1001 — “Do not use mosques as thoroughfares, except for remembrance or prayer.”

Ibn Abī Thābit narrated it in his Hadith (1/126/1): Aḥmad ibn Bakr al-Balsī narrated to us; Mūsā ibn Ayyūb narrated to us; Yaḥyā ibn Ṣāliḥ narrated to us from ʿAlī ibn Ḥawshab, from Abū Qabīl, from Sālim, from his father, attributing it directly to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. Al-Ṭabarānī also narrated it in al-Kabīr (3/194/2) and in al-Awsaṭ (20/2) of Majmaʿ al-Baḥrayn; and Ibn ʿAsākir narrated it from him in Tārīkh Dimashq (12/39/2), through another route from Yaḥyā ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Wuhāẓī, with the same wording.

I said: This is a good chain of transmission. All its narrators are trustworthy. There is slight criticism of Abū Qabīl—whose name was Yaḥyā ibn Hānīʾ—but it does not lower his hadith below the rank of good. For this reason, al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Mundhirī said in al-Targhīb (1/124): “Its chain is unobjectionable.” Similarly, al-Haythamī said (2/24): “Its narrators are deemed trustworthy.” Ibn Mājah also narrated it through another route from Ibn ʿUmar, as part of a hadith of his, but its chain is weak, as I explained in al-Ḍaʿīfah (1497). It also has a corroborating report, similar in wording, from Ibn Masʿūd, which has preceded under no. 649.

1002 — “No; rather, a servant and messenger.”

Ibn Ḥibbān (2137) and Aḥmad (2/231) narrated it through Muḥammad ibn Fuḍayl, from ʿUmārah ibn al-Qaʿqāʿ, from Abū Zurʿah, from Abū Hurayrah, who said: “Gabriel sat with the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and looked towards the sky. Then an angel was descending, so Gabriel said to him: ‘This angel has not descended since he was created, until this moment.’ When he descended, he said: ‘O Muḥammad, your Lord has sent me to you: Shall I make you a king, or a servant and messenger?’ Gabriel said to him: ‘Be humble...’”