Every Muslim should hold fast to patience in all that afflicts him of illnesses, pains and sorrows, for they bring expiation and higher ranks

Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: I went in to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and he (peace and blessings be upon him) had a fever. I touched his body and said: O Messenger of Allah, you have a very severe fever. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Yes, I suffer a fever like that of two men among you." Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) said: That is because you have two rewards. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Yes. By the One in whose hand is my soul! Whatever Muslims there are on the face of this earth, when any illness or hardship, or anything else, befalls them, Allah Almighty wipes away his sins in return for it, just as the leaves of a tree fall."

Ya'la bin Ubayd (may Allah have mercy on him) said: Al-A'mash (may Allah have mercy on him) narrated the hadith to us and mentioned something similar, and he said: I placed my hand on him (peace and blessings be upon him).

Ata' bin Yasar (may Allah have mercy on him) narrates that Sayyiduna Abu Sa'id al-Khudri (may Allah be pleased with him) went in to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) while he (peace and blessings be upon him) was in a state of fever and had a sheet over him. He placed his hand on him (peace and blessings be upon him) and felt the heat from above the sheet (blanket). Sayyiduna Abu Sa'id (may Allah be pleased with him) said: O Messenger of Allah, how intense is the heat of your fever! He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Indeed, our trials are made severe like this, and our reward is also doubled." Then Sayyiduna Abu Sa'id (may Allah be pleased with him) said: O Messenger of Allah, which people are most severely tried? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The Prophets." He said: Then who? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Then the scholars." He said: Then who? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Then the righteous. One of them would be tried with poverty until he found nothing but a cloak to wear, and would be tried with lice until they killed him; and one of them would rejoice more at a trial than one of you rejoices at a gift."

Mus'ab bin Sa'd narrates from his father, Sayyiduna Sa'd bin Abi Waqqas (may Allah be pleased with him), that he said: I asked the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him): Which people are most severely tried? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The Prophets; then those next in rank, one degree after another. A man is tried according to his religion. If he is firm in religion, his trial is more severe; and if there is weakness in his religion, he is tried according to his religion. Trials keep befalling the servant until they leave him walking on the earth with no sin upon him."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that when this verse was revealed: "Whoever does evil will be recompensed for it" [Surah al-Nisa: 123], it weighed very heavily on the Muslims. They mentioned it to the beloved Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Keep to moderation, stay on course, and rejoice. Indeed, whatever hardship befalls a Muslim is an expiation for his sins, even a thorn that pricks him and a calamity that strikes him (is a cause of expiation for his sins)."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said: I said: O Messenger of Allah, how can there be deliverance after this verse: "Whoever does evil deeds will be given full recompense for it" [Surah al-Nisa: 123], meaning that every evil deed we do will be punished? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "O Abu Bakr, may Allah forgive you", saying it three times. "Do you not fall ill? Do you not grieve? Does hardship not come to you? Does calamity not befall you?" I said: Yes, they do. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "That is what you are recompensed with in this world."

It is narrated from both Sayyiduna Abu Sa'id al-Khudri and Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with them both) that they said: We heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) saying: "No hardship, distress, illness or grief ever befalls a believer, not even a worry that troubles and grieves him, except that Allah, the Glorified, wipes away his sins in return for it."

It is narrated from Sayyidah Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her) that the beloved Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "No affliction befalls a believer except that, in return for it, Allah, Glorified is He, wipes away his sins, even by a thorn that hurts him."

It is narrated from Sayyidah Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "There is no affliction that befalls a believer except that Allah Almighty wipes away his sins by it, even by a thorn that pricks him."

It is narrated from the Mother of the Believers, Sayyidah Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her), that she said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "There is no believer who is pricked by a thorn, or suffers any hardship less than that, except that Allah, Glorified is He, wipes away a sin of his by it and increases his reward."

Sayyidah Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her) said that he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "No believer is struck by a thorn, or by any hardship less than it, except that Allah Almighty raises his rank by it and forgives his faults by it."

Iyad bin Ghutayf narrates: We came to visit Sayyiduna Abu Ubaydah (may Allah be pleased with him) in his sickness, and his wife was with him. We asked her: "How did he spend the night?" She said: "With reward." Sayyiduna Abu Ubaydah (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "Have (I) spent the night earning reward?" The people fell silent. He said: "Will you not ask him about this?" They said: "What you said did not astonish us, but we do ask you." He said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "Whoever spends surplus dirhams and dinars in the path of Allah, it is multiplied up to seven hundred times; whoever spends a dirham on his family, or removes something harmful from the road, then that one good deed is equal to ten good deeds; fasting is a shield as long as he does not tear it; and whoever Allah Almighty tests with an illness in his body, in return for that too his sins will be wiped away."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Trials continue to afflict the believing man and the believing woman in their own selves, their wealth and their children, until they meet Allah Almighty in a state where no sin remains on them."

Sayyiduna Abd al-Rahman bin Azhar (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The example of the believer is like that of iron: when fever or illness strikes him, his impurity (his faults) goes away and his purity remains." That is, just as when iron is put into fire its dross goes away and the pure iron is left.

Ibrahim al-Sulami narrates from his father, from his grandfather (may Allah be pleased with him), who had the companionship of the beloved Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). He said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), he (peace and blessings be upon him) was saying: "Indeed, a high station and rank is written for a servant by Allah Almighty, but the person does not reach it through his deeds, so Allah Almighty tests that servant in his body, his wealth or his children." Ibn Nufayl added the words: "Then he is patient with that." Both agree on this: "Until Allah Almighty brings that servant to the station which had already been decreed for him by Allah Almighty."

Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr (may Allah be pleased with them both) narrates that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Indeed, when a servant follows a good way in his worship and then falls ill, it is said to the angel who is appointed (over him): 'Write for him the reward of the deeds he used to do in the state of health, until I restore him to health or take him to Myself.'"

Abu Burdah said: I heard Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) say many times that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "When a servant falls ill or is on a journey, his reward is written for him just like the deeds he used to do while resident or while healthy."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, says: 'When I test My believing servant and he does not complain about Me to those who visit him, I release him from My captivity. Then I replace his flesh with better flesh and his blood with better blood, and then he begins (righteous) deeds afresh.'"

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that Allah Almighty says: "I test My believing servant, and when he does not complain of that to those who visit him, I untie My knot from him and replace his blood with better blood and his flesh with better flesh. Then I say to him: 'Now begin your deeds afresh.'"

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him) that the fever came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and asked permission (to enter). He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Who are you?" It said: "I am the fever." He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Do you know the people of Quba?" It said: "Yes." So he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Go to them." So it went to them, and they felt its severity, so they complained to him (peace and blessings be upon him). He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "If you wish, I will supplicate to Allah Almighty and He will remove it from you; and if you wish, it will become for you a purification (tahur) and an expiation for sins." They said: "Rather, being an expiation and a means of purification is better."

Ya'la bin Ubayd narrated it from al-A'mash. He mentioned the first part from al-A'mash, from Ja'far bin Abd al-Rahman al-Ansari, from Umm Tariq, the slave-woman of Sayyiduna Sa'd (may Allah be pleased with him), from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him); and he mentioned the meaning of the second part, which concerned their complaint, from al-A'mash, from Abu Sufyan, from Sayyiduna Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him).

Sayyiduna Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) saying: "Allah Almighty says: 'When I test My servant through his two beloved things (his eyes) and he is patient, then in return for them I will grant him Paradise.'"

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "On the Day of Resurrection, the people who enjoyed health and well-being will wish that their bodies had been cut with scissors, because of the reward they will see given to the people of affliction."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Suhayb (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "For the believer there is good in every state, and this is not so for anyone except the believer. If something good comes to him, he thanks Allah, and there is reward for him in return. If hardship befalls him, he is patient, and in that case too there is reward for him. In short, every decree of Allah Almighty is good for the Muslim."

Umar bin Sa'd narrates from his father, Sayyiduna Sa'd bin Abi Waqqas (may Allah be pleased with him), that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "I marvel at the believer: if some good comes to him, he praises and thanks Allah Almighty; and if a calamity befalls him, he still praises Allah and is patient. So the believer is rewarded in every state, even for the morsel he puts into his wife's mouth."