مسند أحمد

It was narrated that ‘Abd Khair al-Hamdani said: I heard `Ali (رضي الله عنهما) say on the minbar: Shall I not tell you of the best of this ummah after its Prophet? Then he mentioned Abu Bakr. Then he said: Shall I not tell you of the second one? Then he mentioned `Umar (رضي الله عنهما). Then he said: If I wished, I could tell you of the third one, And he kept quiet. We thought that he meant himself. I [the narrator] said: Did you hear him say that? He said: Yes, by the Lord of the Ka`bah, otherwise may they [his ears] go deaf.