Sunan an-Nasa'i 782
سنن النسائي#782Sahihأَخْبَرَنَا عُبَيْدُ اللَّهِ بْنُ سَعِيدٍ، عَنْ يَحْيَى، عَنْ هِشَامٍ، قَالَ حَدَّثَنَا قَتَادَةُ، عَنْ أَبِي نَضْرَةَ، عَنْ أَبِي سَعِيدٍ، عَنِ النَّبِيِّ صلى الله عليه وسلم قَالَ " إِذَا كَانُوا ثَلاَثَةً فَلْيَؤُمَّهُمْ أَحَدُهُمْ وَأَحَقُّهُمْ بِالإِمَامَةِ أَقْرَؤُهُمْ " .
It was narrated from Abu Sa'eed that the Prophet (ﷺ) said:"when there are three people let one of them lead the prayer, and the one who is most entitled to lead the prayer is the one who has most knowledge of the Qur'an
Scholarly Authentication
The label above is the grade most of these scholars gave, each scholar counted once — one dissenting opinion no longer speaks for all of them. If any scholar calls a narration fabricated, that verdict is shown instead, whatever the others say. When they judged only its chain of narrators (“Isnaad”), the label says “Sound chain”. Each scholar's own wording:
Our source also lists this ruling under Abu Ghuddah, the editor of the printed edition it was taken from. It is al-Albani's ruling printed again, so it is counted once.
In-book reference: 10:6