Someone asked, "Messenger of Allah, what will the caliph after you have?"He replied, "The same as what I have, so long as he judges with justice, deals fairly in distribution, and shows mercy to kin. Whoever does otherwise is not from me, and I am not from him."
قيل: يا رسول الله، ما للخليفة من بعدك؟ قال: مثل الذي لي ما عدل في الحكم، وأقسط في القسط، ورحم ذا الرحم، فمن فعل غير ذلك فليس مني، ولست منه.
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Tabarani narrated it in Kabir (6/55), Bukhari in Tarikh al-Kabir (4/46), and Ibn Zanjawayh in Amwal (39), all of them through the route of Abu Ayub Sulayman bin Abdul-Rahman Dimashqi, who said, Walid bin Muslim told us, who said, Abdullah bin Ala and others told us, that they both heard Bilal bin Saad narrating from his father Saad, and he mentioned it. The wording given is that of Ibn Zanjawayh. Its chain of transmission is hasan because of Sulayman bin Abdul-Rahman Dimashqi, for he is hasan al-hadith. Haythami said in Majma (5/231), "Its men are trustworthy."