In a narration recorded by Ibn Abī al-Dunyā through the route of ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Mawhab, Abū Hurayrah said: I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say: “No believer is pricked by a thorn in this world and seeks the reward for it, except that some of his sins will be removed thereby on the Day of Resurrection.”

I say: Regarding this ʿUbayd Allāh, Aḥmad said: “His hadiths are rejected, and neither he nor his father is known.” However, it has a supporting report in the hadith of Jābir, traced back to the Prophet, with the wording: “No believing man or woman, no Muslim man or woman, suffers an illness except that Allah removes some of his or her sins.”

Al-Bukhārī recorded it in al-Adab al-Mufrad (508), as did Ibn Abī al-Dunyā (folios 87–88) and al-Bazzār (758, Kashf), through an authentic chain of transmission whose narrators are trustworthy and are narrators of Muslim, apart from its shaykh Isḥāq ibn Ismāʿīl. He is trustworthy and was among the shaykhs of Abū Dāwūd. It is corroborated in Aḥmad (3/386 and 400) with the wording: “Allah remits.” Abū Yaʿlā likewise recorded it (2/611).

It is also recorded by Aḥmad (3/346) through the route of Abū al-Zubayr from Jābir, with the same wording, except that he said: “Allah remits his sin,” without saying, “some of.” Ibn Ḥibbān likewise narrated it (696) through this route and added: “just as a leaf falls from a tree.” Abū al-Zubayr was practising tadlīs.

A second supporting report is narrated from ʿĀʾishah, with the wording: