Al-Matalib al-'Aliyah 3093 — Encouraging and urging the pursuit

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abd al-Rahman bin Awf (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "A scholar of the religion has been given superiority and virtue over a mere worshipper by seventy degrees, and between every two of these degrees there is a distance like that between the earth and the heaven."
Imam Abu Ya'la recorded it in his Musnad; however, because of narrators such as Khalil bin Murrah and Mubashshir in its chain, the hadith scholars have criticised its reliability.