260 – ‘Abd Allāh narrated to us, saying: My father narrated to me, saying: Sufyān ibn ‘Uyaynah narrated to us, from Ibn Abī Khālid, from al-Sha‘bī, from Abū Juhayfah, who said: I heard ‘Alī say:

“The best of this ummah after its Prophet are Abū Bakr and ‘Umar, and if I wished, I would tell you who is third.”