A man set out on a journey, and two men followed behind him, with another man trailing the two. The third man called out, "Go back!" so the two turned back.Then he said to the traveler, "Those two were devils. I kept after them until I forced them to return. When you reach the Prophet ﷺ, convey my greetings of peace to him, and inform him that we are gathering our charity. If it were lawful for him to accept, we would have sent it to him."Upon hearing this, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ forbade traveling alone.
أن رجلا، خرج، فتبعه رجلان، ورجل يتلوهما يقول: ارجعا قال: فرجعا قال: فقال له: إن هذين شيطانان، وإني لم أزل بهما حتى رددتهما، فإذا أتيت النبي ﷺ فأقرئه السلام، وأعلمه أنا في جمع صدقاتنا، ولو كانت تصلح له لأرسلنا بها إليه قال: فنهى رسول الله ﷺ عند ذلك عن الخلوة.
Ahmad (2719) narrated it, as did Bazzar in Kashf Astar (2022), Abu Yaala (2588), and Hakim (2/102), all of them through the route of Ubaydullah bin Amr Raqqi, from Abdul-Kareem (he is Ibn Malik Jazari), from Ikrima, from Ibn Abbas, who related it. Its chain of transmission is sahih. Hakim said, "Its chain is sahih according to the standard of Bukhari." Haythami said in al-Majma (8/104), "Ahmad and Abu Yaala narrated it, and their narrators are the narrators of the sahih collections, and likewise Bazzar."Abdul-Kareem here is Ibn Malik Jazari, who is trustworthy. Ahmad, Abu Hatim, Daraqutni, and others affirmed his trustworthiness. He is not Abdul-Kareem bin Abu Mukhariq, for that man is extremely daif, indeed Nasai and Daraqutni said that he is discarded as a narrator. Some scholars confused the two because they belong to the same generation and share the same teacher, Ikrima. However, Ubaydullah bin Amr Raqqi narrated only from Jazari.