Fatimah came to the Prophet ﷺ complaining of the blisters on her hands from grinding with the millstone. She had heard that some captives had been brought to him, but she did not find him, so she mentioned the matter to Ayesha. When he came, Ayesha informed him.Ali said, He came to us when we had already taken to our beds. We started to get up, but he said, "Stay where you are."He came and sat between me and her, until I felt the coolness of his feet on my stomach.He said, "Shall I guide you to something better than what you asked for? When you take to your beds, or when you retire to your bed, say SubhanAllah thirty-three times, AlhamduliLlah thirty-three times, and Allahu Akbar thirty-four times. That is better for you than a servant."
أن فاطمة أتت النبي ﷺ تشكو إليه ما تلقى في يدها من الرحى، وبلغه أنه جاءه رقيق، فلم تصادفه، فذكرت ذلك لعائشة، فلما جاء أخبرته عائشة، قال: فجاءنا وقد أخذنا مضاجعنا، فذهبنا نقوم، فقال: على مكانكما فجاء فقعد بيني وبينها، حتى وجدت برد قدميه على بطني، فقال: ألا أدلكما على خير مما سألتما؟ إذا أخذتما مضاجعكما، أو آويتما إلى فراشكما، فسبحا ثلاثا وثلاثين، واحمدا ثلاثا ثلاثين، وكبرا أربعا وثلاثين، فهو خير لكما من خادم.
Narrated by Bukhari in the Book of Expenditures (5361) and Muslim in the Book of Remembrance and Supplication (2727), both via the route of Shubah, who said, Hakam narrated to me, from Ibn Abu Layla, Ali narrated to us, and he mentioned it.A benefit: Ibn Hajar said, "His saying, 'Shall I not direct you both to something better than what you asked for,' means that whoever persists in the remembrance of Allah is given a strength greater than the strength which the servant would provide for him, or that matters become easier for him such that handling them becomes easier than having a servant handle them. This is how some scholars derived it from the hadith. What appears more evident, however, is that the meaning is that the benefit of glorification (tasbih) is specific to the hereafter, while the benefit of a servant is specific to this worldly life, and the hereafter is better and more enduring." Fath al-Bari (9/506).I say, there is nothing preventing both meanings from being combined together. And I have a third angle, which is that occupying oneself with glorification and praise when a person finishes the exhaustion of the day makes him forget the hardship he encountered, and thereby he becomes independent of needing a servant, because his soul is preoccupied with the remembrance of Allah , and worldly need finds no place within this soul.