Marwān (1), from Abū ʿĀʾishah, from Ibn ʿUmar, who said:

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ came out to us one morning after the sun had risen and said, “Before daybreak I saw in a dream as though I had been given the keys and the scales. As for the keys, they are precisely the keys; and as for the scales, they are what is used for weighing. I was placed in one pan and my community in the other and I outweighed them. Then Abū Bakr was brought and weighed, and he outweighed them. Then ʿUmar was brought and weighed, and he outweighed them. Then ʿUthmān was brought and weighed, and he outweighed them. Then the scales were raised.”

This report is unique to Aḥmad.

Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān said: Hishām ibn ʿAmmār narrated to us; ʿAmr ibn Wāqid narrated to us; Yūnus ibn Maysarah narrated to us, from Abū Idrīs, from Muʿādh ibn Jabal, who said that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

“I saw that I was placed in one pan and my community in the other and I balanced them. Then Abū Bakr was placed in one pan and my community in the other and he balanced them. Then ʿUmar was placed in one pan and my community in the other and he balanced them. Then ʿUthmān was placed in one pan and my community in the other and he balanced them.” (2)

Another ḥadith

Abū Yaʿlā (3) said: ʿAbd Allah ibn Muṭīʿ narrated to us; Hushaym narrated to us; al-ʿAwwām narrated to us, from someone who related it, from ʿĀʾishah, who said:

When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ laid the foundations of the mosque of Madinah, he came carrying a stone and placed it. Abū Bakr came carrying a stone and placed it, ʿUmar came carrying a stone and placed it, and ʿUthmān came carrying a stone and placed it. She said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was asked about that and he replied, “They are the leaders of the caliphate after me.”

This ḥadith has already been cited in the section on the building of the mosque, at the beginning of his arrival in Madinah (may Allah have mercy on them). It has likewise appeared earlier in the Signs of Prophethood, in the report of al-Zuhrī—from a man—from Abū Dharr, concerning the pebbles that glorified Allah in his hand (peace be upon him), then in the hand of Abū Bakr, then in the hand of ʿUmar, and then in the hand of ʿUthmān (may Allah be pleased with them).

In some versions it is reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “This is the caliphate of prophethood.” (4)

The ḥadith of Safīnah will follow, in which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “The caliphate after me will last thirty years, then it will turn into kingship.” (5) Thus it came to pass—