The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "Allah has commanded me to love four people and has informed me that He loves them."Someone asked, "Messenger of Allah, who are they?"He replied, "Ali is one of them," repeating this three times, "and Abu Dharr, Salman, and Miqdad."
حدثنا إسمعيل بن موسى وسويد بن سعيد قالا حدثنا شريك عن أبي ربيعة الإيادي
قال رسول الله ﷺ إن الله أمرني بحب أربعة وأخبرني أنه يحبهم قيل يا رسول الله من هم قال علي منهم يقول ذلك ثلاثا وأبو ذر وسلمان والمقداد
[Its chain is daif]Tirmidhi narrated it in the chapter on Virtues, in the section on his naming four people whom he ordered to be loved and stating that Allah loves them, hadith no. 3718, from Ismail, with this wording. He said, "Hasan gharib, we do not know it except through the hadith of Sharik." He is mentioned among those known for tadlis in Hafiz Ibn Hajar's work, in the second rank, so it is possible that he practiced tadlis after his memory became confused. As for his teacher, his hadith is hasan, and the majority of scholars deemed him trustworthy.