English Translation

It was narrated to us by Sufyan ibn Uyaynah, who said: it was narrated to us by Asim, who heard Zirr ibn Hubaysh say: I came to Safwan ibn Assal al-Muradi, and he said, "What brought you here?" I said, "Seeking knowledge." He said, "Indeed the angels lower their wings for the seeker of knowledge, pleased with what he seeks." I said, "A doubt arose in my mind" — Sufyan said once, "or in my chest" — "about wiping over the leather socks after relieving oneself and urinating, and you were a man among the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, so I have come to ask you whether you heard anything from him about that." He said, "Yes, he used to command us, when we were traveling or on a journey, not to remove our leather socks for three days and their nights, except in the case of major ritual impurity, but rather for relieving ourselves, urinating, or sleeping." I said to him, "Did you hear him speak about love?" He said, "Yes. While we were with him on a journey, a Bedouin called out to him in a loud voice, saying, 'O Muhammad!' We said to him, 'Woe to you, lower your voice, for you have been forbidden from that.' He said, 'By Allah, I will not lower my voice.' The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, 'Here I am,' and answered him regarding the substance of his question" — Sufyan said once, "and answered him in a manner similar to what he had said" — and he asked, 'What do you think of a man who loves a people but has not yet joined them?' He said, 'He is with whom he loves.'" He said, "Then he kept on narrating to us until he said, 'Indeed, in the direction of the west there is a gate whose breadth would take seventy or forty years to traverse, which Allah, Mighty and Sublime, opened for repentance on the day He created the heavens and the earth, and He will not close it until the sun rises from it.'"