2040 — “Every act of kindness that you do for either a rich person or a poor person is charity.”

It has been reported through two chains. The first is from Ibn Masʿūd: al-Ṭabarānī recorded it in al-Kabīr (3/62/1), as did al-Kharāʾiṭī (p. 13), Ibn ʿAdī (201/2), and al-Ḥilyah (3/49), through Ṣadaqah ibn Mūsā. Muḥammad ibn al-Muẓaffar also recorded it in Gharāʾib Shuʿbah (1/2), as did al-Ḥilyah (7/194), through Shuʿbah. Both narrated from Farqad al-Sabakhī, from Ibrāhīm, from ʿAlqamah, from Ibn Masʿūd, as a Prophetic report. Ibn ʿAdī said: “I know of no one who narrated it from Farqad other than Ṣadaqah ibn Mūsā.”

I say: He was truthful, though prone to errors; but Shuʿbah corroborated him, as you have seen. Abū Nuʿaym also considered it singular through Shuʿbah’s route from Farqad. However, Farqad was weak in hadith and frequently made mistakes, as stated in al-Taqrīb.

The second chain is from Jābir. Ibn ʿAsākir recorded it (8/228/1–2) through Abū Dāwūd Sulaymān ibn Sayf, who said: “I was with Abū ʿĀṣim al-Nabīl as he was walking, wearing a cloak. His cloak slipped off, so I straightened it upon him. He turned to me and said, ‘Every act of kindness is charity.’ I asked, ‘Who narrated it, may Allah have mercy on you?’ He replied, ‘Ibn Jurayj informed us, from ʿAṭāʾ, from Jābir, as a Prophetic report, with this wording.’”

I say: The narrators in this chain are all trustworthy, except that I do not know the standing of those below Sulaymān. Unfortunately, Ibn ʿAsākir’s History is presently inaccessible. Yet it is likely that it contains no narrator whose severe weakness would prevent its use as corroboration—especially since the first part of the hadith, by its general wording, supports the rest of it. It is authentic on account of numerous corroborating reports, some of which are found in the two authentic collections. I have documented them in al-Rawḍ al-Naḍīr (231).