Mustadrak al-Hakim — Hadith 8501

It is narrated from Sayyiduna al-Harith bin Amirah (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said: I came from Syria to Madinah in search of knowledge, and I heard Sayyiduna Mu'adh bin Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him) say: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "Those who love one another for the sake of Allah will have pulpits of light on the Day of Resurrection, which even the martyrs will envy." I stayed with him and mentioned to him Syria, its people and its poetry. Then he prepared to go to Syria and I set out with him. I heard him say to Amr bin al-As (may Allah be pleased with him): "I kept the company of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) while you were (then) more astray than your family's donkey." Then (in Syria) his son and his wife were struck by the plague and both of them died. He dug a single grave for the two of them and they were buried. Then, when we returned to Mu'adh (may Allah be pleased with him), he was gravely ill, and we began weeping around him. He said: "If you are weeping over (the departure of) knowledge, then here is the Book of Allah among you, so follow it. If anything of its interpretation becomes difficult for you, then turn to these three: Uwaymir Abu al-Darda', Ibn Umm Abd (Abdullah bin Mas'ud) and Salman al-Farisi. And beware of the slip of a scholar and the disputation of a hypocrite." I stayed there a month. Then I went to Iraq and came to Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him), and he said: "What excellent people the people of Syria are, were it not that they testify to their own salvation." I said: "Mu'adh (may Allah be pleased with him) spoke the truth." He asked: "What did he say?" I said: "He advised me (to turn) to you, to Uwaymir Abu al-Darda' and to Salman al-Farisi, and he said: Beware of the slip of a scholar and the disputation of a hypocrite." Then I moved aside, and he said to me: "O my nephew, that (for which I criticised them) was merely a slip of mine." I stayed with him for a month. Then I came to Salman al-Farisi (may Allah be pleased with him) and heard him say that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Souls are like assembled troops: those that are (already) acquainted become familiar with one another, and those that are strangers stay apart from one another." I stayed with him for a month; he used to divide his night and day equally between himself and his servant.
This hadith has a sahih (authentic) chain of narration, but the two Shaykhs did not record it.