The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "What an excellent man is Abu Bakr. What an excellent man is Umar. What an excellent man is Abu Ubayda bin Jarra. What an excellent man is Usayd bin Hudayr. What an excellent man is Thabit bin Qays bin Shammas. What an excellent man is Muaz bin Jabal. What an excellent man is Muaz bin Amr bin Jamuh."
أن رسول الله ﷺ قال: نعم الرجل أبو بكر، نعم الرجل عمر، نعم الرجل أبو عبيدة بن الجراح، نعم الرجل أسيد بن حضير، نعم الرجل ثابت بن قيس بن شماس، نعم الرجل معاذ بن جبل، نعم الرجل معاذ بن عمرو بن الجموح.
Ahmad (9431) and Nasai in Al-Kubra (8186) narrated it, and Ibn Hibban (6997, 7129) and Hakim (3/233) and (3/268) graded it sahih, all of them through routes from Suhayl bin Abu Salih, from his father, from Abu Hurairah, who mentioned it.Ibn Hibban and Hakim added, in their first-mentioned place, in the hadith, the statement, "What a bad man so-and-so is, and so-and-so," naming seven men whom the Messenger of Allah ﷺ named, but Suhayl did not name them for us.Its chain of transmission is hasan because of Suhayl bin Abu Salih, for his hadith is hasan.Hakim said, "It is sahih according to the criterion of Muslim, but the two of them did not include it."