2601 – Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Fārisi narrated to us; he said: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn Hishām ibn Milās in Damascus narrated to us; he said: Ibrāhīm ibn Yaʿqūb al-Jawzajānī narrated to us; he said: Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal related to me; he said: Bishr ibn Shuʿayb narrated to us, from his father, from al-Zuhrī, who informed me from Sālim ibn ʿAbd Allāh, from his father, who said:

“We used to say, while the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was still alive: ‘The best of the Messenger of Allah’s ﷺ community after him is Abu Bakr, then ʿUmar, then ʿUthmān.’”