بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم 

‎اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِ مُحَمَّدٍ

Ruh b. 'Abd al-Mu'min narrated to me, from Abi 'Uwana, from Khalid al-Hadha, from 'Abd al-Rahman b. Abi Bakra that 'Ali came to them once and said:

"No one from this nation (ummah) has faced what I have faced. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) died and I was the most worthy of the people for this matter (the caliphate), but the people gave allegiance to Abu Bakr and he was succeeded by 'Umar, so I gave allegiance to them and accepted and submitted. Then the people gave allegiance to 'Uthman, so I gave him allegiance and submitted and accepted. And now they sway between myself and Mua'wiyah?!"

al-Baladhuri, Ansab al-Ashraf

Chain Analysis

Let us now examine the chain of this narration to ensure its authenticity:

The first narrator, Ruh b. 'Abd al-Mu'min:

أبو حاتم الرازي : صدوق Abu Hatim al-Razi: Truthful

ابن حجر العسقلاني : صدوق         Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani: Truthful

الذهبي : ثقة، كان متقنا مجودا           al-Dhahabi: Trustworthy, he was meticulous

The second narrator, Abi 'Uwana: 

أبو حاتم بن حبان البستي : ذكره في الثقات Ibn Hibban: He was mentioned among the trustworthy

ابن حجر العسقلاني : ثقة ثبت، ومرة: أحد المشاهير وثقه الجماهير واعتمده الأئمة كلهم Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani: Very trustworthy. And once: One of the famous trustworthy ones upon whom all of the Imams rely

الذهبي : الحافظ ثقة متقن لكتابه al-Dhahabi: The trustworthy hafiz, meticulous in his books

محمد بن سعد كاتب الواقدي : ثقة صدوق Ibn Sa'd: Trustworthy and truthful

يحيى بن معين : ثقة Yahya b. Ma'in: Trustworthy

The third narrator, Khalid al-Hadha:

أحمد بن حنبل : ثبت Ahmad b. Hanbal: Trustworthy

الدارقطني : من الثقات al-Daraqutni: Among the trustworthy

الذهبي : الحافظ ثقة إمام al-Dhahabi: The trustworthy hafiz Imam

يحيى بن معين : ثقة، وذكر أيوب السختياني وخالد الحذاء فقال: كانا والله ثقتين صالحين صدوقين Yahya b. Ma'in: Trustworthy, and Ayyub al-Sakhtiyani and Khalid al-Hadha were 

mentioned to him so he said, "By Allah, they were both trustworthy and truthful."

The fourth narrator, 'Abd al-Rahman b. Abi Bakra (al-Thaqafi):

أحمد بن صالح الجيلي : ثقة Ahmad b. Salih al-Jayli: Trustworthy

ابن حجر العسقلاني : ثقة Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani: Trustworthy

محمد بن سعد كاتب الواقدي : ثقة وله أحاديث ورواية Ibn Sa'd: Trustworthy and he had hadith and reports

The chain is also connected, as can be verified by visiting the links cited for each narrator and going to the تلاميذ الرواي (students of the narrator) and استاذة الراوي (teachers of the narrator) sections. Proof that 'Abd al-Rahman b. Abi Bakra al-Thaqafi heard from 'Ali b. Abi Talib (؏) can be found here:

الذهبي - سير أعلام النبلاء

سَمِع: عَلِيَّ بنَ أَبِي طَالِبٍ، وَأَبَاهُ، وَعَبْدَ اللهِ بنَ عَمْرٍو.

رَوَى عَنْهُ: مُحَمَّدُ بنُ سِيْرِيْنَ، وَعَبْدُ المَلِكِ بنُ عُمَيْرٍ، وَأَبُو بِشْرٍ، وَعَلِيُّ بنُ زَيْدِ بنِ جُدْعَانَ، وَخَالِدٌ الحَذَّاءُ، وَقَتَادَةُ، وَابْنُ عَوْنٍ، وَآخَرُوْنَ.

He ('Abd al-Rahman) heard from: 'Ali b. Abi Talib, and his father, and 'Abdullah b. 'Amr.

