and therefore Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, in a fatwa dealing with this question, said:

“It is essential to differentiate between the light, occasional use that meets genuine needs and the frequent, habitual use by those who are not in need. For that reason Ibn ʿAbbās said: ‘Do not turn the mosque into a place for spending the night or for taking your siesta.’

19 – Living in one part of the mosque for any man or woman who has no other shelter, and on this several ḥadiths have been transmitted:

a) Talḥa ibn ʿAmr al-Baṣrī related: “I arrived in Medina as an emigrant, and whenever one of us reached the city, if he had an ʿarīf (a sponsor) he would stay with him, but if he had no sponsor he would stay in the Ṣuffa. I came without a sponsor, so I lodged in the Ṣuffa…” and so the report continues.

Al-Ḥākim and al-Bayhaqī recorded the tradition in full—the wording is al-Bayhaqī’s—through various chains from Dāwūd ibn Abī Hind, from Abū Ḥarb ibn Abī al-Aswad, from Talḥa. All additional phrases are from al-Bayhaqī except the second, which belongs to the shaykh of al-Ḥākim. Al-Ḥākim said, “Its chain is sound,” and al-Dhahabī agreed. His assessment is correct, for everyone in the chain up to Talḥa is among the reliable transmitters used by Muslim. Aḥmad also recorded it through this route with some abridgement, and Ibn Ḥibbān included it in his Ṣaḥīḥ (as noted in Taʿjīl al-Manfaʿa), while al-Ṭabarānī cited it as well in al-Iṣāba.