As for his prayer, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, wearing his sandals, mentioned at the end of the hadith under discussion, it is supported by numerous corroborating reports that reach the level of mass transmission in the two Ṣaḥīḥs and elsewhere. Some of them have been cited in Ṣaḥīḥ Abī Dāwūd (657, 658, 659, and 660).

2942 — Allah, the Exalted, says: “I am as My servant expects Me to be, and I am with him when he calls upon Me.”

Al-Bukhārī recorded it in al-Adab al-Mufrad (616): Khālifah ibn Khayyāṭ narrated to us; he said: Kathīr ibn Hishām narrated to us; Jaʿfar narrated to us from Yazīd ibn al-Aṣamm, from Abū Hurayrah, from the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, who said it. I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission; all its narrators are narrators of the Ṣaḥīḥ collections. Muslim also recorded it (8/66) through Wakīʿ, from Jaʿfar ibn Burqān, with the same chain.

It also has another route, with an addition to its text, worded as follows: “My servant is as he expects Me to be, and I am with him when he calls upon Me. If he remembers Me within himself, I remember him within Myself; if he remembers Me in an assembly, I remember him in an assembly better and purer than theirs. If he draws near to Me a handspan, I draw near to him an arm’s length; if he draws near to Me an arm’s length, I draw near to him a fathom; and if he comes to Me walking, I come to him at speed.” Aḥmad recorded it (2/480): Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar narrated to us; he said: Shuʿbah narrated to us from Sulaymān, from Dhakwān, from Abū Hurayrah, with the same chain. This is an authentic chain according to the conditions of the two Shaykhs. Ibn Ḥibbān also recorded it through this route (2/91/809), up to the words: “and purer.” It is found in the two Ṣaḥīḥs through another route from Sulaymān—namely, al-Aʿmash—with the wording: