143 – ʿAbdallāh narrated to us; my father narrated to us; Abū Muʿāwiyah narrated to us, from al-Aʿmash, from Shimr ibn ʿAṭiyyah, from his elders, from Abū Dharr (may Allah be pleased with him), who said:

I asked, “O Messenger of Allah, give me counsel.” He replied, “Whenever you commit a misdeed, follow it up with a good deed; it will erase it.” I then said, “O Messenger of Allah, does the declaration ‘There is no god but Allah’ count as one of those good deeds?” He said, “It is the finest of all good deeds.”