403 - ʿAbd Allāh narrated to us, saying: My father narrated to me, saying: Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah narrated to us, from Ibn Abī Khālid; and Abū Muʿāwiyah narrated to us, saying: Ismāʿīl narrated to us—from al-Shaʿbī, from Abū Juhayfah, who said:

I heard ʿAlī say, “The best of this nation after its Prophet are Abū Bakr and ʿUmar. If I wished, I could tell you who the third is.”

Abū Muʿāwiyah did not say, “I heard ʿAlī.”