٤٢ - باب فضل بر أصدقاء الأب والأم والأقارب والزوجة وسائر من يندب إكرامه

Ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them both) reported that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Indeed, the finest form of dutifulness is that a man maintains ties with those whom his father loved.”

ʿAbdullah ibn Dīnār reported, on the authority of ʿAbdullah ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them both), that a man of the bedouin met him on the road to Mecca. ʿAbdullah ibn ʿUmar greeted him, mounted him upon a donkey that he himself had been riding, and gave him a turban that was on his head. Ibn Dīnār said: We said to him, “May Allah set you right—they are only bedouin, and they are content with little.” ʿAbdullah ibn ʿUmar replied, “The father of this man was beloved to ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him), and I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: ‘Indeed, the finest form of dutifulness is that a man keeps ties with the people whom his father loved.’” And in a narration on the authority of Ibn Dīnār, from Ibn ʿUmar: that whenever he set out for Mecca he had a donkey on which he would relax when he wearied of riding the mount, and a turban with which he would bind his head. One day, while he was on that donkey, a bedouin passed by him, and he said, “Are you not so-and-so, son of so-and-so?” He said, “Yes, indeed.” So he gave him the donkey and said, “Ride this,” and gave him the turban and said, “Bind your head with it.” Some of his companions said to him, “May Allah forgive you—you have given this bedouin a donkey on which you used to relax, and a turban with which you used to bind your head?” He said, “I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: ‘Indeed, among the finest forms of dutifulness is that a man keeps ties with the people whom his father loved after he has passed away,’ and this man's father was a friend of ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him).” Muslim narrated all of these reports.

Abū Usayd—pronounced with a ḍammah over the hamzah and a fatḥah over the sīn—Mālik ibn Rabīʿah al-Sāʿidī (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: While we were sitting with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, a man of the Banū Salimah came to him and said, “O Messenger of Allah, is there anything left of dutifulness to my parents by which I may honour them after their death?” He said: “Yes—praying for them, seeking forgiveness for them, fulfilling their pledges after them, maintaining the ties of kinship that are reached only through them, and honouring their friend.” Abū Dāwūd narrated it.

ʿĀʾishah (may Allah be pleased with her) said: I was never as jealous of any of the wives of the Prophet ﷺ as I was jealous of Khadījah (may Allah be pleased with her), though I never saw her; but he used to mention her often. He would often slaughter a sheep, then cut it into pieces, and then send them to Khadījah's friends. Sometimes I would say to him, “It is as though there were no woman in the world but Khadījah!” and he would say, “She was such, and she was such, and I had a child by her.” Agreed upon. And in a narration: Indeed, he would slaughter the sheep and then send to her close friends of it as much as would suffice them. And in a narration: Whenever he slaughtered a sheep, he would say, “Send some of it to Khadījah's friends.” And in a narration, she said: Hālah bint Khuwaylid, the sister of Khadījah, sought permission to enter upon the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and he recognised in it the manner of Khadījah's seeking permission, and was gladdened by that, and said, “O Allah, it is Hālah bint Khuwaylid!” Her word “fa-rtāḥa” is with a ḥāʾ; but in al-Ḥumaydī's al-Jamʿ bayna al-Ṣaḥīḥayn it is “fa-rtāʿa” with an ʿayn, and its meaning is: he was stirred with concern by it.

Anas ibn Mālik (may Allah be pleased with him) said: I set out with Jarīr ibn ʿAbdullah al-Bajalī (may Allah be pleased with him) on a journey, and he would serve me. I said to him, “Do not do that.” He said, “I have seen the Anṣār do something for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on account of which I have sworn to myself that I would never accompany any one of them without serving him.” Agreed upon.