ʿAmr ibn Muḥammad, from Sālim, from his father, who said:

“We used to say in the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ: Abū Bakr, then ʿUmar, then ʿUthmān—meaning in succession to the caliphate.”

This chain of transmission is sound according to the criteria of the two Shaykhs (al-Bukhārī and Muslim), although they themselves did not record it.

Al-Bazzār added:

“This ḥadith has been related from Ibn ʿUmar through several routes, all of which state: ‘We used to say Abū Bakr, then ʿUmar, then ʿUthmān, and after that we made no further preference.’ ʿAmr ibn Muḥammad was not a ḥāfiẓ, and this becomes evident in his narrations (1) whenever he transmits from someone other than Sālim, for on such occasions he has nothing reliable to report.”

More than one weak narrator has also reported it from al-Zuhrī, from Sālim, from his father with the same wording.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir (2) devoted a special study to collecting all its chains from Ibn ʿUmar and handled the matter with thoroughness and skill.

As for the ḥadith which al-Ṭabarānī (3) cited—“Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd Rabbih al-Ṣaffār al-Baghdādī narrated to us; ʿAlī ibn Jamīl (4) al-Raqī narrated to us; Jarīr narrated to us, from Layth, from Mujāhid, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ declared: ‘In Paradise there is a tree—or, he said, There is no tree in Paradise except that—(ʿAlī ibn Jamīl was unsure) on every one of whose leaves is written: Lā ilāha illā-llāh Muḥammad Rasūl Allāh, Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq, ʿUmar al-Farūq, ʿUthmān Dhū-n-Nūrayn’ ”—this ḥadith is weak. Its chain contains narrators who have been criticized, and it is not free of other defects. Allah knows best.

Section Two: Reports (5) that mention his merits exclusively

Al-Bukhārī (6) said: Mūsā ibn Ismāʿīl narrated to us; Abū ʿAwana narrated to us; ʿUthmān ibn Mawhib narrated to us:

A man from Egypt came on pilgrimage to the Sacred House. He saw some people sitting and asked, “Who are these people?”

They replied, “They are Quraysh.”

He asked, “Who is the senior among them?”

They said, “ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUmar.”

He said, “Ibn ʿUmar, I want to ask you about something, so tell me: Do you know that ʿUthmān fled on the Day of Uḥud?”

He answered, “Yes.”

The man said, “Do you know that he was absent on the Day of Badr and did not attend it?”

He said, “Yes.”

He asked, “Do you know that he was absent from the Pledge of Riḍwān and did not attend it?”

He said, “Yes.”

The man exclaimed, “Allāhu akbar!”

Ibn ʿUmar said, “Come and I will explain to you. As for his retreat on the Day of Uḥud, I bear witness that Allah has pardoned him and forgiven him. As for his absence from Badr, he was married to the daughter of the Messenger of Allah and she was ill, so the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to him, ‘For you is the reward and the share of a man who attended Badr.’ And as for his (8) absence from the Pledge of Riḍwān, had there been anyone in Mecca more honored than ʿUthmān, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ would have sent that person in his place; instead, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ sent ʿUthmān, and the pledge…"