Sahih al-Bukhari
Judgments (Ahkaam)
كتاب الأحكام
Chapter 1
بَابُ قَوْلِ اللَّهِ تَعَالَى: {أَطِيعُوا اللَّهَ وَأَطِيعُوا الرَّسُولَ وَأُولِي الأَمْرِ مِنْكُمْ}
Abū Hurayra reported that the Messenger of God said: “Whoever obeys me has obeyed God, and whoever disobeys me has disobeyed God. Whoever obeys my commander has obeyed me, and whoever disobeys my commander has disobeyed me.”
Translation notes
The four clauses are kept parallel to preserve the report’s repeated contrast between obedience and disobedience.
ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar reported that the Messenger of God said: “Take note: each of you is a shepherd, and each of you is responsible for his flock. The leader over the people is a shepherd and is responsible for his flock. A man is a shepherd over his household and is responsible for his flock. A woman is a shepherd over her husband’s household and his children, and she is responsible for them. A man’s slave is a shepherd over his master’s property and is responsible for it. Take note: each of you is a shepherd, and each of you is responsible for his flock.”
Translation notes
The Arabic repeats the shepherd/flock metaphor and the responsibility formula at the beginning, across the examples, and at the end; this repetition is retained. The source’s final example specifically names a man’s slave and the master’s property.
Chapter 2
الأُمَرَاءُ مِنْ قُرَيْشٍ
Al-Zuhrī said: Muḥammad ibn Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim used to report that, while Muʿāwiya was with a delegation of Quraysh, news reached him that ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr was saying that there would be a king from Qaḥṭān. Muʿāwiya became angry, stood up, praised God as He deserves to be praised, and said:
“To proceed: I have heard that men among you are relating reports that are neither in the Book of God nor transmitted from the Messenger of God. Such people are your ignorant ones. Beware of wishful notions that lead their adherents astray. I heard the Messenger of God say, ‘This authority belongs to Quraysh. No one opposes them while they uphold the religion without God casting him down on his face.’”
Nuʿaym transmitted a supporting version from Ibn al-Mubārak, from Maʿmar, from al-Zuhrī, from Muḥammad ibn Jubayr.
Translation notes
The opening report says Muʿāwiya heard that ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr predicted a king from Qaḥṭān; it does not identify a specific ruler. “This authority” renders al-amr in the quoted statement, and “while they uphold the religion” is kept as its stated condition. The final chain is a compiler’s note about a supporting transmission.
ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar reported that the Messenger of God said: “Authority will remain among Quraysh as long as two of them remain.”
Translation notes
The source’s wording “the affair” is rendered here as “authority” in light of the statement’s context, while retaining the condition “as long as two of them remain.”
Chapter 3
أَجْرِ مَنْ قَضَى بِالْحِكْمَةِ
ʿAbd Allāh reported that the Messenger of God said: “There is no envy except in two cases: a man whom God has given wealth and enabled to spend it in what is right, and another whom God has given wisdom, so that he judges by it and teaches it.”
Translation notes
The Arabic uses the word for envy in a commendatory context, describing the two qualities named; the translation preserves the wording without adding an interpretation of the kind of envy intended.
Chapter 4
السَّمْعِ وَالطَّاعَةِ لِلإِمَامِ مَا لَمْ تَكُنْ مَعْصِيَةً
Anas ibn Mālik reported that the Messenger of God said: “Listen and obey, even if an Abyssinian slave is appointed over you, whose head is like a raisin.”
Translation notes
The source’s descriptive simile about the appointed person’s head is retained as stated.
Ibn ʿAbbās reported that the Prophet said: “If anyone sees something in his commander that he dislikes, let him be patient. For no one separates from the community by even a handspan and then dies without dying a death of the pre-Islamic era.”
Translation notes
The source uses the measure “a handspan” for separation from the community and describes such a death as a death of jāhiliyya, the pre-Islamic era. Both expressions are retained.
