Al-Adab Al-Mufrad
Book 14, Hadith 285
حَدَّثَنَا حَجَّاجُ بْنُ مِنْهَالٍ، قَالَ: حَدَّثَنَا حَمَّادُ بْنُ سَلَمَةَ، عَنْ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ زِيَادٍ قَالَ: سَمِعْتُ أَبَا هُرَيْرَةَ يَقُولُ: سَمِعْتُ أَبَا الْقَاسِمِ صلى الله عليه وسلم يَقُولُ: خَيْرُكُمْ إِسْلاَمًا أَحَاسِنُكُمْ أَخْلاَقًا إِذَا فَقِهُوا.
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
Hajjaj ibn Minhal narrated to us: Hammad ibn Salama narrated to us, from Muhammad ibn Ziyad, who said: I heard Abu Hurayra say: I heard Abu al-Qasim ﷺ say: ‘The best of you in Islam are those best in character, when they have understanding.’
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
The final qualification is explicit in the Arabic: excellence in character is connected with understanding (فقه). The witness supplies ‘of the deen’ as an interpretive clarification, which is not stated here.
إِذَا فَقِهُوا
The Arabic simply says ‘when they understand/have understanding’; it does not specify an object.
Should the translation leave the object unstated, as here, or follow the witness’s explanatory ‘of the deen’?