The Reward of an Arrow

Here is a narration from the Musnad of Imām Aḥmad. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: man balagha bi-sahmin fa-lahu darajatun fī al-jannah — the one who shoots an arrow, and the arrow reaches its target, will get one level in Paradise. With each arrow you get one level; that is how great the reward is. And one can make qiyās from this to modern forms of weaponry that are fired in a way similar to the way an arrow is shot. Now the narrator of the hadith, Abū Najīḥ al-Sulamī, said: I shot sixteen arrows, and all of them reached the target. So that is sixteen levels in Jannah, just like that; that is how great the reward is.

And then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) says: wa man shāba shaybatan fī sabīl Allāhi kānat lahu nūran yawma al-qiyāmah — and whoever grows one grey hair, one white hair, fī sabīl Allāh — and Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī says that whenever fī sabīl Allāh is mentioned, it refers to fighting fī sabīl Allāh — the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) says: whoever grows one grey hair in Islam, it will be a light for him on the Day of Judgement. Wa ayyumā rajulin muslimin aʿtaqa rajulan musliman fa-inna Allāha ʿazza wa jalla jāʿilun wiqāʾa kulli ʿaẓmin min ʿiẓāmihi ʿaẓman min ʿiẓāmi muḥarririhi min al-nār; wa ayyumā imraʾatin muslimatin aʿtaqat imraʾatan muslimatan fa-inna Allāha ʿazza wa jalla jāʿilun wiqāʾa kulli ʿaẓmin min ʿiẓāmihā ʿaẓman min ʿiẓāmi muḥarririhā min al-nār (al-Nasāʾī 3142). The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) says: any Muslim who frees a slave — every bone of that slave will free the equivalent bone in him on the Day of Judgement from the Hellfire; and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) mentions the same about a woman who frees a Muslim woman.

So this also shows the great reward of freeing slaves, and this is what encouraged the Muslims to free slaves throughout history. And probably there is no nation in history that has freed so many slaves for no economic reason, for no worldly reason, but to please Allah (swt); one finds that only with the ummah of Muḥammad (peace be upon him).