A man was sitting with the Prophet ﷺ when another man passed by. He said, "Messenger of Allah, I truly love this man."The Prophet ﷺ asked him, "Have you told him?"He replied, "No."The Prophet ﷺ said, "Tell him."So he caught up with the man and said, "I love you for the sake of Allah."The other man replied, "May the One for whose sake you love me also love you."
أن رجلا كان عند النبي ﷺ، فمر به رجل فقال: يا رسول الله، إني لأحب هذا، فقال له النبي ﷺ: أعلمته؟ قال: لا، قال: أعلمه قال: فلحقه، فقال: إني أحبك في الله، فقال: أحبك الذي أحببتني له.
Abu Dawud (5125), Nasai in Amal al-Yawm wal-Layla (182), and Ahmad (12514, 12430) narrated it, and Ibn Hibban (571) and Hakim (4/171) graded it sahih, all of them through various routes from Thabit Bunani, from Anas, and he mentioned it. Its chain is sahih. Hakim said, "This is a hadith sahih in its chain."However, there is disagreement regarding Thabit Bunani. Hammad bin Salama narrated it from Thabit, from Habib bin Abu Sabia, from Harith, from a man who reported this hadith to him. Nasai narrated it this way in Amal al-Yawm wal-Layla (184) and said, "This is the correct version according to us." Daraqutni likewise narrated it this way in al-Ilal, and so did Bayhaqi in Shuab al-Iman (8593). Other versions have also been mentioned.If the unnamed man is one of the companions, then his being unnamed does no harm, just as there is a group of narrators who transmitted from Thabit, from Anas, so it is not unlikely that their version is also preserved. This hadith of Anas appears in an abbreviated form in the Sahihayn, "A man is with whoever he loves."