567 – Abu Saʿīd al-Khudrī (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “No servant fasts a single day in the cause of Allah except that, because of that day, Allah sets his face seventy kharīf (autumns) farther away from the Fire.” Agreed upon; the wording is that of Muslim. (1)

Vocabulary of the ḥadith:
– kharīf (autumn): one of the four seasons, situated between summer and winter. It covers three zodiac signs—Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius. Here the word denotes a full year, naming the whole by one of its parts. Autumn is singled out because it is the season when fruits ripen and provisions abound.

Points derived from the ḥadith:
1 – Fasting is a demanding physical act of worship, while jihad combines strenuous financial and bodily effort. Whoever is capable of both and actually performs them has reached the summit of exertion in worshipping Allah, preferring His love to personal comfort. His reward, commensurate with that hardship, is to be kept seventy years’ distance from Hell and its torment.
2 – The number has no restrictive implication; in Arabic rhetoric numbers are often cited simply to convey abundance and clarity. Moreover, whoever is removed from the Fire is, by Allah’s promise, admitted to Paradise, for there is no third abode besides Paradise and Hell.
3 – The ḥadith affirms the merit of jihad in Allah’s cause, and the rank of jihad in Islam is well known,