1249 – Abu Hurayrah—may Allah be pleased with him—reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “The Muslim has six claims upon his fellow Muslim: when you meet him, greet him with peace; when he invites you, accept his invitation; when he asks for your advice, give him sincere counsel; when he sneezes and praises Allah, pray for him; when he falls ill, visit him; and when he dies, follow (his funeral).” Narrated by Muslim (1).

Vocabulary of the ḥadīth
• “When he invites you, accept his invitation”: The verb ajāba (to answer) yields the verbal noun ijābah (response, compliance). The noun form is jābah, carrying the sense of obedience. One says: “He gave an ijābah,” or: “He answered the question.” Istijābah has the same meaning. The original expression was ajābahu ijwāban; the medial wāw was dropped and replaced by a tāʾ because the root is hollow, its middle radical being a wāw.

• “When he sneezes and praises Allah, pray for him”: ʿUṭās (sneezing) is the violent expulsion of air through the nose caused by some irritation. “Pray for him” is shammith-hu—with a dotted shīn followed by a doubled mīm—from the noun tashmīt. In this causative form the meaning is “to remove,” i.e., to remove the enemies’ chance to gloat by invoking good for the sneezer, especially with the phrase “May Allah have mercy on you.” It may also be read with an undotted sīn, but the pronunciation with shīn is more eloquent. In Tahdhīb al-Lugha it is said: sammatahu or shammatahu—with sīn or shīn—when one prays for him. Abū ʿUbayd held that the form with shīn is superior and more widespread.

• “When he falls ill, visit him”: ʿĀda al-marīḍa (he visited the sick) produces the verbal noun ʿiyādah (visitation), meaning to call on the person during his illness and inquire after his condition. The original form was ʿiwādah; the wāw became a yāʾ because of the preceding kasrah, in pursuit of easier pronunciation.