On the authority of Abu Sa'id, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: "The Lord, Blessed and Exalted, says: 'Whoever is occupied with the Qur'an to the exclusion of remembering Me and asking of Me, I give him the best of what I give to those who ask. And the superiority of the Word of Allah over all other speech is like the superiority of Allah over His creation.'"

This is a good and rare hadith.

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(1) It is sound due to corroborating evidence, but this chain of transmission is weak. 'Atiyyah — namely Ibn Sa'd al-'Awfi — is weak, though his hadith is recorded, as stated by Abu Hatim, Ibn Ma'in, and Ibn 'Adi. Muhammad ibn al-Hasan ibn Abi Yazid al-Hamdani was declared weak by more than one of the imams, and Ibn 'Adi said: "Despite his weakness, his hadith is recorded."

It was also narrated by al-Darimi (3356).

It has a supporting witness from the hadith of 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, narrated from him by al-Bukhari in *Khalq Af'al al-'Ibad* (544) and in his *al-Tarikh al-Kabir* 2/115, by al-Bayhaqi in *al-Shu'ab* (572), and by al-Mizzi in *Tahdhib al-Kamal* 13/197, via the chain of Safwan ibn Abi al-Sahba', from Bukayr ibn 'Atiq, from Salim ibn 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar, from his father, from his grandfather, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, who said: "Allah, Mighty and Majestic, says: 'Whoever is occupied with remembering Me to the exclusion of asking of Me, I give him better than what I give to those who ask.'" Safwan ibn Abi al-Sahba' was declared trustworthy by Ibn Ma'in in the narration of al-Duri, and Ibn Khalfun said: "I hope he is truthful." Ibn Hibban and Ibn Shahin mentioned him in *al-Thiqat*, and Ibn 'Abd al-Barr said in *al-Tamhid* 6/46: "He is sound." The rest of his narrators are trustworthy.