Ayesha said, "My nephew, I have heard that Abdullah bin Amr will be passing by us on his way to Hajj. Meet him and ask him questions, for he has carried much knowledge from the Prophet ﷺ."Urwa said, "So I met him and asked him about things he related from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ."Urwa continued, "Among what he mentioned was that the Prophet ﷺ said, 'Allah does not snatch away knowledge from people all at once. Rather, He takes away the scholars, and knowledge is taken with them. What remains among the people are ignorant leaders who give religious rulings without knowledge, so they go astray and lead others astray.'"Urwa said, "When I narrated this to Ayesha, she found it grave and rejected it. She said, 'Did he tell you that he himself heard the Prophet ﷺ say this?'"Urwa said, "The following year, she said to me, 'Ibn Amr has arrived. Meet him, then engage him in conversation until you ask him about the hadith concerning knowledge that he related to you.'"Urwa said, "So I met him and asked him, and he related it to me just as he had told me the first time."Urwa said, "When I informed her of this, she said, 'I can only think that he has spoken truthfully. I see that he has neither added anything to it nor taken anything away.'"
قالت عائشة: يا ابن أختي، بلغني أن عبد الله بن عمرو مار بنا إلى الحج فالقه فسائله فإنه قد حمل النبي ﷺ علما كثيرا، قال: فلقيته فسألته عن أشياء يذكرها عن رسول الله ﷺ. قال عروة: فكان فيما ذكر أن النبي ﷺ قال: إن الله لا ينتزع العلم من الناس انتزاعا، ولكن يقبض العلماء فيرفع العلم معهم، ويبقي في الناس رؤوسا جهالا يفتونهم بغير علم، فيضلون، ويضلون. قال عروة: فلما حدثت عائشة بذلك، أعظمت ذلك، وأنكرته، قالت: أحدثك أنه سمع النبي ﷺ يقول هذا؟ قال عروة: إذا كان قابل، قالت له: إن ابن عمرو قد قدم فالقه، ثم فاتحه حتى تسأله عن الحديث الذي ذكره لك في العلم. قال: فلقيته فسألته، فذكره لي نحو ما حدثني به في مرته الأولى. قال عروة: فلما أخبرتها بذلك، قالت: ما أحسبه إلا قد صدق، أراه لم يزد فيه شيئا ولم ينقض.
Muslim narrated it in the Book of Knowledge (2673) from Harmala bin Yahya Tujibi, who said, Abdullah bin Wahb informed us, Abu Shurayh narrated to me, that Abul-Aswad narrated to him from Urwa bin Zubayr, who said (then he mentioned it). Bukhari narrated it in the Book of Holding Fast to the Book and the Sunnah (7307) from Saeed bin Talid, who said, Ibn Wahb narrated to me, Abdul-Rahman bin Shurayh and others narrated to me with his chain in a shortened form, and it contains, "By Allah, Abdullah bin Amr has indeed remembered well."This hadith has also been narrated from Ayesha. Bazzar narrated it (233, Kashf al-Astar) from Ahmad bin Mansur, who said, Abdullah bin Salih narrated to us, Layth narrated to us, from Yunus, from Zuhri, from Urwa, from Ayesha, who said, the Messenger of Allah said, "Allah does not take knowledge away from people by wresting it from them after He has given it to them, but He takes away the scholars, and whenever a scholar is taken away, he takes with him the knowledge he had, until there remains no one who has knowledge, and so they go astray and lead others astray."Uqba Bazzar said, "Yunus alone transmitted it this way, while Mamar narrated it from Zuhri, from Urwa, from Abdullah bin Amr."I say, this is an indication from Bazzar, may Allah have mercy on him, of the defect in this hadith. For what is well known, as recorded in the Book of Knowledge, and what is famous, is that Urwa narrates this hadith from Abdullah bin Amr, and that it was Urwa who related it to Ayesha from Ibn Amr, so she found it shocking and denied it, as mentioned before. Had this hadith been with her own knowledge, she would not have denied it. And Allah knows best.