“O Messenger of Allah.”

Anas said: “By Allah, I served him for nine years and never once did he say to me about something I had done, ‘Why did you do such-and-such?’ nor about something I had left undone, ‘Why did you not do such-and-such?’ (1)

Imām Aḥmad also relates (2): Kathīr ibn Hishām narrated to us; Jaʿfar narrated to us; ʿImrān al-Qaṣīr narrated to us, from Anas ibn Mālik, who said: “I served the Prophet ﷺ for ten years. He never gave me an order at which I was slow or negligent so that he reproached me, and whenever anyone from his household scolded me he would say: ‘Leave him; had it been decreed—or he said: destined—to happen, it would have happened.’”

Aḥmad transmitted the same report through ʿAlī ibn Thābit, from Jaʿfar—that is, Ibn Burqān—from ʿImrān al-Baṣrī, who is al-Qaṣīr—from Anas, and he mentioned a similar wording. This chain is unique to Imām Aḥmad.

Imām Aḥmad further says (3): ʿAbd al-Ṣamad told us; my father told us; Abū al-Tiyāḥ told us; from Anas, who said: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ had the finest character of all people. I had a younger brother called Abū ʿUmayr”—and I think he added, “who had been weaned”—“and whenever the Messenger of Allah ﷺ came and saw him he would say, ‘Abū ʿUmayr, what happened to the nughayr?’ It was a little bird he used to play with.

“At times the prayer would fall due while the Prophet ﷺ was in our house. He would order that the mat beneath him be swept and sprinkled with water; then the Messenger of Allah ﷺ would stand and we would stand behind him and he would lead us in prayer. Their mat was made of palm-leaf stalks.”

This narration is recorded by all the compilers (4) except Abū Dāwūd, through various chains from Abū al-Tiyāḥ Yazīd ibn Ḥumayd, from Anas, with similar wording.

It is also authentically established in both Ṣaḥīḥs, through al-Zuhrī, from ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUtbah, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was the most generous of all people, and he was even more generous in Ramadan when Gabriel would meet him and review the Qur’an with him. Indeed, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was more generous in dispensing good than a free-blowing breeze.” (5)

Imām Aḥmad likewise relates: Abū Kāmil narrated to us; Ḥammād ibn Zayd narrated to us; Salm al-ʿAlawī narrated to us—I heard Anas ibn Mālik say that the Prophet ﷺ saw a yellow stain on a man and disliked it. When he rose he said, “Would that you ask this man to wash off that yellowness.” He would hardly ever confront anyone directly with something they disliked. (6)