(b) Abu Hurayrah said, “The People of the Ṣuffa were the guests of [the community of] Islam; they had neither households to lodge with nor any property of their own.”

This is a fragment of a longer ḥadith collected by al-Bukhārī, al-Tirmidhī, and al-Ḥākim. The wording is that of the last two, while the additional phrases are found only in the first of them. Al-Ḥākim graded it sound. It was also transmitted by al-Bayhaqī and Aḥmad through several routes from ʿUmar ibn Dharr, who said: “Mujāhid narrated it to us …”

Al-Ḥāfiẓ said:

“In the mursal of Yazīd ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Qusait, recorded by Ibn Saʿd, it reads:
‘The People of the Ṣuffa were poor folk who had no dwellings, so they used to sleep in the mosque; they had no refuge other than it.’

And via another chain, from Naʿīm ibn al-Mujammir on the authority of Abu Hurayrah:
‘I was one of the People of the Ṣuffa. When evening came we would present ourselves to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. He would instruct each man to take one or more of us home, and those who remained—ten or so, a little fewer or a little more—the Prophet would bring his own supper, we would dine with him, and when we had finished he would say: “Sleep in the mosque.”’”

I say: The first report is in the Ṭabaqāt of Ibn Saʿd, in the section on Ahl al-Ṣuffa. As for the second report in the wording just quoted, I have not located it in the passage indicated in the Ṭabaqāt. I also reviewed the biography of Abu Hurayrah there and did not find it, so Allah knows best where this narration is situated in the Ṭabaqāt.

Al-Bayhaqī further related, with a muʿḍal chain, from ʿUthmān ibn al-Yamān, who said: