Hadith Text
وَعَنِ ابْنِ مَسْعُودٍ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ قَالَ: دَخَلْتُ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ وَهُوَ يُوعَكُ، فَقُلْتُ: يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ إِنَّكَ تُوعَكُ وَعْكاً شَدِيداً. قَالَ: «أَجَلْ، إِنِّي أُوعَكُ كَمَا يُوعَكُ رَجُلَانِ مِنْكُمْ». قُلْتُ: ذَلِكَ أَنَّ لَكَ أَجْرَيْنِ؟ قَالَ: «أَجَلْ ذَلِكَ كَذَلِكَ. مَا مِنْ مُسْلِمٍ يُصِيبُهُ أَذىً، شَوْكَةً فَمَا فَوْقَهَا إِلَّا كَفَّرَ اللَّهُ بِهَا سَيِّئَاتِهِ، وَحُطَّتْ عَنْهُ ذُنُوبُهُ كَمَا تَحُطُّ الشَّجَرَةُ وَرَقَهَا». مُتَّفَقٌ عَلَيْهِ.
Full Translation
On the authority of Ibn Mas’ud (may Allah be pleased with him) who said:
I entered upon the Prophet ﷺ while he was suffering from fever. I said: O Messenger of Allah — you have a very intense fever. He said: “Yes — I am afflicted like two men among you.” I said: Is that because you have two rewards? He said: “Yes, that is so. No Muslim is struck by any harm — even a thorn or anything above that — except that Allah expiates his sins through it, and his wrongs are shed from him as a tree sheds its leaves.”
Agreed upon.
Meanings of Key Words
- Yu’aku (يُوعَكُ) — suffering from fever; wa’k is the specific word for the intense, consuming heat and shaking of high fever — not mild discomfort. Ibn Mas’ud described it as shadidan — severe. He saw it and was alarmed enough to say something
- Ajal (أَجَلْ) — yes, indeed; a word of full confirmation — not a reluctant admission but a clear, unhesitating acknowledgment. The Prophet ﷺ did not deflect, did not minimise, did not say “it is nothing.” He said: yes
- Ka-ma yu’aku rajulani minkum (كَمَا يُوعَكُ رَجُلَانِ مِنْكُمْ) — as two men among you are afflicted; double the intensity of an ordinary person’s fever. The scholars explain this as proportional to his station — the prophets were tested most severely of all people, then those nearest to them in rank
- Ajrayn (أَجْرَيْنِ) — two rewards; Ibn Mas’ud made the connection himself — double suffering, double reward. The Prophet ﷺ confirmed it without elaboration: yes, that is so
- Shawkatan fama fawqaha (شَوْكَةً فَمَا فَوْقَهَا) — a thorn or anything above that; where Hadith 37 used the thorn as the lower limit of a descending list, here the thorn is the floor of an ascending scale — everything from the smallest prick upward is included. The principle has no ceiling and no floor
- Huttat ‘anhu dhunubuhu (حُطَّتْ عَنْهُ ذُنُوبُهُ) — his wrongs are shed from him; hutta — dropped, released, removed. Not chipped away gradually but shed — the word implies a release rather than an extraction
- Kama tahuttu al-shajaru waraqaha (كَمَا تَحُطُّ الشَّجَرَةُ وَرَقَهَا) — as a tree sheds its leaves; the closing image of the hadith — chosen by the Prophet ﷺ with deliberate precision, as we will explore below
Hadith Lessons
Hadith 37 established the principle: Muslim suffering, down to a thorn, expiates sins. This hadith is not a repetition — it is the same principle seen from inside a living scene, with two additions that Hadith 37 does not contain: the proportionality of suffering to reward, and the image of the tree.
The Scene — Walking In on the Prophet ﷺ
Ibn Mas’ud entered. He found the Prophet ﷺ in the grip of a severe fever — visibly, physically suffering. His first words were not a greeting or a question — they were an expression of concern: you are burning intensely.
