Does the virtue of being spared from affliction come true if the remembrance "Praise be to Allah, who has spared me from what He has afflicted you with, and favored me over many of His creatures with a great favoring" is recited upon seeing or hearing news of affliction, or contemplating those afflicted, in the third-person plural form, "Praise be to Allah, who has spared us from what others have been afflicted with"?

The hadith: "Whoever sees an afflicted person and says: 'Praise be to Allah Who has spared me from what He has afflicted you with, and preferred me over many of those whom He has created with a great preference,' will not be afflicted by that calamity, whatever it may be, as long as he lives" has not been authenticated with a sound chain of narration from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. All its chains of narration are weak due to their instability and the weakness of their narrators.

What is sound in this regard is what has been narrated from Salim ibn Abdullah,وقفًا عليه (as a statement attributed to him), where it was said: "If a man encounters something of this affliction and says: 'Praise be to Allah Who has spared me from what He has afflicted you with, and preferred me over many of those whom He has created with a great preference,' that affliction will never befall him, whatever it may be."

Although this hadith does not have an authenticated chain of narration back to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, there is no harm in reciting this prescribed dhikr, which involves remembering and thanking Allah for His blessings, but without believing that it is a confirmed sunnah from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.