I was sitting with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ with no other human being present, when Abu Bakr and Umar approached, each one walking holding the hand of his companion. He said to me, "These two are the masters of the mature men of Paradise from the first and the last, except for the prophets and messengers. Do not inform them of this, Ali."So I never told them, and had they still been alive, I would not have related this.
إني لجالس مع رسول الله ﷺ ليس معنا أحد من البشر، إذ أقبل أبو بكر وعمر رضي الله عنهما يمشيان كل واحد منهما آخذا بيد صاحبه قفال لي: هذان سيدا كهول أهل الجنة من الأولين والآخرين إلا النبيين والمرسلين، لا تخبرهما يا علي. فما أخبرتهما ولو كانا حييين ما حدثت به.
Dulabi narrated it in al-Kuna (2/99) from Abu Hashim Ziyad bin Ayub, who said, Ali bin Muhammad Tanafisi - the nephew, through his sister, of Yaala bin Ubayd - narrated to us, saying, Abdullah Abu Muhammad, the client of Banu Hashim, who was trustworthy, narrated to us, saying, Zuhayr bin Muawiya narrated to us, from Asim, from Zirr (he is Ibn Hubaysh), from Ali, and he mentioned it.Its chain is hasan because of Asim (he is Ibn Bahdala bin Abu Najud), for his hadith is hasan.Abdullah bin Ahmad narrated it in his additions to al-Musnad (602) with similar wording, through the route of Hasan bin Zayd bin Hasan, who said, my father narrated to me, from his father, from Ali, and he mentioned it. Except that he said, "This is the master of the mature men of the people of Paradise and its youth, after the prophets and messengers." His saying "and its youth" is an addition that Hasan bin Zayd alone included, transmitting it from his forefathers, and his being alone in it cannot be accepted, for he makes mistakes, and he has narrations from his father that are rejected and broken, as Ibn Adi said.Tirmidhi narrated it (3665, 3666). In the first chain is Walid bin Muhammad Muqarri, who is abandoned as a narrator, and Ali bin Husayn did not hear from Ali bin Abu Talib. In the second chain is Harith Awar, who is daif.It has been narrated with a similar meaning from Anas, who said, the Messenger of Allah said to Abu Bakr and Umar, "These two are the masters of the mature men of the people of Paradise, from the first and the last, except for the prophets and messengers." Except that it is defective.Tirmidhi narrated it (3664), as did Ibn Abu Asim in al-Sunnah (1420), and Diya in al-Mukhtarah (2508-2510), all of them through the route of Muhammad bin Kathir (he is Masissi), from Uzai, from Qatada, from Anas, and he mentioned it.Diya said, Bukhari said, "This is a rejected hadith." Tirmidhi said, "Muhammad only considered this to be rejected when it comes through the hadith of Qatada, from Anas, from Anas, from the Prophet
." End quote.Ibn Abu Hatim said in al-Ilal (2681), I mentioned it to my father, and I said, "I heard Yunus bin Habib say, I mentioned to Ali bin Madini a hadith that Muhammad bin Kathir Masissi had narrated to us, from Uzai, from Qatada, from Anas, and he mentioned the hadith. Ali said, 'I used to wish to see this shaykh, but now I have no desire to see him.' My father said, 'He is right, for this text does not come through Qatada, from Anas.'"As for Muhammad bin Kathir, Mizzi transmitted in his Tahdhib (6161), from Saeed bin Amr Bardhai, that he said, Abu Hatim said to me, "A written collection of Uzai's material was handed to Muhammad bin Kathir, with every hadith in it marked, 'Muhammad bin Kathir narrated to us, from Uzai,' and he read it through to the end saying, 'Muhammad bin Kathir narrated to us, from Uzai,' repeating for every single hadith in it, 'Muhammad bin Kathir narrated to us, from Uzai,' when in truth it was only Muhammad bin Kathir himself."For this reason Ibn Adi said, "He has narrations from Mamar and Uzai in which no one corroborates him." And this hadith is among his narrations from Uzai.