Abū al-Ghanāʾim al-Musallam ibn Muḥammad al-Qaysī and al-Muʾammal ibn Muḥammad al-Bālisī—by written correspondence—reported to us, saying:
Abū al-Yaman al-Kindī informed us; Abū Manṣūr al-Shaybānī informed us; the ḥāfiẓ Abū Bakr informed us; Abū al-Ḥasan Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Mūsā ibn Hārūn ibn al-Ṣalt al-Ahwāzī informed us; Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Saʿīd narrated to us; Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā al-Ṭalḥī narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan narrated to us; Shurayk narrated to us, from Abū al-Walīd, from al-Shaʿbī, from ʿAlī who said:
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said—while I was with him and Abū Bakr and ʿUmar approached—:
“O ʿAlī, these two are the leaders of the mature men of Paradise, from the first to the last, except for the prophets and messengers.” (1)
With this same chain up to the ḥāfiẓ Abū Bakr: Abū al-Ḥusayn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥammād, the preacher, informed us; Abū al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿUqda dictated to us in Ṣafar of the year 330 AH; ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ashqar narrated to us; he said: I heard ʿAththām ibn ʿAlī al-ʿĀmirī say: I heard Sufyān say:
“Love for ʿAlī and ʿUthmān is united only in the hearts of the noble-minded.” (2)
I say: Ibn ʿUqda has been accused of tashayyuʿ (Shīʿī leanings), yet his transmission of this and similar reports indicates