Azami 10579

Ahmad narrated it (23848), saying, I read to Abdul-Rahman, Malik, from Yazid bin Abdullah bin Had, from Muhammad bin Ibrahim bin Harith Taymi, from Abu Salama bin Abdul-Rahman, from Abu Hurairah, who said, and then he mentioned it.This hadith is in the Muwatta, Book of Friday Prayer (243), from this same route, in a longer form. Its chain of transmission is sahih, except that Ibn Had erred in naming the companion, for the hadith belongs to Abu Basra, not to Abu Hurairah. A number of scholars have said the same.As for his statement, "mounts should not be saddled," it is in the passive form derived from "isaal," meaning, one should not ride a mount to a masjid except to three masjids. Abu Hurairah is among those who narrate this hadith, as found in the Sahihayn and elsewhere, so how could it be permissible for him to travel to the masjid of Tur?Several answers have been given to this, the most important of which are as follows.First, perhaps he understood the hadith to mean that complete merit belongs to these three masjids alone, while for other masjids there is no such complete merit, so there would be no objection to traveling to another masjid merely to pray in it, without seeking that special merit.Second, perhaps his original purpose in setting out was to visit Tur, and he did not intend to pray in its masjid.Third, perhaps this hadith was not something Abu Hurairah himself possessed, for in the sources I have examined he did not say, "I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ." Rather, when Basra Ghifari informed him of it, he began to narrate this hadith from the Prophet ﷺ, omitting the intermediary, as is well known to occur in the transmission of hadith among the companions of the Prophet ﷺ. This is the best of the explanations, and Allah knows best.