1256 — “Whenever a servant loves another servant for Allah’s sake, Allah, Mighty and Majestic, honors him.”

Ahmad narrated it in al-Musnad (9/259), and Ibn Qudamah in Those Who Love One Another for Allah’s Sake (107/1), from Ismaʿil ibn ʿAyyash, from Yahya ibn al-Harith al-Dhimari, from al-Qasim, from Abu Umamah, attributed to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.

I say: This is a good Syrian chain of transmission.

1257 — “When a believer falls ill, Allah refines him just as the bellows refine iron of its dross.”

Al-Bukhari narrated it in al-Adab al-Mufrad (497), and Ibn Abi al-Dunya in Illness and Expiations (fol. 190/1), through two chains from Ibn Abi Dhiʾb, from Jubayr ibn Abi Salih, from Ibn Shihab, from ʿUrwah, from ʿAʾishah, may Allah be pleased with her, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, who said this.

I say: Its narrators are trustworthy, apart from Jubayr ibn Abi Salih. Al-Dhahabi said: “It is not known who he is.”

However, some narrators from Ibn Abi Dhiʾb omitted him from the chain of transmission. Thus, Ibn Hibban (695), Ibn Abi al-Dunya as well (fol. 167/2), and ʿAbd ibn Humayd in al-Muntakhab (fol. 191/1—the library photocopy) narrated it through Ibn Abi Fudayk. Al-Tabarani narrated it in al-Awsat (1/67/1, its supplementary material), and al-Qudaʿi in Musnad al-Shihab (113/2), from ʿAbd Allah ibn Nafiʿ; while Yusuf ibn Yaʿqub al-Anbari, in his collection of hadith (fol. 114/2), narrated: al-Zubayr ibn Bakkar narrated to us; he said: Abu ʿAwanah narrated to us. All three narrated it from Ibn Abi Dhiʾb, from al-Zuhri, with the same report. Perhaps this is sounder than the first chain, since all these narrators agree upon it. Therefore, the chain of transmission is authentic, if Allah Most High wills.

Al-Khatib also narrated it in Talkhis al-Mutashabih (fol. 20/2), from Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn Bahir, who said: My father narrated to us; Malik ibn Anas narrated to us—he dictated it to me in the year 177 AH—from Ibn Shihab, with the same report. He said: “Ibn Bahir—with the ba vowelled with a fatḥah and the ha with a kasrah—his son Muhammad narrated from him, from Malik ibn Anas, rejected hadiths, for which the responsibility rests with his father. Among them is this hadith.”