Hadeeth: When I was washing body of prophet…

It was narrated that Ali said: “When I was washing the body of prophet (sallalahu alaihi wa ala alihi wa sallam), drops (of water) accumulated in his eyes, I drunk them, and by this way inherited knowledge of the first (and the last)”.

Mullah Ali al-Qari al-Hanafi in “Masnua fi marifatu ahadeth al-mawdoa” (#246, p 207), and Muhammad ibn Darwish al-Hoot in “Asna mattalib” (#439, p 87), and Zarkashi in “Leal al-manthurat” (1/193) quoted Nawavi saying: “It’s not authentic”. Al-Hoot added from himself: “Story is false”. Same opinion shared Muhammad Ameer Kabir al-Maliki in “Nukhbat al-bahiyat fil ahadeth al-makzubat ala khayr al-bariya” (#267).

And here scans from “Fatawa li Nawavi”, where he said: “As for the first hadith (discussed one) it’s not authentic“.

Something close to that was narrated by Imam Ahmad in his “Musnad”:

حدثنا عبد الله حدثني أبي حدثنا يحيى بن يمان عن حسن بن صالح عن جعفر بن محمد قال: -كان الماء ماء غسله صلى الله عليه وسلم حين غسلوه بعد وفاته يستنقع في جفون النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم فكان علي يحسوه

Narrated Abdullah – his father Imam Ahmad – Yahya ibn Yaman – Hasan ibn Salih – Jafar ibn Muhammad: “Water that was used during the wash of prophet (sallalahu alaihi wa ala alihi wa sallam), accumulated in his eyes, and Ali drunk it slowly”.

Shaykh Abdulfatah Abu Ghudda in his tahqiq of “Masnua fi marifatu ahadeth al-mawdoa” (p 208) noticed that chain is weak, and disconnected. Same opinion shared Ahmad Shakir and Shuayb Arnawut in their notes on “Musnad”. Imam Jafar wasn’t witness of that story, so it’s disconnected, and narrator Yahya ibn Yaman was weak (“Mizanul itidal” 4/416/#9661), so even chain till Jafar was weak.