Ahmad and at-Tirmidhi narrated that Anas ibn Malik said: The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, ‘The most merciful of my ummah towards my ummah is Abu Bakr, the most severe of them in the matter of Allah is cUmar, the most truly modest of them is cUthman, the most knowledgeable of them of the halal and the haram is Mucadh bin Jabal, the most knowledgeable in the laws of inheritance is Zayd ibn Thabit, the best read of them (in Qur’an reading) is Ubayy ibn Kacb, and every ummah has a trusted one and the trusted one of this ummah is Abu cUbaydah ibn al-Jarrah.’ Abu YaTa narrated it from the hadith of Ibn cUmar and added (in his narration) to it, ‘and the most decisive of them (as Qadi) is cAli.’ Ad-Daylami narrated it in Musnad al-Firdaws from a hadith of Shaddad ibn Aws who added to it, ‘and Abu Dharr is the most abstinent of my ummah and the most truthful of them, Abu’d-Darda’ is the most given to worship of my ummah and has the most fearful obedience of them, and Mucawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan is the most forbearing of my ummah and the most liberally generous.’ Our Shaykh al-Khafiji was asked about these distinguishing i haracteristics and whether they negated the ones previously given and he replied that there was no contradiction.