581 — “Allah, Exalted is He, says: Whoever performs a good deed shall have ten like it, or more; and whoever commits an evil deed, its recompense is its like, or I may forgive. Whoever comes to Me with sins nearly filling the earth, then meets Me associating nothing with Me, I shall grant him an equal measure of forgiveness. Whoever draws near to Me by a span, I draw near to him by a cubit; whoever draws near to Me by a cubit, I draw near to him by a fathom; and whoever comes to Me walking, I come to him running.”

Muslim (8/67), Ibn Majah (1/382), Ahmad (5/153)—whose wording it is—and al-Tayalisi (p. 62, no. 464) recorded it through two routes from al-Maʿrur ibn Suwayd, from Abu Dharr, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said this. Its chain of transmission is authentic according to the criteria of the six major hadith compilers.

Al-Hakim (4/241) also narrated it through a third route from al-Maʿrur, in an abbreviated form, and said: “Its chain of transmission is authentic.” Al-Dhahabi agreed with him.

582 — “Whoever memorizes ten verses from the beginning of Surah al-Kahf will be safeguarded from the trial of the Dajjal.”

Imam Ahmad recorded it (6/449): Ruh narrated to us; Saʿid narrated to us, from Qatadah; Salim ibn Abi al-Jaʿd al-Ghatafani narrated to us, from Maʿdan ibn Abi Talhah al-Yaʿmuri, from Abu al-Darda, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, who said this.

I say: This is an authentic chain with a continuous chain of transmission. Its narrators are among those of al-Bukhari and Muslim, except that al-Bukhari did not narrate from this Maʿdan. Muslim also recorded it, as will follow. Saʿid is Ibn Abi ʿArubah. A group of narrators corroborated him.

Ahmad said: Husayn narrated to us in Shayban’s Exegesis, from Qatadah, who said: Salim ibn Abi al-Jaʿd narrated to us with the same chain. Shayban here is Shayban ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman al-Tamimi, Abu Muʿawiyah, the grammarian. He then said: ʿAbd al-Samad and ʿAffan narrated to us; they said: Hammam narrated to us. In his narration, ʿAffan said: Hammam narrated to us; he said: “Qatadah used to relate it to us,” saying: “Salim ibn Abi al-Jaʿd narrated to us,” with the same chain.