And he was narrated from by: Muhammad b. Sirin...and Khalid al-Hadha, and Qatadah, and Ibn 'Awn, and others.

al-Dhahabi in his Siyar A'lam al-Nubala

My father (Ahmad b. Hanbal) and 'Ubaydallah b. 'Umar al-Qawariri - and this is the wording of my father - He said: Yahya b. Hammad Abu Bakr narrated to us from Abu 'Uwana, from Khalid al-Hadha, from 'Abd al-Rahman b. Abi Bakra that 'Ali - may Allah be pleased with him - came to them once, and with him was 'Ammar (b. Yasir). Then he said something, so 'Ammar said: "O Commander of the Faithful-" Then 'Ali said: 

"Be quiet, for by Allah I will be with Allah against whoever it may be." Then he said: "No one from this nation (ummah) has faced what I have faced. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) died," then he said something, "so the people gave allegiance to Abu Bakr. So I gave allegiance and submitted and accepted. Then Abu Bakr died," then he said something, "and he was succeeded by 'Umar, then he said something like that, "so I gave allegiance and submitted and accepted. Then 'Umar died and the matter (decision of who would become the caliph) went to the six person council. Then the people gave allegiance to 'Uthman, so I gave allegiance and submitted and accepted. And now they sway between myself and Mua'wiyah?!"

Ibrahim b. al-Hajaj (al-Naji) narrated to me in Basra, from Abu 'Uwana, from Khalid al-Hadha, from 'Abd al-Rahman b. Abi Bakra that 'Ali came to me - and another time he said "came to us" - once and with him was 'Ammar. Then he ('Ammar) said something so 'Ali said:

"By Allah, I will be with Allah against whomever it may be. No one from this nation (ummah) has faced what I have faced. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) died," then he said something, "so the people gave allegiance to Abu Bakr. So I gave allegiance and accepted. Then Abu Bakr died," then he said something, "Then he was succeeded by 'Umar, so I gave allegiance and accepted. Then 'Umar died, and he made a council (to choose the next caliph) and allegiance was given to 'Uthman. So I gave allegiance and accepted. And now they sway between myself and Mua'wiyah?!"

'Abdullah b. Ahmad b. Hanbal, Kitab al-Sunnah

Chain Analysis

Both reports have the same chain of narrators as the first one we looked at, from 'Abd al-Rahman b. Abi Bakra to Abu 'Uwana. It is at Abu 'Uwana that they diverge both from the first report and from each other, so let us look at the narrators between him and 'Abdullah b. Ahmad b. Hanbal in both cases:

Ahmad b. Hanbal: Needs no introduction, Imam of the Hanbali madhab and widely revered by Sunnis as one of the greatest scholars and jurists.

'Ubaydallah b. 'Umar al-Qawariri: 

أبو حاتم الرازي : صدوق Abu Hatim al-Razi: Truthful

أحمد بن شعيب النسائي : ثقة al-Nasa'i: Trustworthy

أحمد بن صالح الجيلي : ثقة Ahmad b. Salih al-Jayli: Trustworthy

ابن حجر العسقلاني : ثقة ثبت Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani: Very trustworthy

Yahya b. Hammad Abu Bakr:

أبو حاتم الرازي : ثقة Abu Hatim al-Razi: Trustworthy

أبو حاتم بن حبان البستي : ذكره في الثقات Ibn Hibban: Mentioned him among the trustworthy

أحمد بن صالح الجيلي : ثقة Ahmad b. Salih al-Jayli: Trustworthy

ابن حجر العسقلاني : ثقة عابد Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani: Trustworthy worshipper (of Allah)

الذهبي : ثقة متأله al-Dhahabi: Trustworthy worshipper (of Allah)

Ibrahim b. al-Hajaj (al-Naji): 

ابن حجر العسقلاني : ثقة يهم قليلا Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani: Trustworthy, has a few mistakes

الدارقطني : ثقة al-Daraqutni: Trustworthy

الذهبي : ثقة al-Dhahabi: Trustworthy

Conclusions

All three of these hadith clearly narrate the same incident and pass through the same narrators from 'Abd al-Rahman b. Abi Bakra to Abu 'Uwana. From Abu 'Uwana to al-Baladhuri and 'Abdullah b. Ahmad, however, the chains diverge, and we find a few striking differences between the reports. 

al-Baladhuri's report omits mentioning the presence of 'Ammar, as well as the line: "Be quiet, for by Allah I will be with Allah against whoever it may be."

