162 - ‘Abdullāh narrated to us: My father narrated to me: Muhammad ibn Fudayl ibn Ghazwān, Abū ‘Abd al-Rahmān al-Dabbī, narrated to us: Sālim—that is, Ibn Abī Hafsa—al-A‘mash, ‘Abdullāh ibn Suhbān, Kathīr al-Nawwā’, and Ibn Abī Laylā narrated to us, from ‘Atiyya al-‘Awfī, from Abū Sa‘īd al-Khudrī, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
“Those below the people of the highest ranks will see them just as you see a star rising on one of the horizons of the sky. Abū Bakr and ‘Umar are indeed among them, and well deserving they are.”
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163 - ‘Abdullāh narrated to us: Dāwūd ibn ‘Amr al-Dabbī narrated to us: I heard Ahmad ibn Hanbal say: I heard Sufyān ibn ‘Uyayna say: “‘And well deserving they are’ means ‘and worthy [of it].’” Then I heard my father relate the same from Ibn ‘Uyayna.