2614 – Al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad informed us; Idrīs ibn ʿAlī narrated to us; I heard Abū Bakr al-Nīsābūrī say: I heard al-Rabīʿ say: I heard Muḥammad ibn Idrīs al-Shāfiʿī remark, concerning the succession (khilāfah) and the order of merit (tafḍīl): “Abū Bakr, then ʿUmar, then ʿUthmān, then ʿAlī.” ⦗1451⦘

2615 – He added: Al-Ḥarrānī—meaning Abū Sulaymān—also transmitted this, on the authority of Abū Zakariyyā al-Nīsābūrī, from a certain man, from Mālik, who expressed the same view as al-Shāfiʿī.