Abu Saʿid Sunqur al-Halabi related to us, through Ali ibn Mahmud, Ahmad ibn Muhammad the hafiz, Ahmad ibn ʿAbd al-Ghaffar, Ali ibn Abi Hamid al-Kharjani, Abu Ishaq ibn Hamzah, ʿAbd Allah ibn Zaydan, ʿAbbad ibn Yaʿqub and Muhammad ibn Furat, from Abu Ishaq, from al-Harith, from Ali—may Allah be pleased with him—who ascended the pulpit, offered the greeting of peace, and said: “The best of this community after its Prophet are Abu Bakr and ʿUmar; and had I wished to name the third, I would have done so.” (1)
Abu ʿAbd Allah al-Hakim says in his book Maʿrifat Muzakki al-Akhbar: “Abu Ishaq ibn Hamzah used to review the Musnads of the Companions, tackling them biography by biography. Abu Bakr al-Jiʿabi, Abu Ali al-Naysaburi and our own teachers all acknowledged that he alone had preserved the entire Musnad. I asked Abu ʿAbd Allah ibn Mandah about the year of his death, and he replied, ‘It was in 359 AH.’”
= Al-Layth b. Saʿd al-Qaysi, the client of Banu Rafiʿa, narrated to us; from Musa b. ʿAli b. Rabah al-Lakhmi; from his father; from ʿUqbah b. ʿAmir al-Juhani; from ʿUmar.
Abu Nuʿaym also transmitted it in Hilyat al-Awliyaʾ 2/34 through the isnad of al-Tabarani (Sulayman b. Ahmad): Jaʿfar b. Sulayman al-Nawfali → Ibrahim b. Hamzah al-Zubayri → ʿAbd al-ʿAziz b. Muhammad al-Darawardi → Zayd b. Aslam → his father → ʿUmar.
Al-Suyuti cited it in al-Durr al-Manthur 5/15 and further attributed it to al-Bazzar, al-Tabarani, and al-Diyaʾ al-Maqdisi in al-Mukhtara.
There are supporting chains: from Ibn ʿAbbas (al-Khatib 2/271; al-Tabarani), from al-Miswar (Ahmad 4/322), and from Ibn ʿUmar (Ibn ʿAsakir). See also 3/500 of the present work and Majmaʿ al-Zawaʾid 9/173.
(1) Muhammad b. Furāt is declared a fabricator, and al-Harith is weak.
Al-Bukhari recorded in his Sahih 7/26, in the section on virtues, via Muhammad b. Kathir → Sufyan → Jamiʿ b. Abi Rashid → Abu Yaʿla → Muhammad b. al-Hanafiyyah, who said: I asked my father, “Who are the best people after the Messenger of Allah ﷺ?” He replied, “Abu Bakr.” I asked, “Then who?” He said, “Then ʿUmar.” Fearing he would mention ʿUthman, I asked, “Then you?” He replied, “I am only a man among the Muslims.”