The First Muslim
It is narrated from Anas that the Messenger of Allah (ص) said:
﴿ صَلَّتِ الْـمَلَائِكَةُ عَلَيَّ وَعَلَی عَلِيِّ بْنِ أَبِي طَالِبٍ سَبْعَ سِنِينَ، وَذَلِكَ أَنَّهُ لَمْ تَرْتَفِعْ شَهادَةُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ إِلَی السَّمَاءِ إِلَّا مِنِّي وَمِنْ عَلِيٍّ ﴾
"The angels sent greetings on me and Ali ibn Abi Talib for seven years, and this was at a time when the testimony of monotheism and the words of "La ilaha ilallah" still did not rise to heaven except from the voice of Ali and me"
Kharazmi, Al-Manaqib, page 53-54; Ibn Asaker, Tarikh Madinah-Damishq, V.42, page 36, 39; In the book Manaqib Aale Abi Talib (Ibn Sharh Ashub, V.1, p.291) it is narrated from Abuzar that the Messenger of Allah (s.a.w.a.) said:
“The divine angels sent greetings on me and Ali for seven years prior to anyone being converted to Islam.” And it is narrated from Ibn Abbas that the Messenger of Allah (s.a.w.a.) said: “The first man who prayed with me was Ali.”
Dailami, Firduas Al-Akhbar, V.1, page 27, hadith 39; Muttaqi Hindi, Kanz al-Ummal, V.11, page 616; Nisa’i, Khasa’is-e-Amir-ul-Mu’minin (a.s.), page 42, 44.
And in Asad al-Ghabah (Ibn Athir Jazari, V.4, p.18) Abu Ayub Ansari has narrated that the Messenger of Allah (s.a.w.a.) said: “Verily, the angels sent greetings and blessing on me and Ali for seven years because except for him, no man had ever prayed with me.”
[The concept of the word “man” (رجل) is worth contemplating. Perhaps from the beginning of Islam until the time Ali was called a man, that is, at the age of fifteen, nobody except him had become a Muslim. See also: Shahr Sunan Ibn Majah, vol. 1, pp. 75, 258.]
