Arba'un 36 — whoever relieves a believer's distress

الأربعون 36 — من نفس عن مؤمن كربة

The hadith of Abu Hurayra that the Messenger of God said 'whoever relieves a believer of one of the world's distresses, God will relieve him of one of the distresses of the Day of Resurrection; whoever eases things for one in straitened circumstances, God will ease things for him in this world and the next; whoever conceals a Muslim, God will conceal him in this world and the next; and God is at the servant's aid so long as the servant is at his brother's aid; whoever treads a path seeking knowledge, God will ease for him by it a path to Paradise; and no people gather in one of God's houses reciting the Book of God and studying it among themselves without serenity descending on them, mercy enveloping them, the angels surrounding them, and God mentioning them among those with Him; and whoever is slowed by his deeds, his lineage will not speed him along' — the thirty-sixth of al-Nawawi's Forty and of Ibn Rajab's commentary, transmitted by Muslim (2699) in this wording through al-A'mash from Abu Salih from Abu Hurayra; more than one memoriser — Abu al-Fadl al-Harwi and al-Daraqutni among them — objected to the chain, for Asbat ibn Muhammad narrated it from al-A'mash with 'I was told it from Abu Salih', showing al-A'mash had not heard it from Abu Salih and never named his informant, and al-Tirmidhi preferred Asbat's version, saying 'Asbat's hadith is sounder'; some of al-A'mash's students added to the text 'and whoever lets a Muslim off, God will let off his stumble on the Day of Resurrection'; and segments of it occur in the two Sahihs (Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam pp. 731–753).