—then who?” I asked. He said, “Then the righteous; …” —and so on.

Al-Ḥākim said, “Authentic according to the criteria of Muslim,” and al-Dhahabī concurred; and that is indeed the case.

It also has another abbreviated corroborating report which reads:

“Among the people most severely tried are the prophets, then those closest to them, then those closest to them, then those closest to them.”

145 – “Among the people most severely tried are the prophets, then those closest to them, then those closest to them, then those closest to them.”

Aḥmad (6/369) and al-Maḥāmilī in al-Amālī (3/44/2) transmitted it from Abū ʿUbaydah ibn Ḥudhayfah, from his paternal aunt Fāṭimah, who said:

“We came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to visit him among his wives, and there was a waterskin hanging near him whose water was dripping onto him because of the intense heat of the fever he was suffering. We said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, if only you would supplicate to Allah so that He might cure you.’ The Messenger of Allah ﷺ replied …” and he mentioned the ḥadīth.

Its chain is ḥasan: all of its transmitters are trustworthy except for this Abū ʿUbaydah, whom no one besides Ibn Ḥibbān (1/275) declared reliable, yet a number of reliable narrators related from him.

These aḥādīth plainly indicate that the stronger a believer’s faith is, the greater his trials and examinations become—and the reverse is likewise true. They therefore refute the weak-minded whose limited understanding leads them to imagine that when a believer is afflicted with a trial such as imprisonment, expulsion, dismissal from his post, and the like, this proves that he is not favored by Allah. This notion is false. Here is the Messenger of Allah ﷺ—the best of mankind—who faced tribulations more severe than anyone, even the other prophets. Tribulation is generally a sign of good, not a portent of evil, as is further shown by the following ḥadīth:

“Indeed, the magnitude of the reward matches the magnitude of the trial. When Allah loves a people He tests them: whoever is content will earn His pleasure, and whoever is displeased will incur His displeasure.”