The Messenger of Allah looked at the Kaaba and said:

“There is no god worthy of worship but Allah. How pure you are, how sweet your fragrance, and how great your sanctity! Yet the believer is of greater sanctity than you …” The hadith continues with similar wording.

Al-Tabarani recorded it in al-Mu'jam al-Kabir (11/37/10966).

Its chain of transmission is weak, though not severely so; thus, it may be cited in support.

It has a corroborating report from the hadith of Abdullah ibn Amr—or Ibn Umar—attributed to the Prophet.

Ibn Majah recorded it (3933) through Nasr ibn Muhammad ibn Sulayman al-Himsi: my father narrated to us; Abdullah ibn Abi Qays al-Nasri narrated to us; Abdullah ibn Amr said:

“I saw the Messenger of Allah circumambulating the Kaaba and saying …” Then he mentioned it.

Its narrators are trustworthy, apart from this Nasr. Abu Hatim declared him weak, whereas Ibn Hibban declared him trustworthy. Al-Iraqi identified him as its defect in Takhrij al-Ihya' (4/141), and al-Hafiz said in al-Taqrib: “Weak.”

I say: Nevertheless, it is strengthened, at the very least, by the hadith under discussion.

Furthermore, I had previously declared this hadith of Ibn Majah weak in some of my source-documentations and annotations, before Shu'ab al-Iman was printed. But when I came upon its chain of transmission there and its soundness as a good hadith became clear to me, I hastened to document it here, in order to discharge my responsibility and offer sincere counsel to the Ummah, praying: “Our Lord, do not take us to task if we forget or err.” Accordingly, the hadith is to be transferred from Da'if al-Jami' al-Saghir and Da'if Sunan Ibn Majah to their respective Sahih collections. *