And any man who rises to perform minor ablution, intending to pray, and performs the ablution thoroughly, applying it to its proper places, is delivered from every sin or misdeed of his. If he then rises to pray, Allah raises him a rank thereby; and if he sits, he sits free of sin.”
Ahmad recorded it (4 / 386) through the route of ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd: Shahr related to me; Abū Ṭaybah related to me that Shuraḥbīl ibn al-Simṭ summoned ʿAmr ibn ʿAbsah al-Sulamī and said, “O Ibn ʿAbsah, will you relate to me a hadith that you yourself heard from the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, containing neither addition nor falsehood, and not relate it to me from someone else who heard it from him besides you?” He replied, “Yes. I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say...” and then mentioned it.
I say: This chain of transmission is acceptable as corroboration. Its narrators are reliable except for Shahr ibn Ḥawshab, whose memory was poor—particularly since Imam Ahmad said, “There is no problem with the hadith of ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Bahrām from Shahr.” I have found the hadith in separate portions through routes other than his, apart from its final sentence, for I found no corroborating report for it from the hadith of ʿAmr ibn ʿAbsah; it is found only in the hadith of Abū Umāmah. The corroborating reports will now be set out according to the order of the numbered passages:
1–3. Sulaym ibn ʿAmr corroborated it: Shuraḥbīl ibn al-Simṭ said to ʿAmr ibn ʿAbsah, “Relate to us a hadith containing neither embellishment nor omission.” ʿAmr said, “I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him...” and then mentioned the three passages, though in a confused order. It was recorded by al-Ṭaḥāwī in al-Mushkil (1 / 310) and by Ahmad (4 / 113), with an authentic chain of transmission. Al-Mundhirī (2 / 171) attributed it to al-Nasāʾī with an authentic chain of transmission. It also has another chain through al-Ṣunābiḥī from ʿAmr. Ahmad narrated it, but it contains an unnamed man.
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Sālim ibn Abī al-Jaʿd corroborated it, from Maʿdān ibn Abī Ṭalḥah, from Abū Najīḥ al-Sulamī, who related it as a report directly attributed to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, with similar wording and including the first three passages. Ahmad recorded it (4 / 113) with an authentic chain as well. Ibn Ḥibbān (1645) recorded from it the first passage with the wording: “Whoever shoots an arrow in the cause of Allah shall have a rank in Paradise for it.” It is also recorded by Ahmad, who added: “Whoever shoots an arrow in the cause of Allah, it is equivalent to freeing a slave.” I then found in Ibn Ḥibbān (1208) this fourth passage and the third as well. Al-Ṭaḥāwī likewise narrated it in al-Mushkil (1 / 312).
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Al-Faraj corroborated it, reporting: Luqmān narrated to us, from Abū Umāmah, from ʿAmr ibn ʿAbsah al-Sulamī, directly attributed to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, with similar wording: “Whoever has three children born to him in Islam, and they die before reaching the age of moral responsibility, Allah will admit him into Paradise through His mercy toward them; and whoever grows gray...” the hadith. It includes the first three passages.