ʿAbd Allāh reported that the Prophet said: “Listening and obedience are incumbent upon a Muslim in what he likes and dislikes, so long as he is not commanded to commit a sin. If he is commanded to commit a sin, then there is no listening and no obedience.”
Translation notes
The source states the limit on obedience explicitly: when commanded to commit a sin, there is neither listening nor obedience.
ʿAlī said: The Prophet dispatched a detachment and appointed over them a man from the Anṣār, ordering them to obey him. The man became angry with them and said, “Didn’t the Prophet command you to obey me?” They said, “Yes.” He said, “I insist that you gather firewood, kindle a fire, and then enter it.” They gathered firewood and lit a fire. When they were about to enter it, they looked at one another. Some of them said, “We followed the Prophet only to escape the Fire. Should we now enter it?” While they were in that state, the fire went out and the man’s anger subsided.
The matter was reported to the Prophet, and he said, “Had they entered it, they would never have come out of it. Obedience is only in what is right.”
Translation notes
The source distinguishes the commander’s order to enter the earthly fire from the Prophet’s statement about never emerging from it. The concluding principle is rendered “in what is right,” matching al-maʿrūf.
Chapter 5
مَنْ لَمْ يَسْأَلِ الإِمَارَةَ أَعَانَهُ اللَّهُ
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Samura reported that the Prophet said: “ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, do not ask for authority. If you are given it because you asked for it, you will be left to manage it on your own; but if you are given it without asking, you will be helped in it. If you swear an oath and then see that something else is better, make expiation for your oath and do what is better.”
Translation notes
The source contrasts being left to manage authority after asking for it with being helped when it is given without asking. The oath instruction includes both expiation and then doing the better action, in that order.
Chapter 6
مَنْ سَأَلَ الإِمَارَةَ وُكِلَ إِلَيْهَا
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Samura reported that the Messenger of God said to him: “ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Samura, do not ask for authority. If you are given it because you asked for it, you will be left to manage it on your own; but if you are given it without asking, you will be helped in it. If you swear an oath and then see that something else is better, do what is better and make expiation for your oath.”
Translation notes
This parallel version reverses the order of the final two instructions compared with the preceding wording: here it says to do what is better, then make expiation for the oath. That order is retained.
Chapter 7
مَا يُكْرَهُ مِنَ الْحِرْصِ عَلَى الإِمَارَةِ
Abū Hurayra reported that the Prophet said: “You will eagerly seek authority, and it will be a cause for regret on the Day of Resurrection. How excellent a wet nurse it is, and how poor a weaner!”
Muḥammad ibn Bashshār said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥumrān told us, from ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd, from Saʿīd al-Maqburī, from ʿUmar ibn al-Ḥakam, from Abū Hurayra, as his own statement.
Translation notes
The wet-nurse/weaning image is retained literally; the source does not explain the metaphor here. The final chain is marked as Abū Hurayra’s own statement rather than as a prophetic attribution.
Abū Mūsā said: I came to the Prophet with two men from my people. One of them said, “Appoint us, Messenger of God,” and the other said the same. He replied, “We do not appoint to this position anyone who asks for it or anyone who is eager for it.”
Translation notes
The source repeats that the second man made the same request. The Prophet’s reply excludes both those who ask for the position and those who are eager for it.
Chapter 8
مَنِ اسْتُرْعِيَ رَعِيَّةً فَلَمْ يَنْصَحْ
Al-Ḥasan reported that ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Ziyād visited Maʿqil ibn Yasār during the illness from which he died. Maʿqil said to him, “I am going to relate to you a report that I heard from the Messenger of God. I heard the Prophet say, ‘There is no servant whom God entrusts with people and who does not look after them with sincere counsel, but that he will not find the fragrance of Paradise.’”
Translation notes
The source describes a person entrusted with a community who fails to care for it with naṣīḥa, sincere counsel and good faith; the translation preserves the scent image about Paradise.
