The virtue of visiting the sick

Abdullah bin Yasar relates that Amr bin Hurayth visited Sayyiduna al-Hasan bin Ali (may Allah be pleased with them both) in his illness, and Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) asked him: "Are you visiting al-Hasan while there is in your heart (towards us) all that (rancour and hostility) which is there?" To this Amr replied to him: "You are not my Lord, that you can turn my heart wherever you wish." Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "In any case, that does not prevent us from giving you sincere counsel. I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: 'There is no Muslim who visits a (Muslim) brother of his except that Allah Almighty sends out seventy thousand angels for him' (the full hadith)."
Imam Ahmad bin Mani' recorded it from Yazid, and Imam al-Harith from Affan, both through Hammad bin Salamah.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu al-Darda' (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Indeed, when a man sets out intending to visit a believing brother of his (who is ill), he wades in the mercy of Allah up to his waist (until he reaches him); then when he reaches the sick person and sits down at ease, divine mercy envelops him completely."
Imam Abu Ya'la recorded it. Abu Hisham al-Rifa'i, a narrator in its chain, is da'if (weak); however, on the strength of other supporting narrations the content of this hadith is sound.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Sa'id al-Khudri (may Allah be pleased with him) that he heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "Whoever's fast coincides with the day of Friday, and he visits a sick person, attends a funeral and frees a slave, Paradise becomes obligatory for him."
[Takhrij: Musnad Abi Ya'la: 1018, Sahih Ibn Hibban: 2771, and al-Mu'jam al-Awsat of al-Tabarani: 5543. Its chain contains Ibn Lahi'ah, who has a poor memory, but the hadith has supporting narrations by which it is raised (in grade).]

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Amr bin Hazm (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever goes to visit and tend a sick person continues to wade in the mercy of Allah Almighty (while going), until when he sits down with the sick person he becomes fully immersed in that mercy (as though divine mercy covers him)."
Imam Abd bin Humayd added these words in his narration, that he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Then when he returns after the visit, he continues to wade in divine mercy in the same way until he reaches his home, from where he had set out (for the visit)."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah and Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) delivered a long sermon to us, in which were (also these words): "Whoever goes to visit a sick person, then for every step that he takes until he returns to his home, seventy thousand good deeds are written for him, seventy thousand bad deeds are erased and seventy thousand ranks are raised; and seventy thousand angels are appointed over him who visit him and seek forgiveness for him until the Day of Resurrection. And whoever stays up with a sick person (to tend him) for a day and a night, Allah Almighty will raise him with His intimate friend Sayyiduna Ibrahim (peace be upon him), until he passes over the Sirat (the bridge) like flashing lightning. And whoever strives to fulfil some need of a sick person comes out of his sins as (pure and clean as) he was on the day his mother gave birth to him." At this a man from the Ansar asked: O Messenger of Allah! What if the sick person is a close relative of his or a member of his household (is the merit the same then)? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Who could be more deserving of reward than the one who strives to fulfil the needs of his own family?"
This hadith is mawdu' (fabricated).

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) that when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) missed one of his brothers for three days, he would ask about him; if he was absent (on a journey), he would supplicate for him; if he was present in the city, he would visit him; and if he was ill, he would visit him in his sickness. Once the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) missed a man from the Ansar (from the gathering) and asked about him on the third day, and it was said: "O Messenger of Allah! We left him like a (very weak) chick of a bird; whatever goes down his throat comes straight out (that is, nothing stays in his stomach)." So the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to some of his Companions: "Visit your brother (in his sickness)." So we set out with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) to visit him, and among the group were Sayyiduna Abu Bakr and Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both). When we reached him, we found him (in the wretched state) just as he had been described to us. He (peace and blessings be upon him) asked: "How do you find yourself?" He said: "Whatever goes down my throat comes out at once (by the back passage)." He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "What caused this (condition)?" He said: "O Messenger of Allah! I passed by you while you were leading the Maghrib prayer, so I prayed with you, and you were reciting this surah, "The Striking Calamity! What is the Striking Calamity?" [Surah al-Qari'ah: 1-2] to its end. So (out of fear of the Hereafter) I made this supplication: 'Allahumma ma kana li min dhanbin anta mu'adhdhibi 'alayhi fi al-akhirati fa'ajjil li 'uqubatahu fi al-dunya' (O Allah, whatever sins I have for which You are going to punish me in the Hereafter, hasten their punishment for me in this world). So now you see me in the state in which I am." The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "What an evil thing you have said! Why did you not ask Allah Almighty to grant you good in this world and good in the Hereafter, and to protect you from the punishment of the Fire?" The narrator says: Then the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) instructed him, and he made this very supplication, and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) also supplicated for him; and the man at once stood up as though an animal had been freed from its tether and become lively and vigorous. When we came out from there, Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) submitted: "O Messenger of Allah! You have just urged us to visit the sick; so what reward is there for us in it?" The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Indeed, when a Muslim man sets out from his house to visit his Muslim brother, he wades in the mercy of Allah up to his hips; then when he sits with the sick person, mercy covers him and covers the sick person too. The sick person is in the shade of the Throne of Allah Almighty, while the visitor is in the shade of His holiness (His pure mercy). And Allah Almighty says to His angels: 'Look, how long did these visitors stay with the sick person?' The angels submit: 'O our Lord! The length of a fuwaq (the interval between two milkings of a she-camel).' So Allah Almighty says to His angels: 'Write for this servant of Mine the reward of a thousand years of worship.' And if they stayed for an hour, Allah says: 'Write for him (the reward of) an age.' And an age is ten thousand years. If he dies before that (reward reaches him), he will enter Paradise; and if he lives, not a single sin will be written against him. And if someone visits in the morning, seventy thousand angels pray for mercy for him until the evening, and he is in the orchards of Paradise; and if he visits in the evening, seventy thousand angels pray for mercy for him until the morning, and he is in the orchards of Paradise."
I (Ibn Hajar) say: The first part of the hadith is found in meaning in the Sahih (of Bukhari and Muslim), but not with this full context; and from the question of Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) to the end, Abbad bin Kathir alone narrated it, and he is extremely weak and matruk (abandoned); the signs of fabrication are evident on this text.