Explanation of the hadith of Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: I entered upon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) while he was suffering from a fever, so I touched him with my hand and said:

The Shaykh : And our lesson tonight is the fifty-seventh hadith from my copy, which is a valid hadith, and it is his saying: And from Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: I entered upon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) while he was suffering from a fever, so I touched him with my hand and said: O Messenger of Allah, you are indeed suffering from a severe fever. He said: . I said: That is because you have two rewards. He said: . It was narrated by al-Bukhari and Muslim.
This is the wording of the hadith in "the two Sahihs," and the context is from Imam Muslim, except that there is a drop and a little distortion in my copy, so whoever has a copy should correct it. He says here, for example: "I entered upon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and touched him," and the correct wording is: "while he was suffering from a fever, so I touched him." The phrase "while he was suffering from a fever" is missing.
Likewise, after his saying "so I touched him" in "Sahih Muslim," it says "with my hand," and this is missing from this copy.
Likewise, among the clear errors that contradict the style of the Salaf is his saying: "I said: That is because you have two rewards." Here it came as: "That is because you all have two rewards," instead of "you" (singular), it came in the plural form, and this has no basis in al-Bukhari or in Muslim.
Then the last phrase: Here it came with the letter taa, and although the meaning is the same, the narration is with the letter taa. Here: , and what is in "Sahih Muslim" as well as "al-Bukhari" is: .
As for his saying: : The fever is the heat. Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) entered upon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) when he was afflicted with a fever, and the heat intensified upon him, until Ibn Mas'ud felt the heat of the Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him) skin in his hand when he placed it on him. Therefore, he said to him: You are indeed suffering from a severe fever. So he (peace be upon him) confirmed that by saying: meaning: Yes.
; his affliction is multiplied so that his reward is multiplied, and this is the case whenever the affliction is multiplied upon a person and he is patient with it, his reward is multiplied; until as came in some of the preceding hadiths: , if the illness becomes severe for a person and he is patient with it with beautiful patience, his reward from Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is that He forgives all his sins. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: , I said: That is because you have two rewards. He said: , this generality - that is: - is the ultimate excellence from Allah (Mighty and Majestic) for His servant, and this only happens when the affliction becomes severe upon him and he is patient with it, which is the good patience.
In the second hadith - and its chain is good - it says: And from Abu Sa'id al-Khudri (may Allah be pleased with him), that a man from the Muslims said: O Messenger of Allah, what do we have for these ailments that befall us? He said: . Abu Ayyub said: O Messenger of Allah, and if they are few? He said: , and if it is a thorn or more, it is an expiation, but the reward is in proportion to the affliction as we mentioned; so the greater the affliction, the greater the reward.
Up to here ends the hadith of the Messenger (peace be upon him) in the narration of Abu Sa'id al-Khudri in response to the saying of Abu Ayyub. He (peace be upon him) said: ; so he invoked upon himself - that is, Abu Ayyub - when he learned from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that the illnesses that befall a person, and especially the fever, are expiations. Abu Ayyub invoked upon himself that the fever would not cease to afflict him, that the fever would not leave him until he died, and that it would not prevent him from a Hajj or an 'Umrah, or from jihad in the path of Allah, or from a prescribed prayer in congregation. He said: So no one touched his body but he felt its heat until he died. It was narrated by Ahmad, Ibn Abi al-Dunya, Abu Ya'la, and Ibn Hibban in his "Sahih." The fever: the heat.
This hadith is clear and does not need commentary except for what Abu Ayyub did; his invocation upon himself with the fever may be difficult for some people, and it is in fact a problem; because we mention a hadith that we have mentioned more than once when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) passed by a man invoking his Lord that if He was not going to punish him in the Hereafter, let Him make this punishment an affliction of illness in this world. The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) taught him to invoke for good and to say: ; because a person may not be patient; he seeks affliction and then becomes part of the affliction that he does not have patience with the affliction, and therefore the wise person does not invoke seeking affliction for himself, but he seeks, if he is afflicted by Allah (Mighty and Majestic), to be among those who are patient with it. So how do we find here Abu Ayyub invoking upon himself with the fever?
