Safwan bin Assal reported,

"What has brought you here?"I said, "The pursuit of knowledge."He said, "It has reached me that the angels lower their wings for the seeker of knowledge in approval of what he does."I said to him, "Something concerning wiping over the leather socks has been troubling me, or has been weighing on my heart. Have you preserved anything from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ about it?"He said, "Yes. Whenever we were on a journey or travelers, we were commanded not to remove our leather socks for three days except from major ritual impurity, but not from relieving ourselves, urinating, or sleeping."I said, "Have you preserved anything from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ about love and longing?"He said, "Yes. We were with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on one of his journeys when a man at the rear of the group called out to him in a booming voice. He was a coarse, rough Arabi. He shouted, 'Muhammad! Muhammad!'The people said to him, 'Stop! You have been forbidden from this.'But the Messenger of Allah ﷺ answered him in a voice resembling his own, 'Here I am.'The man said, 'A person loves a people but has not yet caught up with them.'The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, 'A person is with those he loves.'"Zirr said, He kept on relating to me until he told me that Allah has placed in the west a gate whose width is a journey of seventy years, opened for repentance. It will not be closed until the sun rises from its direction. That is the meaning of the words of Allah , "On the day when some of the signs of your Lord come, no soul will benefit from its faith" [Anam 6:158].

حدثنا أحمد بن عبدة الضبي حدثنا حماد بن زيد عن عاصم عن زر بن حبيش قال أتيت

صفوان بن عسال المرادي فقال

ما جاء بك قلت ابتغاء العلم قال بلغني أن الملائكة تضع أجنحتها لطالب العلم رضا بما يفعل قال قلت له إنه حاك أو حك في نفسي شيء من المسح على الخفين فهل حفظت من رسول الله ﷺ فيه شيئا قال نعم كنا إذا كنا في سفر أو مسافرين أمرنا أن لا نخلع خفافنا ثلاثا إلا من جنابة ولكن من غائط وبول ونوم قال فقلت فهل حفظت من رسول الله ﷺ في الهوى شيئا قال نعم كنا مع رسول الله ﷺ في بعض أسفاره فناداه رجل كان في آخر القوم بصوت جهوري أعرابي جلف جاف فقال يا محمد يا محمد فقال له القوم مه إنك قد نهيت عن هذا فأجابه رسول الله ﷺ نحوا من صوته هاؤم فقال الرجل يحب القوم ولما يلحق بهم قال فقال رسول الله ﷺ المرء مع من أحب قال زر فما برح يحدثني حتى حدثني أن الله عز وجل جعل بالمغرب بابا عرضه مسيرة سبعين عاما للتوبة لا يغلق ما لم تطلع الشمس من قبله وذلك قول الله عز وجل {يوم يأتي بعض آيات ربك لا ينفع نفسا إيمانها} الآية