2681 — “1. Whoever has three children born to him in Islam who die before reaching the age of accountability, Allah will admit him into Paradise by His mercy toward them. 2. Whoever grows a gray hair in the cause of Allah, it will be a light for him on the Day of Resurrection. 3. Whoever shoots an arrow in the cause of Allah and it reaches the enemy—whether it strikes or misses—will receive the equivalent reward of freeing a slave. 4. Whoever frees a believing slave, Allah will free a limb of his from the Fire for every limb of that slave. 5. Whoever spends a pair in the cause of Allah, Paradise has eight gates, and Allah will admit him into Paradise through whichever of them he wishes.”

Imam Ahmad reported it (4/386) through al-Faraj: Luqman related to us from Abu Umamah, from Amr ibn Abasah al-Sulami, who said: I said to him, “Relate to us a hadith that you heard from the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), without any omission or error in it.” He said: I heard him say—and then he related it.

I say: The narrators in this chain of transmission are trustworthy, apart from al-Faraj—namely, Ibn Fadalah of Hims, though it is also said that he was from Damascus—who is weak. Some scholars, however, deemed his reports from Syrian narrators acceptable, and this is one of them. Perhaps for this reason al-Mundhiri said in al-Targhib (3/91): “Ahmad reported it with a good chain of transmission.”

I say: Be that as it may, this hadith is authentic; no discerning researcher can doubt it, for its contents have been transmitted separately through various routes. This requires clarification: