[1] The man whom Amīr al-mu’minīn has referred to as his brother and whose qualities he has stated, has been taken by some commentators to be Abū Dharr al-Ghifārī, by some ‘Uthmān ibn Maẓ‘ūn al-Jumaḥī and by some al-Miqdād ibn al-Aswad al-Kindī; but it is not unlikely that no particular individual is referred to at all, because it is customary with Arabs for them to speak of a brother or a comrade although they have no particular individual in mind.