Al-Adab Al-Mufrad
Al-Adab Al-Mufrad 238
حَدَّثَنَا أَصْبَغُ قَالَ: أَخْبَرَنِي ابْنُ وَهْبٍ قَالَ: أَخْبَرَنِي خَالِدُ بْنُ حُمَيْدٍ، عَنْ خَالِدِ بْنِ يَزِيدَ، عَنْ سُلَيْمَانَ بْنِ رَاشِدٍ، عَنْ عَبْدِ اللهِ بْنِ رَافِعٍ، عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ قَالَ: الْمُؤْمِنُ مَرْآةُ أَخِيهِ، إِذَا رَأَى فِيهَا عَيْبًا أَصْلَحَهُ.
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
Asbagh narrated to us, saying: Ibn Wahb informed me, saying: Khalid ibn Humayd informed me, from Khalid ibn Yazid, from Sulayman ibn Rashid, from ‘Abd Allah ibn Rafi‘, from Abu Hurayra, who said: ‘A believer is the mirror of his brother: when he sees a fault in it, he corrects it.’
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
الْمُؤْمِنُ مَرْآةُ أَخِيهِ، إِذَا رَأَى فِيهَا عَيْبًا أَصْلَحَهُ.
The feminine pronoun in فِيهَا refers grammatically to the mirror, while أَصْلَحَهُ is masculine and may refer to the brother or the fault; translations differ in how they resolve the metaphor.
Review whether the final pronoun means correcting the brother, the fault, or the mirror image.