الأربعون 25 — ذهب أهل الدثور بالأجور

الأربعون 25 — ذهب أهل الدثور بالأجور

The hadith of Abu Dharr that some of the Prophet's Companions said 'O Messenger of God, the people of wealth have taken all the reward — they pray as we pray and fast as we fast, and give alms from their surplus wealth', so he directed them to charities within their reach: every glorification, magnification, praise and declaration of unity is alms, commanding right and forbidding wrong is alms, and 'in the intercourse of one of you is alms' — answering their surprise with 'if he placed it in the unlawful, would it not be a burden on him? Likewise, placing it in the lawful earns him reward'; the twenty-fifth of al-Nawawi's Forty and of Ibn Rajab's commentary, transmitted by Muslim (720, 1006) through Yahya ibn Ya'mar from Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali from Abu Dharr, with its meaning related from Abu Dharr through many routes, fuller and shorter; Ibn Rajab observes that the Companions' zeal was such that the poor grieved at losing the alms the wealthy could give and at missing campaigns they lacked the means to join — God Himself told of those who wept at finding nothing to spend (al-Tawba 92) — that duthur means wealth, and that the poor supposed alms were only monetary until the Prophet taught them that every kind of doing good and beneficence is alms, with Hudhayfa's 'every act of kindness is alms' in Sahih Muslim and, in the two Sahihs from Abu Hurayra, the poor Emigrants' complaint answered by teaching them thirty-three glorifications, magnifications and praises after each prayer — followed, when the rich did likewise, by 'that is God's bounty which He gives to whom He wills' (al-Ma'ida 54) — with parallels from Ali, Abu Dharr, Abu al-Darda', Ibn Umar, Ibn Abbas and others; Ahmad's long route enumerates the doors of alms: magnification, glorification, praise, the declaration of unity, seeking forgiveness, commanding right and forbidding wrong, removing thorn, bone and stone from people's path, guiding the blind, making the deaf and mute understand, directing the seeker, running on urgent legs to the distressed caller, lifting with strong arms for the weak — then 'in intercourse with your wife is reward' with the hypothetical child ('did you create him? — no, God did … place your desire in its lawful place, keep it from the unlawful, and yours is the reward'), whose apparent sense, for Ibn Rajab, is reward for intercourse by the intention of seeking a child whose upbringing and discipline earn reward credited at his death, while people disputed whether it enters the hadith without any intention — al-Nawawi drawing from it that the permissible becomes obedience through sincere intentions; and the Sahihayn carry Abu Masud al-Ansari's 'a man's spending on his family is alms' (Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam pp. 533–545).