Majma al-Zawaid — Hadith 11637

Sayyiduna Mu'adh bin Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him) transmits this saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): "Whoever learns the Qur'an, acts upon the rulings it contains, and dies while remaining with the community of the Muslims, Allah Almighty will raise him on the Day of Resurrection with the envoys and the rulers. Whoever recites the Qur'an while it slips away from him (he finds it hard to recite) and he does not abandon it will have a double reward. And whoever is eager to learn it but is unable to learn it, yet does not abandon it, Allah Almighty will raise him on the Day of Resurrection among His honoured servants, who will have the same excellence over all other creation that vultures have over all other birds, and that a spring in a pasture has over the ground around it. Then a caller will call out: 'Where are those whom tending livestock did not distract from reciting My Book?' Those people will stand up, and on the head of each of them the crown of honour will be placed, success will be given in his right hand and eternity in his left hand. If his parents were Muslims, they will be clothed in a garment better than the world and everything in it. They will say: 'Why is this being given to us?' It will be said to them: 'Because your child was a scholar of the Qur'an.'"
Al-Tabarani recorded it; its chain contains a narrator, Suwayd bin Abd al-Aziz, who is matruk (abandoned), though Hushaym spoke well of him; the remaining narrators of this report are thiqat (trustworthy).