English Translation

Yahya told us, from Sa'd ibn Ishaq, who said: Zaynab bint Ka'b ibn 'Ujrah narrated to me, from Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, who said: A man said to the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him): "What do you think of these illnesses that afflict us — what do we get from them?" He said: "They are expiations." My father said: "Even if slight?" He said: "Even a thorn-prick and anything beyond it." He said: So my father prayed against himself that fever would not leave him until he died, provided it did not distract him from Hajj, nor 'Umrah, nor jihad in the way of God, nor the obligatory prayer in congregation. And no one touched him but found his heat, until he died.