Ibn Mājah narrated a similar report from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, traced back to the Prophet (1).
Seventeenth: The Prophet ﷺ encouraged them, once new lands were conquered, to relax by shooting their arrows. Al-Ṭabarānī relates—through Ṣāliḥ ibn Kaysān, from ʿUqbah ibn ʿĀmir—that I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: “The earth will be opened up for you, and your provisions will be secured; so let none of you fail to amuse himself with his arrows.” (2)
Eighteenth: The benefit of archery and the damage it inflicts upon the enemy surpass every other instrument of war. How often has a single arrow routed an entire army! One skilled archer can keep cavalry at bay, and the bravest warriors tremble before him. Moreover, when you are about to let an arrow fly at your foe (3), it relieves you of the burden of
and in al-Sunan al-Kubra 10:14. Al-Bayhaqi observes: “Only Muhammad b. Talhah relates it, and the chain is broken; ‘Abd al-Rahman b. ‘Uwaym was not a Companion.” Al-Bukhari likewise notes: “‘Abd al-Rahman b. ‘Uwaym al-Ansari: mursal”; see al-Tarikh 5:325. Accordingly, the report is mursal and its isnad is weak.
(1) See below, pp. 81–82.
(2) Fī Faḍl al-Ramy, no. 25, records it through Usamah b. Zayd al-Laythi from Salih b. Kaysan with the same wording. This version too is mursal and has a weak isnad. A sounder replacement is the hadith in Muslim’s Sahih, Book of Leadership, no. 1918, transmitted by Abu ‘Ali al-Hamdani from ‘Uqbah: “Territories will soon be opened for you, and Allah will suffice you; so let none of you neglect to amuse himself with his arrows.”
(3) MS Ẓ reads: “and that the archer, intending death, launches his arrow at your enemy.”