532 - 'Ali ibn 'Abd al-Samad informed me, saying: I heard Harun al-Dik say: I heard Ahmad ibn Hanbal say: "Whoever says: Abu Bakr, then 'Umar, then 'Uthman, is a proponent of the Sunnah (sahib sunnah). And whoever says: Abu Bakr, then 'Umar, then 'Ali, then 'Uthman, he is a Rafidi, or

533 - he said: an innovator (mubtadi')."