48 – Al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī al-Ḥulwānī asserted; ʿImrān ibn Abān al-Wāsitī narrated to us; Khalaf ibn Khalīfa narrated to us, from al-Shaʿbī’s nephew—or, he said, from his cousin—from al-Shaʿbī, from Masrūq, from Ibn Masʿūd, who said:

A woman from the Anṣār brought ten of her sons to the Prophet ﷺ and said, “These are my children; go forth with them in the cause of Allah.” The Prophet ﷺ would indeed take them on his campaigns, and she would ask about them until seven were martyred. She rejoiced more over those who had gone on before than over those who remained. Finally only one was left—the youngest—and he had a curvature in his body. He fell ill, and his mother sat at his head nursing him while weeping.

He said, “Mother, what is the matter? Why are you crying? Were not my brothers better for you than I, while I have been a burden to you because of my condition?”

She replied, “That is exactly why I am weeping.”

He said, “Mother, tell me: if the Fire were set before you, would you throw me into it?”

She said, “No.”

He said, “Then my Lord is more merciful to me than you are.”

He then passed away, and the Prophet ﷺ said to her, “Your son has been forgiven because of the good opinion he held of his Lord.”