On the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "Our Lord, Glorified and Exalted, marveled at a man who went out on a raid in the path of Allah, and his companions fled—meaning his own companions—and he knew what was incumbent upon him, so he returned until his blood was shed. Then Allah, Glorified and Exalted, says to His angels: 'Look at My servant: he returned desiring what is with Me, and fearing what is with Me, until his blood was shed.'"

(1) Its chain of transmission is sound. ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib—Ḥammād, namely Ibn Salamah, heard from him before his memory became confused, but al-Dāraquṭnī declared its stopping at Ibn Masʿūd (mawqūf) to be correct in al-ʿIlal 5/267.

It was also recorded by Ibn Abī Shaybah 5/313, Aḥmad (3949), Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim in al-Sunnah (569), Abū Yaʿlā (5272), (5361), and (5362), Ibn Khuzaymah in al-Tawḥīd (605), al-Shāshī in his Musnad (876), Ibn Ḥibbān (2557), al-Ṭabarānī in al-Kabīr (10383), al-Ḥākim 2/112, Abū Nuʿaym in al-Ḥilyah 4/167, al-Bayhaqī in al-Sunan 9/46 and 164, and in al-Asmāʾ wa-l-Ṣifāt p. 472, and al-Baghawī in Sharḥ al-Sunnah (930), via the chain of Ḥammād ibn Salamah, with this chain of transmission. Abū Nuʿaym said: This is a strange ḥadīth, unique to ʿAṭāʾ narrating from Murrah, and from him Ḥammād ibn Salamah. Al-Bayhaqī said in al-Asmāʾ wa-l-Ṣifāt: Abū ʿUbaydah narrated it from Ibn Masʿūd as his own statement, stopped at him (mawqūf).

It was also recorded by al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī in Mūḍiḥ Awhām al-Jamʿ wa-l-Tafrīq 2/413 via the chain of Zāʾidah ibn Qudāmah, from ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib, with it. Zāʾidah is among those who heard from ʿAṭāʾ before his memory became confused as well. Thus this constitutes a corroboration of Ḥammād ibn Salamah.

It was also recorded by al-Nasāʾī in al-Kubrā (10637) via the chain of Sharīk al-Nakhaʿī, and al-Ṭabarānī in al-Kabīr (8798) via the chain of Maʿmar, both from Abū Isḥāq al-Sabīʿī, from Abū ʿUbaydah ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, from his father, as a statement stopped at him (mawqūf). Sharīk al-Nakhaʿī had a weak memory, and Abū ʿUbaydah did not hear from his father.

Al-Dāraquṭnī mentioned in al-ʿIlal 5/267 that Khālid ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Wāsiṭī narrated it from ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib as a stopped statement (mawqūf). We say: It was likewise recorded by Abū Bakr al-Qurashī in al-Tahajjud wa-Qiyām al-Layl (249). However, Khālid al-Wāsiṭī heard from ʿAṭāʾ after his memory became confused. =