Al-Bukhārī records another report with this same chain that is mawqūf, and Muslim alone records yet another report, which I shall cite later.

Abū Aḥmad al-Ḥākim said: ʿUbaydah’s teknonym is Abū Muslim, and also Abū ʿAmr.

Hishām ibn Ḥassān narrated from Muḥammad, from ʿUbaydah, who said:

“People have differed concerning beverages. For the past thirty years I have drunk nothing but honey, milk, and water.”

Muḥammad added: I said to ʿUbaydah, “We possess some of the Messenger of Allah’s hair—peace and blessings be upon him—which has come to us through Anas ibn Mālik.”

He replied, “For me to have a single hair of his is dearer than all the yellow and white (gold and silver) on the face of the earth.”

I say: This statement of ʿUbaydah is the yardstick of perfect love—to prefer a prophetic hair to all the gold and silver held by humankind.

This was said by that imam a mere fifty years after the Prophet—peace be upon him—so what would we say today if we were to find any of his hair with a sound chain of transmission, or the thong of a sandal that belonged to him, or a clipping of his nail, or even a shard from a vessel he drank from?

If a wealthy person spent most of his fortune to obtain something of that sort, would you count him wasteful or foolish? Certainly not.

Therefore, spend your wealth to visit his mosque—the one he built with his own hands—greet him at his chamber in his city, and delight in gazing at Mount Uḥud and love it, for your Prophet—peace be upon him—loved it. Fill your heart by staying in his garden and in the places where he sat, for you will never be a believer until this master is dearer to you than your own self, your children, your wealth, and all people.

Kiss the honored Stone that descended from Paradise; place your lips in reverence upon the very spot the Master of humankind surely kissed. May Allah congratulate you on what He has granted you, for there is no higher distinction than this.

And were we to obtain the staff with which the Messenger—peace be upon him—pointed to the Stone and then kissed his staff, we would rightly jostle to kiss and venerate that staff as well.

Yet we know with absolute certainty that kissing the Stone is higher and nobler than kissing his staff or his sandal.