Yazeed bin Abi Salih narrated that Abul-Wadi’ ‘Abbad told him:
We were heading for Koofah with "Ali bin Abi Talib (رضي الله عنه) and when we were two of three days away from Haroora", many people drifted away from us. We mentioned that to "Ali (رضي الله عنه) and he said: Do not worry about them, for they will come back.... And he narrated the Hadeeth at length. He said: ‘Ali bin Abi Talib (رضي الله عنه) praised Allah and said: My close friend told me that the leader of these people would be a man with a deformed arm like a breast on which would be some hairs like the tail of a jerboa. They looked for him but they did not find him. We came to him and said: We did not find him. He said: Look for him, for by Allah I did not lie and I was not told a lie - three times, We said: We did not find him. Then "Ali came himself and started saying: Turn this one over, turn this one over, until a man of Koofah came and said: Here he is. ‘Ali (رضي الله عنه) said: Allahu Akbar! Is there anyone who could tell you who his father was? The people started saying: This is Malik, this is Malik. And ‘Ali (رضي الله عنه) said: Whose son is he?
