while they were defiantly disobedient. After that, the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, did not perform the funeral prayer for any hypocrite, nor did he stand at his grave, until he, peace and blessings be upon him, passed away.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) that when Abdullah bin Ubayy, the hypocrite, died, his son Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him), who was a Muslim, came to the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said: O Messenger of Allah! Grant me your shirt so that I may shroud my father in it, and lead his funeral prayer, and seek forgiveness for him. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) gave him his shirt and said: Inform me at the time (of the funeral). When the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) stepped forward to lead the prayer, Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: Allah Almighty has forbidden you from performing the funeral prayer for the hypocrites. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) replied: I have been given a choice; Allah Almighty has said: Whether you seek forgiveness for them or do not seek forgiveness for them. So the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) led the funeral prayer, and then Allah Almighty revealed this command: {وَلَا تُصَلِّ عَلَی أَ حَدٍ مِنْہُمْ مَاتَ أَ بَدًا} … And never pray the funeral prayer for any of them ever.