Abū Bakr and Umar and recognition of their merit are part of the Sunnah.”*) (1)

This has also been reported from Ibn Masūd.

How could the early Shia not have accorded precedence to Abū Bakr and Umar, when it has been recurrently transmitted from the Commander of the Faithful, Ali ibn Abī Tālib—may Allah be pleased with him—that he said:

“The best of this nation after its Prophet is Abū Bakr, then Umar.” (2)

This has been reported from him through many chains; it is said that they number as many as eighty.

Al-Bukhārī also narrated (3) it from him [in his Sahīh] (4) through Hamdānī transmitters, who were the people closest to Ali, to the point that he would say:

“If (5) I were the gatekeeper at the gate of Paradise,
I would say to Hamdān, ‘Enter (6) in peace.’”

Al-Bukhārī also narrated it through Sufyān al-Thawrī [who was a Hamdānī] (7), from Mundhir [who was a Hamdānī] (8), from Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya, who said:

“I asked my father, ‘Father, who is the best of people after the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace?’

He replied, ‘My son, do you not know?’

I said, ‘No.’

He said, ‘Abū Bakr.’

I asked, ‘And then whom?’

He answered, ‘Umar.’”

Ali said this privately to his son, when they were alone. This is not something he could have said as an act of taqiyya (dissimulation), with his son relating it specifically from his father; Ali also said it from the pulpit.