Arba'un 38 — whoever is hostile to a friend of Mine

الأربعون 38 — من عادى لي ولياً فقد آذنته بالحرب

The hadith of Abu Hurayra (may God be pleased with him) that the Messenger of God ﷺ said: 'God Most High said: whoever is hostile to a friend of Mine, I have declared war on him; and My servant draws near to Me by nothing dearer to Me than what I have made obligatory on him; and My servant keeps drawing near to Me through supererogatory works until I love him — and when I love him I am his hearing with which he hears, his sight with which he sees, his hand with which he grasps and his foot with which he walks; if he asks Me I shall surely give him, and if he seeks refuge in Me I shall surely shelter him' — the thirty-eighth of al-Nawawi's Forty and of Ibn Rajab's commentary, uniquely transmitted by al-Bukhari (6502) among the collections through Muhammad ibn Uthman ibn Karama from Khalid ibn Mukhallad from Sulayman ibn Bilal from Shurayk ibn Abdullah ibn Abi Namir from Ata' from Abu Hurayra, with the closing addition 'and I have never hesitated over anything I do as I hesitate over the soul of the believer — he hates death and I hate to hurt him'; it is among the Sahih's rarities, Ibn Karama alone narrating it from Khalid, and it is absent from Ahmad's Musnad though Khalid ibn Mukhallad al-Qatwani was criticised by Ahmad and others who said he had repudiated reports, while the Ata' of the chain was variously identified as Ibn Abi Rabah or Ibn Yasar; it was also narrated by routes none free of criticism, among them A'isha's report through Abd al-Wahid ibn Maymun Abu Hamza, client of Urwa ibn al-Zubayr — 'whoever harms a friend of Mine has made lawful My war against him, and My servant draws near to Me by nothing like performing what I made obligatory' (Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam pp. 770–795).