- “Welcome to the seeker of knowledge! Indeed, the angels surround the seeker of knowledge and shade him with their wings. Then they mount one upon another until they reach the lowest heaven, out of love for what he seeks.”
Al-Ṭabarānī transmitted it in al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr (8/64/7347), Ibn ʿAdī in al-Kāmil (6/331), and Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr in Jāmiʿ Bayān al-ʿIlm (1/32), through al-Ṣaʿq ibn Ḥazn: ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥakam al-Bunānī narrated to us, from al-Minhāl ibn ʿAmr, from Zirr ibn Ḥubaysh, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd—may Allah be pleased with him—who said: Ṣafwān ibn ʿAssāl al-Murādī related:
“I came to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) while he was reclining in the mosque upon a red cloak of his. I said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, I have come seeking knowledge.’ He said …” Then he related the above.
Ṣafwān said: “O Messenger of Allah, we frequently travel between Mecca and Medina, so give us a ruling concerning wiping over leather socks.” The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said to him: “Three days for the traveller, and one day and one night for the resident.”
I say: This is a good chain of transmission. Its narrators are trustworthy, all being among the narrators of the Ṣaḥīḥ collections, though some of them have received criticism that does not impair it. Al-Mundhirī said in al-Targhīb (1/54/4):
“Ahmad and al-Ṭabarānī transmitted it with a good chain of transmission—the wording is al-Ṭabarānī’s—as did Ibn Ḥibbān in his Ṣaḥīḥ and al-Ḥākim, who said: ‘Its chain of transmission is authentic’ …”
I say: Al-Ḥākim transmitted it (1/100–101) through several routes from Zirr ibn Ḥubaysh, including this route of al-Ṣaʿq. However, he did not cite its wording. He included ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd in its chain of transmission, but did not mention him in another version that he transmitted through ʿĀrim. This is the version of Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, and it is more sound.