Both reports narrated in 'Abdullah b. Ahmad's Kitab al-Sunnah leave out the statement of Imam 'Ali (؏) that he "was the most worthy of the people for this matter (the caliphate)," and replace it with "he said something."

Additionally, all three reports have slight variations in wordings between themselves.

Now, what can we make of these variations? Can they all be attributed to natural variance in the memory of the narrators between Abu 'Uwana and al-Baladhuri or 'Abdullah b. Ahmad? Or could these be examples of intentional alteration?

Since all of the narrators in each of the chains including those between Abu 'Uwana and the compiler are thiqat (trustworthy), we know that none of them could have fabricated an addition to the report. That means that the only possible explanation for the divergence of these reports is narrators leaving a part out, whether intentionally or by mistake. As we find the mention of 'Ammar's presence and a brief additional line in the reports of 'Abdullah b. Ahmad but not in those of al-Baladhuri, we can assume that either Ruh b. 'Abd al-Mu'min or al-Baladhuri himself left out that detail. The presence of 'Ammar, however, is in no way relevant to the main content of the hadith, nor is the additional line or two of dialogue. Nothing theologically problematic is said, and we find variance in whether 'Ammar's dialogue is transmitted even between 'Abdullah b. Ahmad's two reports. Therefore, we can rule out any malicious intent and this omission, whether intentional or not, is negligible. 

On the other hand, we find that a key portion of Imam 'Ali's (؏) speech is cut from the reports of 'Abdullah b. Ahmad and is replaced with, "then he said something." A motive for doing so is very clear: the narration poses a clear threat to the standard Sunni narrative that 'Ali (؏) accepted the three caliphs preceding him as superior to himself and that he had no aspiration to the caliphate. It also refutes the claim that he only withheld allegiance initially because he wanted to be consulted, but that he would have chosen Abu Bakr anyways. How convenient is it that the part the narrator forgot about is the part where Imam 'Ali (؏) says that he is worthier of the office? And not just one narrator, but two somehow forgot the exact same important phrase, as this omission appears in both of 'Abdullah b. Ahmad's reports.

Who is likely to blame for this discrepancy, and how do we know it wasn't just a mistake or lapse in memory? I am convinced that it was none other than Ahmad ibn Hanbal or his son who distorted this narration. We know from countless reports that Ahmad ibn Hanbal would censor reports which contained anything against the companions, as can be read about in the article ʿAbd al-Razzāq’s Shīʿīsm and the Limits of Sunni Hadith Criticism published on shiiticstudies.com. I will only give one example here for brevity:

 عَنْ أَبِي عَبْدِ اللَّهِ...مَا يُعْجِبُنِي أَنْ يَرْوِيَ الرَّجُلُ حَدِيثًا فِيهِ عَلَى أَصْحَابِ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ شَيْ...

Abu 'Abdullah (Ahmad b. Hanbal) said: I mark out any Hadith in which there is ‘something’ against the companions of the Messenger of Allah (i.e. so as to avoid narrating them).

al-Sunna (of al-Khallāl), Vol. 3, Pg. 501, No. 800

Another evidence that it was Ahmad b. Hanbal who censored the report can be seen in the fact that 'Abdullah b. Ahmad states explicitly that he is using the wording of his father over the wording of 'Ubaydallah b. 'Umar in the first report, indicating that there was a difference between them. 'Abdullah b. Ahmad likely then applied his father's methodology to the second hadith in order to make it conform, as the apple does not fall far from the tree. The only reasonable alternative explanation would be that 'Abdullah b. Ahmad b. Hanbal censored both narrations himself, but that again would be following the methodology of his father.

Regardless, even with such a distortion, it is still clear from the context of the hadith that Imam 'Ali (؏) was expressing frustration with the fact that Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman were chosen over him. 

-Dhun Nun