١٥ - حدثنا علي بن محمد بن موسى (رضي الله عنه)، قال: حدثنا أبو العباس أحمد بن يحيى بن زكريا القطان، قال: حدثنا بكر بن عبد الله بن حبيب، قال: حدثنا عبد الرحيم بن علي بن سعيد الجبلي، قال: حدثنا الحسن بن نصر الخزاز، قال: حدثنا عمرو بن طلحة، عن أسباط بن نصر، عن سماك بن حرب، عن سعيد بن جبير، قال: أتيت عبد الله بن عباس فقلت له: يا بن عم رسول الله، إني جئتك أسألك عن علي بن  أبي طالب واختلاف الناس فيه. فقال ابن عباس: يا بن جبير، جئتني تسألني عن خير خلق الله من الامة بعد محمد نبي الله، جئتني تسألني عن رجل كانت له ثلاثة آلاف منقبة في ليلة واحدة، وهي ليلة القربة (١). يا بن جبير، جئتني تسألني عن وصي رسول الله (صلى الله عليه وآله) ووزيره، وخليفته، وصاحب حوضه ولوائه وشفاعته. والذي نفس ابن عباس بيده، لو كانت بحار الدنيا مدادا، وأشجارها أقلاما، وأهلها كتابا، فكتبوا مناقب علي بن أبي طالب (عليه السلام) وفضائله من يوم خلق الله عزوجل الدنيا إلى أن يفنيها ما بلغوا معشار ما آتاه الله تبارك وتعالى (٢).
`Ali b. Muhammad b. Musa  narrated to us. He said: Abu’l `Abbas Ahmad b. Yahya b. Zakariyya al-Qattan narrated to us. He said: Bakr b. `Abdullah b. Habib narrated to us. He said: `Abd al-Rahman b. `Ali b. Sa`id al-Jabali narrated to us. He said: Al-Hasan b. Nasr al-Khazzaz narrated to us. He said: `Amr b. Talha narrated to us from Asbat b. Nasr from Simak b. Harb from Sa`id b. Jubayr. He said: I met `Abdullah b. `Abbas and said to him: O cousin of the Messenger of Allah! I have come to you to ask you about `Ali b. Abi Talib and the people’s differing over him. So, Ibn `Abbas said: O Ibn Jubayr! You have come to me to ask me about the best of the creation in the Nation after Muhammad the prophet of Allah. You have come to me to ask me about a man who received three thousand virtues in one night, and that is the Night of al-Qurba (when three thousand angels greeted `Ali). O Ibn Jubayr! You have come to me to ask me about the deputy of the Messenger of Allah (s) and his vizier, his vicegerent (khalifa), and the master of his Pond, his Banner, and his intercession. By Him in whose hand is the soul of Ibn `Abbas! Had the oceans of this world been ink, and had its trees been pens, and had its people been scribes, and they wrote the qualities and virtues of `Ali b. Abi Talib  from the day Allah created this world until the day He ends it, they would not be able to exhaust all of what Allah has given him.