436 – Buraydah (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet ﷺ said, “A believer dies with sweat upon his brow.” The three compilers relate it, and Ibn Ḥibbān declared it authentic (1).
Authenticity
The hadith is ḥasan.
It was recorded by Aḥmad (22538), al-Tirmidhī, al-Nasāʾī, and Ibn Mājah from the narration of Buraydah, and al-Suyūṭī marked it as ḥasan.
Al-Ḥākim said, “Sound according to the criteria of al-Bukhārī and Muslim,” and al-Dhahabī concurred.
Al-Bayhaqī said, “Aḥmad’s narrators are those of the two Ṣaḥīḥs.”
Al-Haythamī remarked, “Its transmitters are reliable; they are the narrators of the two Ṣaḥīḥs.”
Vocabulary
• bi-ʿaraq: with open ʿayn and rāʾ, followed by qāf. ʿAraq is the moisture that oozes from the skin’s pores through special glands. In this hadith it carries one of two meanings: either it is a figure for the toil involved in seeking lawful provision, or it refers to the intensity of the death-throes.
• al-jabīn: with a fatḥa on the jīm and a kasra on the bāʾ. It is the area above the temple, on the right or left of the forehead. There are two jabīns; its plurals are ajbun, ajbunah, and jubun.
Lessons
The hadith admits two possible interpretations:
- That a person endures the hardships and trials of this world; he is continually grappling with them until death, and the believer grapples with them by means