It seems to me that this difficulty is removed if we remember his caution in his invocation; he invoked his Lord that the fever would cease to afflict him and befall him, but with the condition that this fever would not prevent him from performing any of the acts of worship and obedience, so it is as if by this method and this condition he combined the reward that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) gives him for his patience with the fever with his ability to perform the obligatory duties and other acts of obedience for which he is also rewarded.
And when I studied the hadiths of this chapter, I found in a hadith that comes soon what clearly testifies to what Abu Ayyub did with himself; meaning that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) approves of such an invocation, and there is no harm in reciting that hadith to you because of its close connection to what we are discussing. He says here in the seventy-fourth hadith: From Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: The fever asked permission to enter upon the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), so he said: Who is this? She said: Umm Milad. So he ordered her to be sent to the people of Quba, and they suffered from what Allah knows, so they came to him and complained about it, so he said: They said: Or will you do it? He said: . They said: So let her be.
This story, as you see, has a connection with the people of Quba - that is, the Ansar - and Abu Ayyub ibn Ka'b is an Ansari, so it is as if what he invoked upon himself from the invocation is from this hadith; and therefore we benefit from this last hadith and the hadith before it and from the invocation of Abu Ayyub upon himself that the fever would remain close to him that the light illnesses of a person who knows from himself strength and endurance and patience with them, he may invoke Allah (Mighty and Majestic) with them for himself, but he must also add to this invocation that he remains in his strength to perform what is obligatory upon him, and it is not just performing the prayer only, but also going out to the mosque to perform the congregational prayer as you heard the saying of Abu Ayyub himself where he said: He invoked upon himself that the fever would not leave him until he died, and that it would not prevent him from a Hajj or an 'Umrah - the 'Umrah is not obligatory - or from jihad in the path of Allah - likewise, jihad in the path of Allah in those days was mostly of the type of collective obligation - or from a prescribed prayer in congregation - so he mentioned the congregation here, so it seems that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) answered his invocation where the narrator of the hadith - and he is Abu Sa'id al-Khudri - said: So no one touched his body but he felt its heat until he died.
After this hadith, there are three weak hadiths, then the sixty-second hadith - also - from Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, and its chain is good; that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: This is one of the hadiths that combines the expiation of sins due to illness with the raising of ranks - also - in Paradise, but we must always and forever mention that the expiation and the raising of ranks is according to the pain or affliction that befalls the Muslim.
The one following it, where it is authentic, is his statement: It was narrated from Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: . The illness here refers to the severe type, accompanied—as we have mentioned more than once—by patience in enduring it; so Allah expiates for him every sin. This is a generalization that must be matched by a great calamity accompanied by patience and contentment with the divine decree. Al-Hakim narrated this hadith and said: It is authentic according to the conditions of both of them. His statement "according to the conditions of both of them" contains great leniency; because in the chain of the hadith there is a man named Abd al-Rahman ibn Salman al-Hajri, and he is one of those for whom al-Bukhari did not narrate anything; so the hadith is authentic according to the condition of Muslim only.
The hadith following it, and likewise the one after that, are weak.
Now, the sixty-sixth hadith is authentic. It states: It was narrated from Abu Umamah al-Bahili (may Allah be pleased with him) from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said: . "Yusr'a" means: the intention is not the known epilepsy, but rather that the disease throws him down onto the bed. So if he is saved from it and Allah (Mighty and Majestic) grants him health, he emerges pure from his sins. Ibn Abi al-Dunya and al-Tabarani narrated it in "al-Kabir," and its narrators are trustworthy. He said: It is authentic as well.
It was narrated from Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) came in to visit Umm al-Sayb or Umm al-Musayyab. He said: . She said: The fever; may Allah not bless it. He said: . Muslim narrated it.
