- “Recite the Quran, but do not go to excess concerning it, do not neglect it, do not use it as a means of livelihood, and do not seek to amass wealth through it.”
Ahmad narrated it (3/428): Isma‘il ibn Ibrahim narrated to us from Hisham—meaning al-Dastuwa’i—who said: Yahya ibn Abi Kathir narrated to me (the original reads: Numayr!) from Abu Rashid al-Hubrani, who said: ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Shibl said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say … and then related it.
I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission, if Yahya heard it from Abu Rashid al-Hubrani, for he has been described as practising some concealment in transmission. However, it is authentically established in some of his narrations that he received it from Zayd ibn Salam ibn Abi Salam (Mamtur al-Habashi), from Abu Salam, from Abu Rashid al-Hubrani, as will follow.
Ahmad and Ibn Abi Shaybah (2/400–401) then narrated it, saying: Waki‘ narrated to us from al-Dastuwa’i, with the same chain.
Ayyub also corroborated him, from Yahya, from Abu Rashid, with it.
Al-Tabarani narrated it in al-Mu‘jam al-Awsat (1/143/1/2741).
Ahmad (3/444), al-Tahawi in Sharh al-Ma‘ani (2/10), and Abu Ya‘la in his Musnad (3/88/1518)—from whom Ibn ‘Asakir narrated it in Tarikh Dimashq (9/9707)—also narrated it by way of Aban: Yahya ibn Abi Kathir narrated to us: Zayd narrated to me, from Abu Salam, from al-Hubrani, with it.
I say: This is an authentic chain with a continuous chain. Al-Hafiz (9/101), after attributing it to Ahmad and Abu Ya‘la, said:
“Its chain is strong.”