General Behavior (Kitab Al-Adab)

كتاب الأدب

Chapter 45: Concealing (the fault of) a Muslim

Narrated Uqbah ibn Amir

AbulHaytham quoted Dukhayn, the scribe of Uqbah ibn Amir, saying: We had some neighbours who used to drink wine. I forbade them, but they did not stop.

I then said to Uqbah ibn Amir: These neighbours of ours drink wine, and I tried to prevent them but they did not stop, and I am going to call the police about them.

He said: Leave them.

I again came to Uqbah ibn Amir and said: Our neighbours have refused to refrain from drinking wine, and I am going to call the police for them.

He said: Woe to thee! Leave them alone. I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say: he then mentioned the tradition to the same effect as recorded above on the authority of the narrator Muslim.

Abu Dawud said: In this version Hashim b. al-Qasim said on the authority of Laith: Do not do it, but preach them and threaten them.

Chapter 46: Brotherhood

‘Abd Allah b. Umar reported the prophet (May peace be upon him) as saying

A Muslim is a Muslim’s brother: he does not wrong him or abandon him. If anyone cares for his brother’s need, Allah will care for his need ; if anyone removes a Muslim’s anxiety, Allah will remove from him, on account of it, one of the anxieties of the Day of resurrection ; and if anyone conceals a Muslim’s fault, Allah will conceal his fault on the Day of resurrection.

Chapter 47: Two who revile one another

Abu Hurairah reported the Messenger of Allah (May peace be upon him) as saying

when two men abuse one another, what they say is laid to the charge of the one who began it, so long as the one who is wronged does not go over the score.

Chapter 48: Regarding humility

Narrated Iyad ibn Himar (al-Mujashi'i)

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: Allah has revealed to me that you must be humble, so that no one oppresses another and boasts over another.

Chapter 49: Regarding taking revenge

Narrated Sa'id ibn al-Musayyab

While the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) was sitting with some of his companions, a man reviled AbuBakr and insulted him. But AbuBakr remained silent. He insulted him twice, but AbuBakr controlled himself. He insulted him thrice and AbuBakr took revenge on him. Then the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) got up when AbuBakr took revenge.

AbuBakr said: Were you angry with me, Messenger of Allah?

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) replied: An angel came down from Heaven and he was rejecting what he had said to you. When you took revenge, a devil came down. I was not going to sit when the devil came down.

The tradition mentioned above has also been transmitted by Abu Hurairah through a different chain of narrators. This version has

Abu Dawud said: Similarly, it has been transmitted by Safwan b. ‘Isa, from Ibn ‘Affan, as Sufyan said.

Narrated Aisha, Ummul Mu'minin

Ibn Awn said: I asked about the meaning of intisar (revenge) in the Qur'anic verse: "But indeed if any do help and defend themselves (intasara) after a wrong (done) to them, against them there is no cause of blame." Then Ali ibn Zayd ibn Jad'an told me on the authority of Umm Muhammad, the wife of his father.

Ibn Awn said: It was believed that she used to go to the Mother of the Faithful (i.e. Aisha). She said: The Mother of the Faithful said: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) came upon me while Zaynab, daughter of Jahsh, was with us. He began to do something with his hand. I signalled to him until I made him understand about her. So he stopped. Zaynab came on and began to abuse Aisha. She tried to prevent her but she did not stop.

So he (the Prophet) said to Aisha: Abuse her.

So she abused her and dominated her. Zaynab then went to Ali and said: Aisha abused you and did (such and such). Then Fatimah came (to the Prophet) and he said to her: She is the favourite of your father, by the Lord of the Ka'bah!

She then returned and said to them: I said to him such and such, and he said to me such and such. Then Ali came to the Prophet (ﷺ) and spoke to him about that.

Chapter 50: Regarding the prohibition of speaking ill about the dead

'A’ishah reported the Messenger of Allah (May peace be upon him) as saying

When your companion dies, leave him and do not revile him.

Narrated Abdullah ibn Umar

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: Make a mention of the virtues of your dead, and refrain from (mentioning) their evils.

