General Behavior (Kitab Al-Adab)

The Prophet said: Your love of a thing makes you blind and deaf.

The Messenger of Allah said: Intercede with me, and you will be rewarded. Allah will decree through the tongue of His Prophet whatever He wills.

Muawiya said: Intercede, and you will be rewarded. I intend to deal with a matter, but I delay it so that you may intercede and be rewarded, for the Messenger of Allah said: Intercede, and you will be rewarded.

Abu Musa reported a similar statement from the Prophet.

One of the descendants of al-Ala reported that al-Ala ibn al-Hadrami, the Prophet’s governor in Bahrain, used to begin with his own name when he wrote to him.

Al-Ala ibn al-Hadrami wrote to the Prophet and began with his own name.

The Prophet wrote to Heraclius: From Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, to Heraclius, the great ruler of the Romans. Peace be upon whoever follows guidance. Ibn Yahya’s version, from Ibn Abbas, says Abu Sufyan told him: We entered upon Heraclius, and he seated us before him. Then he called for the Messenger of Allah’s letter. It read: In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful. From Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, to Heraclius, the great ruler of the Romans. Peace be upon whoever follows guidance. To proceed:

The Messenger of Allah said: No child can repay a parent unless he finds the parent enslaved, buys him, and sets him free.

Ibn Umar said: I had a wife whom I loved, but Umar disliked her and told me to divorce her. I refused, so Umar went to the Prophet and told him about it. The Prophet said: Divorce her.

Bahz ibn Hakim’s grandfather said: I asked, Messenger of Allah, to whom should I show the greatest dutifulness? He replied: Your mother, then your mother, then your mother, then your father, then the closest relative and the next closest. The Messenger of Allah also said: If a man asks his patron for a surplus he has and the patron withholds it, then on the Day of Resurrection that withheld surplus will be summoned as a bald serpent. Abu Dawud said: Bald means that the hair on its head has fallen out because of its venom.

A man came to the Prophet and asked: Messenger of Allah, to whom should I show the greatest dutifulness? He replied: Your mother, your father, your sister, your brother, and then the patron nearest to you. This is a binding right and a bond of kinship to be maintained.

The Messenger of Allah said: Among the gravest major sins is for a man to curse his parents. They asked: Messenger of Allah, how can a man curse his parents? He replied: He curses another man’s father, and that man curses his father; he curses the man’s mother, and that man curses his mother.

A man from Banu Salima asked: Messenger of Allah, is there anything left of dutifulness to my parents that I can do for them after they die? He replied: Yes: pray for them, seek forgiveness for them, fulfill their commitments after their death, maintain the ties of kinship that can only be maintained through them, and honor their friends.

The Messenger of Allah said: Among the finest acts of dutifulness is for a person to maintain ties with his father’s close friends after the father has passed away.

Abu al-Tufayl said: I saw the Prophet distributing meat at al-Jiirrana. I was then a boy carrying a camel bone. A woman came and approached the Prophet, and he spread his cloak for her to sit on. I asked who she was, and they said: This is the woman who suckled him.

It had reached Umar ibn al-Saib that one day the Messenger of Allah was sitting when his foster father came. He spread part of his garment for him, and the man sat on it. Then his foster mother came, and he spread the other side of his garment for her; she sat on it. Then his foster brother came, so the Messenger of Allah stood up and seated him in front of him.

The Messenger of Allah said: Whoever has a daughter, does not bury her alive, does not humiliate her, and does not prefer his sons over her, Allah will admit him to Paradise. Uthman’s version does not include the clarification that offspring here means sons.

The Messenger of Allah said: Whoever supports three daughters, educates them, marries them, and treats them well will enter Paradise. Abu Dawud said: The narrator is Said ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Mukmil al-Zuhri.

A version of this report says: Three sisters, or three daughters, or two daughters, or two sisters.

The Messenger of Allah said: On the Day of Resurrection, I and a woman with darkened cheeks will be like these two. Yazid gestured with his middle and index fingers. She is a woman widowed by her husband, of standing and beauty, who devotes herself to her orphans until they grow up or die.