The Messenger of Allah ﷺ recited this verse, "And if you turn away, He will replace you with another people, and they will not be the likes of you" [Muhammad 47:38].The companions asked, "Messenger of Allah, who are these people who, if we turn away, would replace us and not be like us?"He patted Salman on the thigh and said, "This man and his people. Even if faith were at the Pleiades, Some men from Persia would reach it."
أن رسول الله ﷺ تلا هذه الآية: {وإن تتولوا يستبدل قوما غيركم ثم لا يكونوا أمثلكم} قالوا: يا رسول الله، من هؤلاء الذين إن تولينا استبدلوا بنا ثم لا يكونوا أمثالنا؟ فضرب على فخذ سلمان، قال: هذا وقومه، ولو كان الدين عند الثريا لتناوله رجال من الفرس.
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Ibn Jareer narrated it in his Tafsir (21/233–234), Baghawi in his Tafsir (4/164), and Tabarani in al-Awsat (8833), all of them through the route of Muslim bin Khalid Zanji, from Ala bin Abdul-Rahman, from his father, from Abu Hurairah, who said, then he mentioned it.Hafiz bin Kathir said, "Muslim bin Khalid Zanji narrated it alone, and more than one person narrated it from him, and some of the imams have criticized him."I say, Muslim bin Khalid Zanji is a subject of disagreement. Ibn Main, Daraqutni, Ibn Hibban, and others considered him trustworthy, while Ibn Madini criticized him. Furthermore, he was not the sole narrator of this hadith, for Hakim narrated it (2/458) through the route of Abdul-Aziz bin Muhammad Darawardi, and Tirmidhi (3261) through the route of Abdullah bin Jafar bin Najih, both of them (Darawardi and Abdullah bin Jafar) narrating from Ala bin Abdul-Rahman in a similar manner.Abdullah bin Jafar is daif, and Darawardi is truthful, and through these routes the hadith rises to the level of hasan.