are close to one another in knowledge and eminence, and it may well be that in the Hereafter they will share the same rank. They are among the foremost of the martyrs—may Allah be pleased with them. Nevertheless, the majority of the ummah gives preference to ʿUthmān over Imām ʿAlī, and that is the view we adopt.

This issue is not weighty, and the best of the four—without any doubt—are Abū Bakr and ʿUmar. Whoever disputes this point is a staunch Shīʿī; whoever detests the two Shaykhs while still accepting the legitimacy of their leadership is a loathsome Rāfiḍī; and whoever reviles them and maintains that they were not Imams of guidance belongs to the extremists among the Rāfiḍa—may Allah cast them far away.

Al-Dāraquṭnī said: In the Muwaṭṭaʾ, priority is given to the transmissions of Maʿn, Ibn Wahb, and al-Qaʿnabī.

He also said: Abū Muṣʿab is reliable in his narration of the Muwaṭṭaʾ.

Hamzah al-Sahmī reported: Abū al-Ḥasan was asked, “If both al-Nasāʾī and Ibn Khuzaymah transmit a hadith, which of them should we prefer?” He replied, “Al-Nasāʾī, for there was no one like him, and I would place no one before him.”

Transmission from him:

Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAlī—and a group—told us, by ijāzah, saying: Dāwūd ibn Aḥmad al-Wakīl informed us; Abū al-Faḍl Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar the judge informed us; ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn ʿAlī informed us; ʿAlī ibn ʿUmar the ḥāfiẓ informed us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz narrated to us; Surayj ibn Yūnus narrated to me; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Abjar narrated to us, from his father, from Wāṣil al-Aḥdab, from Abū Wāʾil, who said:

“ʿAmmār delivered a sermon to us—strikingly eloquent and concise—and said: ‘I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: “The lengthening of a man’s prayer and the brevity of his sermon are a sign (1) of his understanding. So lengthen the prayer and shorten the sermon.”’