Chapter 51: Regarding the prohibition of wronging others

Narrated AbuHurayrah

I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say: There were two men among Banu Isra'il, who were striving for the same goal. One of them would commit sin and the other would strive to do his best in the world. The man who exerted himself in worship continued to see the other in sin.

He would say: Refrain from it. One day he found him in sin and said to him: Refrain from it.

He said: Leave me alone with my Lord. Have you been sent as a watchman over me? He said: I swear by Allah, Allah will not forgive you, nor will he admit you to Paradise. Then their souls were taken back (by Allah), and they met together with the Lord of the worlds.

He (Allah) said to this man who had striven hard in worship; Had you knowledge about Me or had you power over that which I had in My hand? He said to the man who sinned: Go and enter Paradise by My mercy. He said about the other: Take him to Hell.

AbuHurayrah said: By Him in Whose hand my soul is, he spoke a word by which this world and the next world of his were destroyed.

Narrated AbuBakrah

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: There is no sin more fitted to have punishment meted out by Allah to its perpetrator in advance in this world along with what He stores up for him in the next world than oppression and severing ties of relationship.

Chapter 52: Envy (hasad)

Narrated AbuHurayrah

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: Avoid envy, for envy devours good deeds just as fire devours fuel or (he said) "grass."

Narrated Anas ibn Malik

Sahl ibn AbuUmamah said that he and his father (AbuUmamah) visited Anas ibn Malik at Medina during the time (rule) of Umar ibn AbdulAziz when he (Anas ibn Malik) was the governor of Medina. He was praying a very short prayer as if it were the prayer of a traveller or near it.

When he gave a greeting, my father said: May Allah have mercy on you! Tell me about this prayer: Is it obligatory or supererogatory?

He said: It is obligatory; it is the prayer performed by the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ). I did not make a mistake except in one thing that I forgot.

He said: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) used to say: Do not impose austerities on yourselves so that austerities will be imposed on you, for people have imposed austerities on themselves and Allah imposed austerities on them. Their survivors are to be found in cells and monasteries. (Then he quoted:) "Monasticism, they invented it; we did not prescribe it for them."

Next day he went out in the morning and said: will you not go out for a ride, so that you may see something and take a lesson from it?

He said: Yes. Then all of them rode away and reached a land whose inhabitants had perished, passed away and died. The roofs of the town had fallen in.

He asked: Do you know this land? I said: Who acquainted me with it and its inhabitants? (Anas said:) This is the land of the people whom oppression and envy destroyed. Envy extinguishes the light of good deeds, and oppression confirms or falsifies it. The eye commits fornication, and the palm of the hand, the foot, body, tongue and private part of the body confirm it or deny it.

Chapter 53: Cursing

Abu al-Darda’ reported the Messenger of Allah (May peace be upon him) as saying

Abu Dawud said : Marwan b. Muhammad said: He is Rabah b. al-Walid who heard from him (nimran). He (Marwan b. Muhammad) said: Yahya b. Hussain was confused in it.

Narrated Samurah ibn Jundub

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: Do not invoke Allah's curse, Allah's anger, or Hell.

Abu al-Darda’ said

I heard the Messenger of Allah (May peace be upon him) say: Men given to cursing will not be witnesses or intercessors.

Narrated Abdullah ibn Abbas

A man cursed the wind. The narrator Muslim's version has: The wind snatched away a man's cloak during the time of the Prophet (ﷺ) and he cursed it. The Prophet (ﷺ) said: Do not curse it, for it is under command, and if anyone curses a thing undeservedly, the curse returns upon him.

Chapter 54: One who prays against the one who wrongs him

Narrated Aisha, Ummul Mu'minin

Something of her was stolen, and she began to curse him (i.e. the thief). The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said to her: Do not lessen his sin.

Chapter 55: Regarding a man abandoning his brother

Anas b. Malik reported the Messenger of Allah (May peace be upon him) as saying

Do not hate each other; do not envy each other; do not desert each other; and be the servants of Allah as brethren. It is not allowed for a Muslim to keep apart from his brother for more than three days.

Abu Ayyub al-Ansari reported the Messenger of Allah (May peace be upon him) as saying

it is not allowable for a Muslim to keep apart from his brother for more than three days. When they meet, this turns away from him, and that turns away from him. The better of the two is the one who initiates in salutation.