The Prophet ﷺ said, "Every prophet has been given a gift, and each of them hastened to take his. But I have deferred my gift, saving it as intercession for my community. A man from my community will intercede for a great multitude of people, and they will enter Paradise. A man will intercede for an entire tribe, a man will intercede for a clan, a man will intercede for three, for two, and for one."
عن النبي ﷺ قال: قد أعطي كل نبي عطية، فكل قد تعجلها، وإني أخرت عطيتي شفاعة لأمتي، وإن الرجل من أمتي ليشفع للفئام من الناس، فيدخلون الجنة، وإن الرجل ليشفع للقبيلة، وإن الرجل ليشفع للعصبة، وإن الرجل ليشفع للثلاثة وللرجلين وللرجل.
Imam Ahmad narrated it (11148), as did Abu Yaala (1014), and Bazzar in Kashf Astar (3458), all of them through Zakariya bin Abu Zaida, from Atiya Awfi. Ibn Khuzayma also narrated it in Tawhid (626) through Malik bin Mughul, from Atiya, in the same manner, similarly.Its chain is hasan, on account of the discussion surrounding Atiya, who is Atiya bin Saeed bin Junada Awfi, about whom there is disagreement. Ibn Main said, "He is sound (salih)." Nasai and others declared him daif. Abu Hatim said, "He is daif, but his hadith is written down."I say, Abu Hatim's statement is the decisive one, for despite the weakness in him, his hadith is recorded for use as corroborating and supporting narrations, and this is one of them, even though it stands alone with some weakness. I hold that he did not err in this particular hadith, given the many corroborating narrations for its parts. Tirmidhi graded it hasan (2440) after narrating it through this same route for the second part of the hadith. Haythami said in Majma (10/371), "Its chain is hasan."