The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "Clean earth is the means of purification for a Muslim, even if he does not find water for ten years. But when he finds water, let him fear Allah and let it touch his skin, for that is better."
قال رسول الله ﷺ: الصعيد وضوء المسلم وإن لم يجد الماء عشر سنين، فإذا وجد الماء فليتق الله، وليمسه بشره؛ فإن ذلك خير.
Bazzar narrated it (Kashf Astar 1/no. 310). He said, Muqaddam bin Muhammad bin Ali bin Muqaddam Muqaddami narrated to us, my uncle Qasim bin Yahya bin Ataa bin Muqaddam narrated to me, Hisham bin Hassan narrated to us, from Muhammad bin Sirin, from Abu Hurairah, and he mentioned the hadith. Bazzar said, "We do not know it to be narrated from Abu Hurairah except by this route, and Muqaddam's lineage is known." Tabarani also narrated it in al-Awsat, saying, Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Sadaqah narrated to us, Muqaddam bin Muhammad Muqaddami narrated to us with the same chain, and in it Abu Hurairah said, "Abu Dharr was with some livestock in Madinah, and when he came the Prophet ﷺ said to him, 'O Abu Dharr!' He remained silent, so he said, 'O Abu Dharr, may your mother be bereft of you!' He said, 'I am in a state of major ritual impurity.' So he called for the young girl to bring water, and she brought it, and he screened himself with his mount and then washed. The Prophet ﷺ then said to him, 'The clean earth suffices you, even if you do not find water for twenty years, but when you do find it, then let it touch your skin.'"Tabarani said, "Only Hisham narrated it from Ibn Sirin, and only Qasim narrated it from Hisham, Muqaddami narrated it alone." Haythami said in Majma al-Zawaid (1/261), "Its narrators are the narrators of the sahih." Hafiz bin Qayyim mentioned in Tahzib Sunan (1/205), after attributing it to Bazzar, "Ibn Qattan mentioned it in the chapter of hadiths whose chains are said to be sahih." End of quote.I say, Ibn Qattan cited it in al-Wahm wal-Iham (5/264) from the route of Bazzar, and he graded its chain sahih, and he commented on Bazzar's statement, saying, "Qasim bin Yahya bin Ataa bin Muqaddam, Abu Muhammad Hilali Wasiti, narrates from Ubaydullah bin Umar and Abdullah bin Uthman bin Khuthaym, and his nephew Muqaddam bin Muhammad Wasiti and Ahmad bin Hanbal narrated from him, and Bukhari included his narrations in the Tafsir and Tawhid sections and elsewhere in his Jami, relying on what he narrates, so know that." However, Daraqutni judged the mursal version to be more correct, as Hafiz mentioned in Bulugh Maram.A note, what Zaylai quoted in Nasb Raya (1/150) from Ibn Qattan's words, saying, "Ibn Qattan mentioned it in his book Bayan al-Wahm wal-Iham from the route of Bazzar, and said, its chain is sahih, and it is gharib from the hadith of Abu Hurairah, and it has a flaw, and the well-known version is the hadith of Abu Dharr which Tirmidhi and others graded sahih." His statement, "and it is gharib," up to his statement, "Tirmidhi and others graded it sahih," these words are not from Ibn Qattan, so perhaps they are from Zaylai himself. Those who quoted this from Zaylai attributed it to Ibn Qattan and erred in doing so, along with the contradiction it contains, for Ibn Qattan grades the hadith of Abu Hurairah as sahih, so how could he then say it has a flaw? So take note of that.