Reports on children

Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) narrates this saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): "Every tree has its fruit, and the fruit of the heart is children. Indeed Allah Almighty does not have mercy on one who does not have mercy on his children. By the One in whose hand is my soul, none will enter Paradise except one who is merciful." We said: "O Messenger of Allah, every one of us is merciful." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "This mercy does not mean that one of you is merciful to his companion; rather, mercy means that he is merciful to people."
Al-Bazzar recorded it; its chain contains a narrator, Abu Mahdi Sa'id bin Sinan, who is da'if (weak) and matruk (abandoned). Sadaqah bin Khalid said: Abu Mahdi Sa'id bin Sinan, the mu'adhdhin of the people of Hims, narrated to me, and he was trustworthy and well-regarded. The chain of this report is not sound.

Sayyiduna Abu Sa'id al-Khudri (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates this saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): "Children are the fruit of the heart, and they make a man weak, miserly and grieved (worried)."
Abu Ya'la and al-Bazzar recorded it; its chain contains a narrator, Atiyyah al-Awfi, who is da'if (weak).

Sayyiduna al-Ash'ath bin Qays (may Allah be pleased with him) says: I came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) with the delegation of Kindah. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said to me: "Do you have any children?" I said: "A son was born to me just as I was about to set out to come to you, from the daughter of Jamad. I wished that in his place I had been given the means to feed the people to their fill." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Do not say that. In children there is coolness of the eyes, and if they die there is reward as well. As for what you say, children do make a man cowardly and grieved; children do make one cowardly and grieved."
Ahmad and al-Tabarani recorded it; its chain contains a narrator, Mujalid bin Sa'id, who is da'if (weak), though he has also been declared trustworthy; the rest of the narrators of Ahmad are the narrators of the Sahih.

Sayyiduna al-Aswad bin Khalaf (may Allah be pleased with him) reports concerning the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he took Sayyiduna Imam Hasan (may Allah be pleased with him), who was a child, and kissed him; then he (peace and blessings be upon him) turned towards the people and said: "Indeed children make one miserly, ignorant and cowardly."
Al-Bazzar recorded it, and its narrators are thiqat (trustworthy).

Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr (may Allah be pleased with him) says: I saw the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) on the pulpit delivering a sermon to the people. Meanwhile Sayyiduna Imam Husayn bin Ali (may Allah be pleased with them both), who was a child at the time, came out with a piece of cloth around his neck that he was dragging; he tripped over it and fell. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) came down from the pulpit, intending to go to him. When the people saw this, they picked up the child and brought him to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) took him, held him in his lap and said: "May Allah destroy Satan! Children are a trial. By Allah, by Allah, I did not realise that I had come down from the pulpit until he was brought to me."
Al-Tabarani recorded it from his teacher Hasan, without giving his lineage, from Abdullah bin Ali al-Jarudi; I do not know either of them, and the rest of its narrators are thiqat (trustworthy).

Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) narrates that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whenever a boy is born in a household, a strength comes among them that was not there before."
Imam Tabarani recorded it in al-Mu'jam al-Awsat; its chain contains a narrator, Hashim bin Salih, whom Ibn Abi Hatim mentioned without criticising him or declaring him trustworthy, and the remaining narrators of this report have been declared trustworthy.

Sayyiduna Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "When a girl is born, Allah Almighty sends an angel to her who bestows blessing and says: 'A weak being who has come out of a weak being; the one who looks after her will be helped until the Day of Resurrection.' When a boy is born, Allah Almighty sends an angel to him from the heavens, who kisses him between his eyes and says: 'Allah Almighty has sent you greetings of peace.'"
Imam Tabarani recorded it in al-Mu'jam al-Awsat from his teacher Bakr, whose lineage he did not state, who narrates it from Abdullah bin Sulayman al-Misri, and I do not know either of them; the remaining narrators of this report are thiqat (trustworthy).

Sayyiduna Nubayt, that is, Sayyiduna Nubayt bin Sharit (may Allah be pleased with him), narrates that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "When a daughter is born to a man, Allah Almighty sends angels who say: 'Peace be upon you, O people of this house!' Then they cover the girl with their wings, pass their hands over her head and say: 'A weak being who has come out of a weak being; the one who looks after her will be helped until the Day of Resurrection.'"
Imam Tabarani recorded it in al-Mu'jam al-Saghir; its chain contains a group of narrators whom I do not know.

Sayyiduna Uqbah bin Amir (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Do not dislike daughters! For they are affectionate and (most) precious."
Imam Ahmad and Imam Tabarani recorded it; its chain contains a narrator, Ibn Lahi'ah, whose hadith is hasan (good), and the remaining narrators of this report are thiqat (trustworthy).

Sayyiduna al-Sa'ib bin Yazid (may Allah be pleased with him) relates that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) kissed Sayyiduna Imam Hasan (may Allah be pleased with him). Al-Aqra' bin Habis said to him (peace and blessings be upon him): "I have ten children, and I have never kissed any of them." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Allah Almighty does not show mercy to the one who does not show mercy to people."
Imam Tabarani recorded it, and its narrators are thiqat (trustworthy).

Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) narrates that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "When a father looks at his child and is delighted, the father receives the reward of freeing a soul (that is, a slave or slave-woman)." It was said: "O Messenger of Allah! Even if he looks three hundred and sixty times?" The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Allah is the Greatest."
Imam Tabarani recorded it in al-Mu'jam al-Kabir and al-Mu'jam al-Awsat, and he said about it that this report is narrated from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) only with this chain. Its chain is hasan (good); it contains a narrator, Ibrahim bin A'yan, whom Ibn Hibban declared trustworthy while others declared him da'if (weak).

Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) narrates that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The fragrance of a child is part of the fragrance of Paradise."
Imam Tabarani recorded it in al-Mu'jam al-Saghir and al-Mu'jam al-Awsat from his teacher Muhammad bin Uthman bin Sa'id, and that narrator is da'if (weak).

Sayyiduna Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) relates that a man was with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). His son came to him, and the man kissed him and seated him on his thigh. Then his daughter came to him, and the man seated her in front of him. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Why did you not treat the two of them equally?"
Imam Bazzar recorded it; he says: "Some of our companions narrated this hadith to us," without naming that narrator, and the remaining narrators of this report are thiqat (trustworthy).