ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Muḥammad reported: ʿUthmān ibn Aḥmad narrated to us; Hanbal ⦗1476⦘ narrated to us; he said: I heard Abū ʿAbd Allāh Aḥmad [ibn Ḥanbal] asked about the tafḍīl (the ranking of merit among the Companions). He answered, “Concerning merit, the hadith of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar states: Abu Bakr, then ʿUmar, then ʿUthmān. As for the caliphate, [it is] Abu Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, and ʿAlī. And in the hadith of Safīnah, the Prophet ﷺ said: ‘The caliphate after me will last thirty years.’”