He explains by saying: It was narrated as "ra'ayin" and "zay'ayin," "tazfarifin" and "tarfarifin," and their meanings are close, referring to the shivering that occurs in the person with a fever. This hadith is very explicit regarding the virtue of fever and that it purifies the one whom Allah has afflicted with it, on the condition that we always remind you of: patience in enduring it. So this fever purifies its owner just as fire purifies the impurity of iron. In it is one of the Islamic etiquettes that Muslims rarely pay attention to, especially today; and that is that it is not permissible to curse the one who harms you for something; especially if the one being cursed is not a person of legal responsibility, meaning from the two creations of humans and jinn, but it may be a disease like the fever here, or it may be an animal that is not a person of legal responsibility. As came in an authentic hadith: . And we know from some countries or neighborhoods that some of those who have no character and those who have no religion complain about the adhan on the minaret. And pardon me, I say "on the minaret" figuratively, because today no one climbs the minaret, but the amplifier has taken the place of the mu'adhdhin when he climbs the minaret, so the voice of the adhan is raised by the amplifier, and those who have no character among people complain about this voice which contains the remembrance of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). They may curse and they may revile, and perhaps the reviling reaches the one who sent Muhammad (peace be upon him) with the religion of Islam.
So this hadith contains an explicit prohibition that it is not permissible for a Muslim to curse the disease; why? Because this disease is not a person of legal responsibility, it is not rational, it is not the one who unleashed itself upon the patient, but rather Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) is the one who unleashed this disease upon this servant. And therefore it is not befitting for a Muslim to curse this disease; because Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is the one who acted in it. And perhaps from this category—and it has a close connection to this hadith—is his statement (peace and blessings be upon him): . So when a person turns to an angry outburst and blame upon time (al-dahr) and its actions and doings, and so on; everyone of us knows that time is not a person of legal responsibility, but rather our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) is the one who acts in this time as He wills. Therefore, it is not permissible to curse time; because this curse is directed to the one who acts in time, and He is Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). Therefore, it is not permissible to curse time, just as it is obviously not permissible to disparage the divine decree. And this is a trial that has befallen the Muslims today who have no knowledge; they pour all their anger upon the divine decree and the action of so-and-so, such and such, and such and such, until one of them said—and he is one who does not estimate, or perhaps he does not know the meaning of the divine decree—what did he say?
If the people one day desire life *** Then the divine decree must respond
This is disbelief, disbelief if they only knew. Why? Because they reversed the Islamic creed. Our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) says in the explicit text of the Noble Qur'an: . And by experience we know—after Islam and the Islamic creed—that one of us, or groups of us, or nations, or a community desires something and then does not reach that thing; because Allah (Mighty and Majestic), as in the explicit text of the Noble Qur'an: . So this disbeliever who composed this verse did not think about what he said at all, and unfortunately, the poet—sometimes—may say a word without paying attention to it. And here the saying of the Messenger (peace be upon him) applies: . So the poet may say a word and not realize, not know, and not think about what it implies of error and misguidance. But the wonder that does not end is that this poet spoke and spoke and did not realize and did not pay attention. So what is the matter with people who sing this verse?! Even some of the self-styled scholars, once some visitors from Libya came to the Islamic University, and there he spoke on the occasion of work and recited this verse of poetry, and he is a man who claims to be a scholar!
The conclusion: Attributing the response to other than Allah (Mighty and Majestic) from among those who are not persons of legal responsibility is not permissible, and it may return upon its owner as disbelief. Cursing the fever means that the fever is a rational thing that thinks and knows whom it strikes with its disease and affliction, and the matter is not so; rather Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is the Doer of what He wills.
The hadith following it is also authentic, and it is similar to the one before it; it states: It was narrated from Umm al-'Ala (may Allah be pleased with her) that she said: "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) came to visit me while I was sick, and he said: .
Also, a word was dropped here from the copy: . The copy says: . Abu Dawud narrated it, and in Abu Dawud there is an addition: ; meaning: .
And a final hadith in this lesson, and in it is a gross error in terms of the attribution and the chain; where it says: It was narrated from Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr (may Allah be pleased with them both) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . Al-Hakim narrated it and said: The chain is authentic.
The hadith in terms of its text has no error, and it is authentic, but in terms of its narrator, the Companion to whom it was attributed, where he said: from Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr, and the correct is: "Abd al-Rahman ibn Adham" instead of: "Abi Bakr." It is Abd al-Rahman ibn Adham, as it came in al-Hakim and others, and you will find it soon traced in the third volume of "Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Sahihah" with number: .
And this is sufficient, and praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.