Who was the best of the Successors?

In type forty of Tadrib al-Rawi, on knowing the Successors, al-Nawawi reports views on who was the best of them; al-Suyuti adds the discussion of al-Iraqi and al-Bulqini, and the editor Muhammad Awwama comments. ¹ It is a question of ranking in which the answers vary with the kind of excellence in view.

Al-Iraqi offered three explanations for Ahmad's preferring Ibn al-Musayyab and others: perhaps the hadith had not reached him, or it was not sound in his view, or he meant superiority in knowledge rather than in goodness. ³ The editor Awwama finds the first two untenable, because Ahmad himself narrates the hadith in his Musnad, in the story of Umar searching among the Yemeni pilgrims until he met Uways, with the same chain as Muslim's; so only the last explanation, distinguishing superiority from goodness, remains. ^{4 3} He adds that what was reported from Malik casting doubt on Uways is what led al-Iraqi to these explanations, as a way of excusing both imams. ⁴

The editor notes that al-Dhahabi opens his entry on Uways in Tarikh al-Islam with "the master of the Successors" and closes it by saying that no Successor is better than he, though another may equal him in merit, such as Sa'id ibn al-Musayyab, and such men are few. ^{4 3} Awwama comments: in virtue, yes; but in knowledge and in benefiting the community through learning, preaching and standing firm for the truth before an unjust ruler, no — and he leaves the matter to God's knowledge. ³

Ahmad said no Successor gave more fatwas than al-Hasan and Ata': Ata' was the mufti of Mecca and al-Hasan the mufti of Basra. ³ Ibn Abi Dawud said the two leading women Successors were Hafsa bint Sirin and Amra bint Abd al-Rahman, followed by Umm al-Darda' the Younger, and Iyas ibn Mu'awiya said he had met no one he would rank above Hafsa. ^{3 5}