2539 – ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Ziyād told us; he said: Makkī ibn ʿAbdān told us; he said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Hishām told us; he said: Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd ibn Hishām narrated to us—

2540 – And Aḥmad ibn ʿUbayd told us; he said: ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Mubashshir told us; he said: Aḥmad ibn Sinān told us; he said: Abū Qaṭan ʿAmr ibn al-Haytham—meaning al-Dastuʾāʾī—narrated from Qatādah, from Sālim ibn Abī al-Jaʿd, from Maʿdān ibn Abī Ṭalḥah, who said:

“ʿUmar once delivered the Friday sermon. He praised the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and then Abū Bakr. After that he said:

‘I saw in a dream that a rooster pecked me twice, and I take it only as a sign that my appointed time is near. If death overtakes me suddenly, the caliphate is to be decided by consultation among these six men with whom the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, passed away while pleased with them.’

Hishām added: Qatādah used to list those six as: ʿUthmān, ʿAlī, Ṭalḥah, al-Zubayr, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf, and Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ.

[ʿUmar continued:] ‘Certain people are urging me to appoint a successor, yet I know that Allah will never neglect His caliphate—by the One who sent His Prophet.’

In the version of Yaḥyā ibn Hishām he also said: ‘I know that those people will not be able to carry this matter.’ He then returned to the wording of Abū Qaṭan: ‘I pledged those men with my own hand upon Islam; if they deviate, then they are the enemies of Allah—unbelievers, misguided.’

Then he prayed: ‘O Allah, I call You to witness concerning the governors of the provinces: I have only dispatched them so that they teach the people their religion, distribute their fayʾ (public spoils), and refer back to me whatever of their affairs confuses them. ⦗1412⦘’