Zayd al-ʿAmmī related—through Abū al-Ṣiddīq al-Nājī—from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, declared:

“Among my community, the most compassionate toward it is Abū Bakr; the strongest in Allah’s religion is ʿUmar; the most truthful in modesty is ʿUthmān; the soundest in judgment is ʿAlī; the most knowledgeable of the laws of inheritance is Zayd; the foremost reciter of the Book of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, is Ubayy ibn Kaʿb; the most versed in what is lawful and unlawful is Muʿādh ibn Jabal; the trustworthy custodian of this Ummah is Abū ʿUbaydah ibn al-Jarrāḥ; Abū Hurayrah is a vessel filled with knowledge; Salmān is an unfathomable sea of learning; and the sky has never shaded, nor the earth carried—or, he said, ‘the open plain’—anyone whose speech is more truthful than Abū Dharr.”

Ibn ʿAṭiyya said:

“Among the distinguished figures of the Successor generation are al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, Mujāhid, Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, and ʿAlqamah. Mujāhid recited to Ibn ʿAbbās with insight, pausing at every verse. After them come ʿIkrimah and al-Ḍaḥḥāk—though the latter never met Ibn ʿAbbās, having learned instead from Ibn Jubayr. As for al-Suddī, ʿĀmir al-Shaʿbī used to criticize him and Abū Ṣāliḥ, considering them deficient in careful analysis.”

I say:

Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn said, “Al-Kalbī is nothing.” Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān transmitted from Sufyān, who reported that al-Kalbī said—quoting Abū Ṣāliḥ—“Everything I have related to you is false.” Ḥabīb ibn Abī Thābit stated, “We used to call him darwagh zān,” meaning Abū Ṣāliḥ, the client of Umm Hāniʾ; in Persian darwagh zān means “liar.”

Thereafter, the upright scholars of every generation bore the task of interpreting the Book of Allah Most High, as the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

“This knowledge will be carried in each generation by its trustworthy ones; they will repel from it the distortions of extremists, the fabrications of falsifiers, and the misinterpretations of the ignorant.”

It was recorded by Abū ʿUmar and others.

Al-Khaṭīb Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī al-Baghdādī remarked:

“This is a testimony from the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, that they are the standard-bearers of the religion and the leaders of the Muslims, safeguarding the Sacred Law from distortion, false attribution, and the interpretations of foolish ignoramuses. It is therefore obligatory to refer back to them, and final reliance in matters of religion rests with them. May Allah be pleased with them all.”