Ahmad ibn Ishaq informed us; Ahmad ibn Sarmā and al-Fath ibn ʿAbd al-Salām also informed us, saying:
“Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar the judge informed us; Ahmad ibn Muḥammad al-Bazzāz informed us; ʿAlī ibn ʿUmar al-Ḥarbī informed us; Ahmad ibn al-Ḥasan informed us; Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn narrated to us; Yaḥyā ibn Abī Zāʾidah narrated to us, from Mujālid, who said:
‘I testify regarding Abū al-Waddāk that he testified regarding Abū Saʿīd that the Prophet ﷺ said:
“Indeed, the people of Paradise will behold the people of ʿIlliyyīn (the highest ranks) just as you see the brilliant star on the horizon of the sky, and Abū Bakr and ʿUmar are among them—how excellent they are!”’
Ismāʿīl, who was sitting with Mujālid on the carpet, said to him, ‘And I testify concerning ʿAṭiyyah that he testified regarding Abū Saʿīd that he heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say that.’ (1)
The report of ʿAṭiyyah is the well-known version; leading scholars have transmitted it from him. As for the report of Abū al-Waddāk, it is solitary and unusual. Al-Tirmidhī graded ʿAṭiyyah’s narration as ḥasan (fair).
91 – Khalaf ibn Khalīfah ibn Ṣāʿid al-Ashjaʿī * (4, m tabʿan)
The Imām, the long-lived shaykh, Abū Aḥmad al-Ashjaʿī, their client, a Kūfan who resided in Wāsiṭ and later moved to Baghdad. Some scholars count him among the younger Successors because he mentioned that he