Muwatta Malik 807
موطأ مالك#807SahihThese are the words of a Successor — the generation after the Companions — not of the Prophet ﷺ.
وَحَدَّثَنِي عَنْ مَالِكٍ، أَنَّهُ سَمِعَ ابْنَ شِهَابٍ، يَقُولُ سَمِعْتُ بَعْضَ، عُلَمَائِنَا يَقُولُ مَا حُجِرَ الْحِجْرُ فَطَافَ النَّاسُ مِنْ وَرَائِهِ إِلاَّ إِرَادَةَ أَنْ يَسْتَوْعِبَ النَّاسُ الطَّوَافَ بِالْبَيْتِ كُلِّهِ .
Yahya related to me from Malik that he heard Ibn Shihab say that he had heard one of the people of knowledge say that the Hijr was only enclosed so that people would go beyond it as they were making tawaf, and their tawaf would therefore encompass the original House
Scholarly Authentication
The label above is the grade most of these scholars gave — one dissenting opinion no longer speaks for all of them. If any scholar calls a narration fabricated, that verdict is shown instead, whatever the others say. Each scholar's own wording:
In-book reference: 20:103