The meaning of “his heart becomes tender toward me” is that it finds tranquility and inclines toward me with affection and love. And Allah knows best. This can only come through sincerely following him, peace and blessings be upon him, to the exclusion of all other people, for Allah Most High has made this alone the proof of one’s love for Him, saying:

“Say: If you love Allah, then follow me; Allah will love you and forgive you your sins.”

Is it not time for those who claim to love him, peace and blessings be upon him, in their speeches and chants to return to holding fast to this sincere love, which leads to the love of Allah Most High, rather than be like the one of whom the poet said:

You disobey God while professing love for Him—
By your life, what strange reasoning this is!
Had your love been true, you would obey Him;
For the lover obeys the one he loves.

1096 — “O people, ransom yourselves from Allah with Allah’s wealth. If one of you is too miserly to give his wealth to others, then let him begin with himself and give charity to himself: let him eat and clothe himself from what Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has provided him.”

Al-Kharā’iṭī recorded it in Noble Character. He said (p. 54): Ḥammād ibn al-Ḥasan al-Warrāq narrated to us; Ḥibbān ibn Hilāl narrated to us; Sulaym ibn Ḥayyān narrated to us; Ḥumayd ibn Hilāl narrated to us from Abū Qatādah, who traced it back to the Prophet with this wording.

I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission. All its narrators are trustworthy and are among Muslim’s narrators, apart from Sulaym ibn Ḥayyān, who is trustworthy, as al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar stated in The Abridgment. It also has a corroborating report from the hadith of Anas, cited in Selections from the Treasury of the Workers (2/219), where it says: “Al-Bayhaqī recorded it in The Branches of Faith, as did al-Daylamī and Ibn al-Najjār.” Ibn Ḥajar said in al-Aṭrāf: “Its chain of transmission is sound, though I have not seen anyone declare it authentic.”