What is remarkable is what the Prophet ﷺ did not do. He did not say: do not worry, I am fine. He did not deflect the concern or perform composure. He said: ajal — yes. I confirm it. And then he named its scale: I have this like two men.
This is the Prophet ﷺ acknowledging his own suffering plainly, without minimisation, without self-erasure in the name of patience. The acknowledgment and the patience were not in tension — they existed together in the same breath. He said yes to the reality of the pain, and then connected that reality immediately to its meaning.
This matters because a misunderstanding of patience sometimes produces a suppression of honest acknowledgment — as if saying “I am suffering” is a failure of trust in Allah. The Prophet ﷺ, the highest model of patience in human history, said plainly: yes, I am suffering, and severely. The patience was in what he said next — not in denying what was real.
Double Suffering, Double Reward — The Proportionality Principle
Ibn Mas’ud made the intuitive leap: is that because you have two rewards? And the Prophet ﷺ confirmed it: ajal dhalika kadhalik — yes, exactly so.
This confirmation establishes a principle the chapter has approached from different angles but here states most directly: the reward scales with the suffering. Not as a formula that can be calculated, but as a divine proportion — what is asked of you in terms of endurance corresponds to what is given to you in terms of reward. The prophets were asked the most. They received the most. Then those nearest to them. Then the next.
The companion ‘Ata’ ibn Abi Rabah — who appears in Hadith 35 — was asked why affliction seems to fall hardest on the best people. He pointed to this principle. The intensity of the trial is not a sign of divine abandonment. It is a sign of divine attention — Allah giving to this person a proportionate instrument of elevation.
The Tree — What This Image Does That “Expiation” Alone Cannot
Hadith 37 used the word kaffara — expiation, covering, wiping away. A theological term — precise and correct, but abstract. Here the Prophet ﷺ adds something different: an image.
“His wrongs are shed from him as a tree sheds its leaves.”
A tree in autumn does not negotiate with its leaves. It does not decide which ones to release and which to keep. It does not work at the shedding — it simply happens, in its season, completely. Every leaf falls. The tree that was covered becomes bare — not diminished, but cleared. Ready.
This image does several things at once:
It conveys totality. Not some sins, not most — the leaves of a tree in autumn fall entirely. The language of Hadith 37 said min khatayahu — some of his sins. This hadith’s image extends the picture toward completeness — the full covering falling away.
It conveys effortlessness. The tree does not struggle to shed. The person does not have to do additional work beyond carrying the suffering that was sent to them. The shedding happens as a natural consequence — the suffering is the season, and the leaves fall.
It conveys readiness for renewal. A tree that has shed its leaves is not finished — it is prepared. What comes next grows on clean branches. The believer who has been cleared through suffering is not depleted. They are prepared for what Allah intends to grow in them next.
The scholars of tarbiyah note that this image is one of the gentlest in all of hadith literature on the subject of sin and its consequences. It does not present the person standing before their record in dread. It presents a natural process — suffering comes, leaves fall, the person is cleared — as organic and as certain as the seasons.
What This Hadith Adds to the Chapter
Hadith 37 gave the principle from a position of teaching — the Prophet ﷺ stating it declaratively to the community. Hadith 38 gives the same principle from inside a moment of vulnerability — the Prophet ﷺ feverish, confirmed to be suffering doubly, using his own body as the occasion to extend the teaching to every Muslim.
The movement from principle to embodied scene is the same movement the entire chapter makes repeatedly: the theology of patience is never abstract for long. It always returns to a person, a moment, a body in real suffering — and shows the teaching living there.
Three Questions to Close With
- Ibn Mas’ud walked in and named what he saw: you are suffering severely. Is there suffering in my life that I have been refusing to name honestly — to myself or to Allah — under the mistaken belief that acknowledgment is a failure of patience?
- The reward doubles with the suffering. Is there a period of my life when the difficulty was most intense — and does this principle change how I understand what was happening in that period, and what was being built or cleared?
- The tree sheds its leaves completely and is then ready for new growth. What might Allah be preparing in me — after or through whatever I am currently carrying — that requires this clearing first?