‘A’isha reported God’s messenger as saying, “When a man’s sins are numerous and he has no good deeds wherewith to atone for them, God afflicts him with sorrow to remove them from him.”
Shaddad b. Aus and as-Sunabihi told how, when they went to visit an invalid, they said to him, “How are you this morning?” He replied, “I am quite comfortable this morning.” Shaddad told him to rejoice that his evil deeds had been atoned for and his sins remitted, for he had heard God’s messenger declare that God who is great and glorious says, “When I afflict a servant of mine who is a believer and he praises me for the affliction I have brought upon him, he will rise from that couch of his as sinless as he was the day his mother gave birth to him.” The Lord who is blessed and exalted will say, “I fettered and afflicted my servant, so record for him what you were recording for him when he was well.”
Jabir reported God’s messenger as saying, "When one visits an invalid he continues to plunge into mercy till he sits down, and when he sits down he is immersed in it.”
Yahya b. Sa'id said that when a certain man died in the time of God’s messenger another said, “Congratulations to him! He has died without being afflicted by illness.” God’s messenger then said, “I’m sorry for you. What do you know about it? (literally, ‘What makes you know?’ After this one understands some such words as, ‘that lack of illness is a mark of honour.’) Would that God had afflicted him with illness, and it had atoned for his evil deeds!”