Al-Ḥasan said: We went to visit Maʿqil ibn Yasār, and ʿUbayd Allāh came in. Maʿqil said to him, “Shall I relate to you a report that I heard from the Messenger of God?” He said: “There is no governor who is placed over a Muslim community and dies while deceiving them, but God will forbid Paradise to him.”
Translation notes
This parallel version uses the wording “dies while deceiving them” and states that God will forbid Paradise to such a governor. The source attributes the report through Maʿqil ibn Yasār to the Messenger of God.
Chapter 9
مَنْ شَاقَّ شَقَّ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ
Ṭarīf Abū Tamīma said: I was present with Ṣafwān and Jundab and their companions while Jundab was admonishing them. They asked, “Have you heard anything from the Messenger of God?” He said, “I heard him say: ‘Whoever makes his deeds heard of, God will expose him on the Day of Resurrection; and whoever causes hardship, God will cause hardship for him on the Day of Resurrection.’”
They said, “Advise us.” He said, “The first thing in a person to decay is his belly. Whoever can make sure he eats only what is wholesome, let him do so. And whoever can avoid being kept from Paradise because of a palmful of blood he has shed, let him do so.”
I asked Abū ʿAbd Allāh, “Who said, ‘I heard the Messenger of God’—Jundab?” He said, “Yes, Jundab.”
Translation notes
The paired expressions about making deeds heard and causing hardship carry reciprocal warning: God will expose or requite the person on the Day of Resurrection. I kept the vivid source wording about the belly and the palmful of blood. The final exchange explicitly confirms that Jundab was the speaker who said he had heard the Prophet.
Chapter 10
الْقَضَاءِ وَالْفُتْيَا فِي الطَّرِيقِ
Anas ibn Mālik said: While the Prophet and I were leaving the mosque, a man met us at its threshold and said, “Messenger of God, when is the Hour?” The Prophet said, “What have you prepared for it?” The man seemed humbled, then said, “Messenger of God, I have not prepared much prayer, fasting, or charity for it, but I love God and His Messenger.” He said, “You will be with those whom you love.”
Translation notes
The source says the man seemed to humble himself before answering; that reaction is retained without adding a motive. The final statement is translated as addressed directly to him.
Chapter 11
مَا ذُكِرَ أَنَّ النَّبِيَّ صلى الله عليه وسلم لَمْ يَكُنْ لَهُ بَوَّابٌ
Thābit al-Bunānī reported that Anas ibn Mālik said to a woman from his family, “Do you know so-and-so?” She said, “Yes.” He said, “The Prophet once passed by her while she was weeping at a grave. He said, ‘Be mindful of God and be patient.’ She replied, ‘Leave me alone; you are untouched by my affliction.’ He went on. Then a man passed by her and asked, ‘What did the Messenger of God say to you?’ She said, ‘I did not recognize him.’ He said, ‘That was the Messenger of God.’
“She came to his door and found no doorkeeper there. She said, ‘Messenger of God, by God, I did not recognize you.’ The Prophet said, ‘Patience is at the first shock.’”
Translation notes
The woman says the man was “unaffected by my affliction,” explaining why she told him to leave her alone before realizing who he was. The source explicitly notes that she found no doorkeeper at the Prophet’s door.
Chapter 12
الْحَاكِمِ يَحْكُمُ بِالْقَتْلِ عَلَى مَنْ وَجَبَ عَلَيْهِ دُونَ الإِمَامِ الَّذِي فَوْقَهُ
Anas ibn Mālik said: “Qays ibn Saʿd used to be in the presence of the Prophet, in the position of a police commander before a governor …”
Translation notes
The source ends mid-quotation after this comparison and supplies no continuation. The ellipsis marks the fragment without completing it.
Abū Mūsā reported that the Prophet sent him and then sent Muʿādh after him …
Translation notes
The source fragment ends after stating that Muʿādh was sent after Abū Mūsā; no further narrative is supplied.