Al-Shaʿbī and others relate that ʿAlī said, “While I was with the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, Abu Bakr and ʿUmar appeared. The Prophet remarked, ‘These two are the leaders of the mature men of Paradise, from the first to the last generations—save only the prophets and messengers. Do not tell them this, O ʿAlī.’”

Al-Shaʿbī heard the report from al-Ḥārith al-Aʿwar, and it reaches ʿAlī through several sound routes, among them: ʿĀṣim from Zirr, and Abū Isḥāq from ʿĀṣim ibn Ḍamrah. Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir said, “The ḥadīth is firmly established from ʿAlī.”

I add: a similar narration is transmitted from Abū Hurayrah, Ibn ʿUmar, Anas, and Jābir.

Mujālid reports from Abū’l-Waddāk—and a group conveys the same from ʿAṭiyyah—both chains going back to Abū Saʿīd, that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “The people of the highest ranks will indeed be visible to those below them just as you see a brilliant star on the horizon of the sky, and Abu Bakr and ʿUmar are among them—how excellent they are!”

Ismāʿīl ibn Umayyah narrated, on the authority of Nāfiʿ from Ibn ʿUmar, that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, entered the mosque with Abu Bakr on his right and ʿUmar on his left and said, “Thus shall we be raised on the Day of Resurrection.” This report is found only in the narration of Saʿīd ibn Maslamah al-Umawī, who is weak in his transmission from Ismāʿīl.

ʿAlī himself declared from the pulpit of Kūfah before a large gathering during his caliphate, “The best of this community after its Prophet is Abu Bakr; the best after Abu Bakr is ʿUmar. If I wished to name the third, I would do so.”

This statement is mass-transmitted from ʿAlī—