though the marāq—the soft parts of the lower abdomen—are mentioned in the hadith of Muʿādh recorded by Aḥmad (5/241). Perhaps it was on account of these chains that al-Mundhirī graded the chain of this hadith as good in al-Targhīb (4/204), and al-Haythamī followed him (2/315). Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar also indicated in Badh al-Māʿūn (69/1–2) that it is strengthened. And Allah knows best. The marāq are the lower parts of the abdomen and the areas beneath them where the skin is thin.

1929 — “The visitor of a sick person is in a garden of Paradise; when he sits with him, mercy envelops him.”

Al-Bazzār recorded it in his Musnad (no. 774), from Ṣāliḥ ibn Mūsā, from ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Rufayʿ, from Abū Salamah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from his father, attributed to the Prophet.

I say: This chain is very weak. Ṣāliḥ ibn Mūsā—al-Taymī al-Kūfī—is described by al-Ḥāfiẓ in al-Taqrīb as “abandoned.” However, it has a corroborating report from the hadith of Jābir, attributed to the Prophet, with the wording: “Whoever visits a sick person continues to wade through mercy until he returns; and when he sits with him, he is immersed in it.” Ibn Ḥibbān (711), al-Ḥākim (1/350), and Aḥmad (3/304) recorded it through Hushaym, from ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Jaʿfar, from ʿUmar ibn al-Ḥakam ibn Thawbān, from Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh, attributed to the Prophet. Al-Ḥākim said: “Authentic according to Muslim’s criteria.” Al-Dhahabī agreed with him. Their judgement would be correct, were it not for the fact that Hushaym was contradicted regarding its chain of transmission. Al-Bukhārī recorded it in al-Adab al-Mufrad (522) through Khālid ibn al-Ḥārith, who said: ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Jaʿfar informed me that his father told him that Abū Bakr ibn Ḥazm and Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir