2553 – Ahmad also said: Ibrāhīm ibn Ḥammād reported to us; he stated: Aḥmad ibn Saʿd, Abū Ibrāhīm al-Zuhri, narrated to us; he said: I heard Yaḥyā ibn Bukayr say: I heard al-Layth ibn Saʿd say: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf remarked, “I canvassed opinions during the selection council, to the point that I even consulted … and every single one of them replied, ‘ʿUthmān.’”