2501 – Muhammad ibn al-Husayn al-Fārisi said: Muhammad ibn Makhlad related to us, saying: al-ʿAlāʾ ibn Sālim narrated to us, saying: Muhammad ibn Abī Sahl—also called Abū Sahl ibn Abī Rajāʾ—narrated to us, saying: ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm narrated to us, saying: Masrūq ibn al-Ḍaḥḥāk, a client of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, narrated to us. He said:

I heard Abū Jaʿfar Muhammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn report from his father that:

A young man from Banū Hāshim said to ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib after he had stepped down: “I heard you, O Commander of the Believers, preaching the Friday sermon and saying, ‘O Allah, set us right by means of that with which You set right the Rightly Guided Caliphs.’ Who are they?”

His eyes filled with tears until they flowed onto his beard, and he replied: “Abū Bakr and ʿUmar—the leaders of guidance, the two elders of Islam, and the ones to be emulated after the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Whoever follows them is guided to a straight path; whoever takes them as an example is rightly directed; and whoever holds fast to them belongs to the party of Allah—and the party of Allah, they are the successful.”