Hadith Forty

51 – A group of our teachers related to us: Ibn al-Muḥibb and Ibn al-Bālisī; then al-Mizzī and Abū Muḥammad Ibn al-Muḥibb; then Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Abī ʿUmar and Ibn al-Bukhārī; then Shaykh al-Islām Muwaffaq al-Dīn and others; then Abū al-Fatḥ Ibn ʿAbd al-Bāqī; then Abū al-Faḍl Ibn Khayrūn; then ʿAbd al-Malik Ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān; then my father, the judge Abū Bakr; then Abū Aḥmad Muḥammad Ibn ʿAbd Allāh; then Abū ʿAlī al-Dimashqī; then Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī Ibn Ghiyāth, judge of Baghdad; then Muḥammad Ibn Mūsā; then Muḥammad Ibn ʿAyyāsh, from al-Tamtām Yaḥyā Ibn al-Qāsim, from Abū Ḥanīfah, from Jābir Ibn ʿAbd Allāh – who said:

A man from the Anṣār came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and said, “O Messenger of Allah, I have never been granted a child; not a single one.” He ﷺ replied, “Why do you not abundantly engage in istighfār (seeking forgiveness) and sadaqah (charity)? Through them Allah grants children.” Thereafter the man greatly increased his charity and his seeking of forgiveness, and Allah blessed him with nine sons.