General Behavior (Kitab Al-Adab)

Abu Zumayl said: I asked Ibn Abbas, What is this thing I find in my breast? He asked: What is it? I said: By Allah, I will not speak of it. He asked: Is it some kind of doubt? He laughed and said: No one was safe from it until Allah, Mighty and Majestic, revealed: If you are in doubt about what We have sent down to you, then ask those who have been reading the Scripture before you, through the end of the verse. He then told me: When you find something troubling you, say: He is the First and the Last, the Manifest and the Hidden, and He has knowledge of all things.

Some of the Prophet’s Companions came to him and said: We find thoughts within ourselves that we consider too grave to speak of, and we would hate to possess them or to speak them aloud. He asked: Have you really found them? They said: Yes. He said: That is clear faith.

A man came to the Prophet and said: Messenger of Allah, one of us finds something within himself—referring indirectly to such thoughts—and would rather become charcoal than speak of it. He said: Allah is greatest, Allah is greatest, Allah is greatest. Praise be to Allah, who has turned his plot into mere whispering. Ibn Qudama’s version says his affair instead of his plot.

Sa‘d ibn Malik said: My ears heard this from Muhammad, and my heart retained it: Whoever knowingly claims to be the son of someone other than his father, Paradise is forbidden to him. I later met Abu Bakra and told him this. He said: My ears heard it and my heart retained it from Muhammad. Asim said: Abu Uthman, two men have testified to you—what remarkable men! He replied: One of them, Sa‘d ibn Malik, was the first to shoot an arrow in the cause of Allah—or in Islam. The other came from Taif on foot with more than twenty men, and he mentioned his merit. Abu Ali said: I heard Abu Dawud say that when al-Nufayli narrated this hadith, he said: By Allah, the wording ‘he narrated to us’ and ‘he narrated to me’ is sweeter to me than honey. Abu Ali also said: I heard Abu Dawud say that Ahmad said: The hadith of the people of Kufa has no light. He added: I have seen none like the people of Basra; they learned it from Shu‘ba.

The Prophet said: Whoever takes as his patrons a people without the permission of his own patrons, upon him is the curse of Allah, the angels, and all people. No compensation or deed will be accepted from him on the Day of Resurrection.

The Messenger of Allah said: Whoever claims descent from someone other than his father, or attaches himself to people other than his patrons, upon him is an enduring curse from Allah until the Day of Resurrection.

The Messenger of Allah said: Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has removed from you the arrogance of the pre-Islamic age and its pride in forefathers. A person is either a God-fearing believer or a wretched sinner. You are the children of Adam, and Adam was created from dust. Let men give up boasting about their peoples, for they are merely coals from the coals of Hell; otherwise they will be more insignificant to Allah than dung beetles that push filth with their noses.

Abdullah ibn Masud said: Whoever supports his people in wrongdoing is like a camel that has fallen into a pit and is being dragged out by its tail.

Abdullah said: I came upon the Prophet while he was in a leather tent, and he related something similar to the preceding report.

Wathila ibn al-Asqa said: I asked, Messenger of Allah, what is partisan tribalism? He replied: It is helping your people in wrongdoing.

Suraqa ibn Malik said: The Messenger of Allah addressed us and said: The best of you is the one who defends his clan, so long as he does not sin. Abu Dawud said: Ayyub ibn Suwayd is weak.

The Messenger of Allah said: He is not one of us who calls to partisan tribalism; he is not one of us who fights for partisan tribalism; and he is not one of us who dies upon partisan tribalism.

The Messenger of Allah said: A sister’s son belongs with her people.

Abu Uqba, a Persian client, said: I fought at Uhud alongside the Messenger of Allah and struck a man from the polytheists. I said: Take that from me; I am the Persian youth. The Messenger of Allah turned to me and said: Why did you not say, Take that from me; I am the Ansari youth?

Al-Miqdam ibn Madikarib reported that the Prophet said: When a man loves his brother, let him tell him that he loves him.

Anas ibn Malik said: A man was sitting with the Prophet when another man passed by. He said: Messenger of Allah, I love this man. The Prophet asked: Have you told him? He said: No. The Prophet said: Tell him. The man caught up with him and said: I love you for Allah’s sake. The other replied: May the One for whose sake you love me love you.

Abu Dharr asked: Messenger of Allah, a man loves a people but is unable to do deeds like theirs. He replied: Abu Dharr, you are with those whom you love. Abu Dharr said: I love Allah and His Messenger. He replied: Then you are with those whom you love. Abu Dharr repeated this, and the Messenger of Allah repeated his answer.

Anas said: I saw the Companions of the Messenger of Allah rejoice over nothing as much as they did over this. A man asked: Messenger of Allah, a person loves another for the good deeds he does, though he does not do the same. The Messenger of Allah said: A person will be with the one he loves.

The Messenger of Allah said: The person consulted is entrusted with the confidence placed in him.

A man came to the Prophet and said: Messenger of Allah, I have been left without a mount; provide me with one. He replied: I have nothing to carry you on, but go to so-and-so; perhaps he will give you a mount. The man went to him, and he provided him with one. He then returned to the Messenger of Allah and told him. The Messenger of Allah said: Whoever guides someone to good has a reward like that of the one who does it.