(continues) This hadith is hasan. I add: Tirmidhi also transmitted it— in abridged form and through this same chain—declaring it “hasan sahih” (1/293, Bulaq ed.). In addition, it has corroborating reports from several Companions. One is the marfu narration of Jabir ibn Abd Allah: “I have been given five things that no one before me was given …,” the fifth being, “and I have been granted intercession.” It is recorded by al-Bukhari (1/346, 423), Muslim (2/63), al-Nasai (1/73), al-Darimi (1/322), al-Bayhaqi (2/433), and Ahmad (3/304). Another supporting report comes from Abu Dharr with wording similar to Jabir’s. It appears in al-Darimi (2/224) and Ahmad (5/145, 148) through al-Aʿmash, from Mujahid, from Ubayd ibn Umayr al-Laythi, from him; this isnad is sahih and its transmitters are those of the Six Books. Abu Dawud (1/79) cites from it only the statement: “The earth has been made for me a place of prostration and a means of purification.” Wasil al-Ahdab, however, reported: “I heard it from Mujahid, from Abu Dharr,” thereby omitting Ubayd ibn Umayr from the chain; this version is found in al-Tayalisi (64) and Ahmad (5/161). Abu Dharr has another hadith in which the Prophet says: “Wherever the time of prayer overtakes you, perform it there, for that is a mosque.”