Reference for a hadith about the courage and bravery of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)

Question

There is a hadith by the Prophet's (PBUH) cousin Ali bin Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him), where he says the bravest among the fighters in Badr was the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). The Arabic version is the following,

عن علي، رضي الله عنه قال لقد رأيتنا يوم بدر ونحن نلوذ برسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم وهو أقربنا إلى العدو وكان من أشد الناس يومئذ بأسا‏.

I was looking for the reference of this hadith but seem to be finding different references from the same book...and I was somewhat confused.

This is from the book of Ahmad bin Hanbel, and here it says the hadith number is 619. However, in this webpage (the hadith was quoted with the reference) it says the number is 654. What's even more confusing...I tried to search this hadith from this website (which contains the whole book of Ahmad bin Hanbal) and looked up the hadiths 619 and 654 in the section about the narrations of Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) and both hadith numbers seem to be wrong...

So what exactly is the reference for this hadith? I would also appreciate it if somebody provided the English translation...

Answer 1

On Islamweb, it can be found as hadith number 656.

However, the English translation I checked¹ lists the same hadith under the number 654. It notes that the isnad is sahih and offers the following translation:

It was narrated that 'Ali said: I remember the day of Badr, when we were seeking shelter with the Messenger of Allah and he was the closest of us to the enemy and the most courageous of the people that day.

I can't speak for the discrepancy in the hadith numbering in this particular case, but such is not uncommon among hadith collections. According to this related answer regarding discrepant numbering systems in Sahih Bukhari, numbering simply wasn't a concern to the original collectors and was likely done independently by later publishers.

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¹ (2012) English Translation of Musnad Imam Ahmad Bin Hanbal Vol 1, (Nasiruddin Al-Khattab, Trans.). Riyadh: Darussalaam.