Home > The 40 Hadith of Nawawi > Hadith 13 of Nawawi
Hadith number 13 of the collection of the 40 hadiths of Imam an-Nawawi, in faithful English translation.
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Updated on 07 October 2026 at 4:51 AM
📖 15 min readThis hadith belongs to the collection of the 40 hadiths of Imam an-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him), the most studied hadith compilation in the world: foundations of faith, worship and character, all authentic narrations.
And this narration sheds light on the meaning of the version reported in the two Sahihs, and that the negation of faith means: denying the attainment of its reality and its fullness; for faith is often denied on account of the breach of some of its pillars and obligations, as in the words (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "The adulterer does not commit adultery at the moment he commits adultery, being a believer; the thief does not steal at the moment he steals, being a believer; and he does not drink khamr at the moment he drinks it, being a believer." And his words: "He is not a believer whose neighbour is not safe from his harms."
The scholars diverged over the committer of great sins: is he called a believer with incomplete faith, or is he not called a believer, but one says: he is a Muslim and not a believer? Two opinions, which are two narrations of Imam Ahmad.
As for the one who commits small sins, the name of faith does not leave him entirely: he is a believer with incomplete faith, diminished in his faith according to what he has committed.
The opinion that the committer of great sin is called a believer with incomplete faith is reported from Jabir ibn 'Abdallah, and it is the opinion of Ibn al-Moubarak, Ishaq, Abu 'Obayd and others. And the opinion that he is a Muslim and not a believer is reported from Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn 'Ali, and some mention that he chose it in accordance with the people of the Sunna. Ibn 'Abbas (may Allah be pleased with both of them) said: "From the adulterer is taken the light of faith." Abu Hourayra said: "faith is taken from him, and it remains above him like a shadow; when he repents, it returns to him." 'Abdallah ibn Rawaha and Abu ad-Darda said: "Faith is like a garment: the man wears it at one time and takes it off at another." Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him) and others said the like. The meaning: when he completes the traits of faith, he wears it; when something of it diminishes, he takes it off.
And all of this indicates the complete and perfect faith from which nothing of its obligations is missing. The point is that among the traits of obligatory faith is that a man love for his believing brother what he loves for himself, and detest for him what he detests for himself; when that disappears from him, his faith diminishes accordingly. It is reported that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said to Abu Hourayra: "Love for the people what you love for yourself: you will be a Muslim." Reported by at-Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah. Imam Ahmad reports from the hadith of Mu'adh that he asked the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) about the best faith. He said, "The best faith: that you be loved for Allah, hated for Allah, and that your tongue labour in the remembrance of Allah." He said: "And what else, O Messenger of Allah?" He said, "That you love for the people what you love for yourself, and detest for them what you detest for yourself, and that you speak good or keep silent."
The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) tied entry into Paradise to this trait. In the Mousnad of Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him), from Yazid ibn Asad al-Qouchayri: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said to me, "Do you love Paradise?" I said: yes. He said, "Then love for your brother what you love for yourself."
In the Sahih of Mouslim, from the hadith of 'Abdallah ibn 'Amr ibn al-'As, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "Whoever would wish to be kept far from the Fire and brought into Paradise: let his death overtake him believing in Allah and the Last Day, and let him treat people as he would wish to be treated."
In this vein too, from Abu Dharr (may Allah be pleased with him): the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said to me, "O Abu Dharr, I see you as weak; and I love for you what I love for myself: never command two people, and never concern yourself with the wealth of an orphan." He forbade him this because of the weakness he saw in him; and he (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) loved that for every weak person, while he himself administered the affairs of the people, for Allah had fortified him for it, and had commanded him to call all creation to His obedience and to administer the governance of their religion and their world.
It is reported from 'Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said to him: "I prefer for you what I prefer for myself, and I detest for you what I detest for myself: do not recite the Quran in a state of major incapacity, nor while bowing, nor while prostrate." And Muhammad ibn Was' was selling his donkey; a man said to him, "Would you accept that I buy it?" He said, "Were I to accept, I would not be selling it." And this is an allusion from him that he approves for his brother only what he approves for himself. And all of this is part of sincere counsel to the Muslims as a whole, which is part of the religion, as explained previously in its place. We have already mentioned above the hadith of an-Nouman ibn Bachir (may Allah be pleased with him), from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "The example of the believers in their mutual love, their compassion and their mercy is that of a body: when one limb complains of it, the whole body shares in its sleeplessness and its fever." The two of them reported it in the Sahihs.
This indicates that what pains his believing brother pains the believer, and what saddens him saddens him. And the hadith of Anas which we are now discussing indicates that what pleases his believing brother pleases the believer, and that he wills for his believing brother what he wills for himself as good.
All of this comes only from the completeness of the purity of the breast of deceit, oppression and envy; for envy requires that the envier hate that anyone surpass him in good or equal him, because he loves to distinguish himself from people by his virtues and to be singular among them. And faith requires the opposite: that all the believers share with him the good Allah has given him, without anything of it diminishing for him. Allah the Most High praised in His Book the one who desires no exaltation in the earth nor corruption, and said: "That last abode, We give it to those who desire no exaltation in the earth nor corruption."
Ibn Jarir reports, with a disputed chain, from 'Ali (may Allah be pleased with him): the man rejoices that the strap of his sandal be finer than the strap of his companion's sandal, and he enters into the words of the Most High: "That last abode, We give it to those who desire no exaltation in the earth nor corruption; and the final outcome belongs to the God-fearing." Likewise reported from al-Foudayl ibn Iyad concerning this verse: "he hates that his sandal be finer than the sandal of another, nor that its strap be finer than the strap of another's."
It has been said: this is understood as desiring vanity over others, not mere adornment. Ikrima and other exegetes say of this verse: exaltation in the earth means pride and the seeking of honour and of standing with whoever holds authority; and corruption means the doing of acts of disobedience. There has come that which indicates that one is not blameworthy for hating that anyone of the people surpass him in beauty. Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him) and al-Hakim in his Sahih report the hadith of Ibn Mas'oud (may Allah be pleased with him): "I came to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) together with Malik ibn Mourara ar-Rahawi, and I caught up with him saying: O Messenger of Allah, beauty has been apportioned to me such as you see, and I dislike being surpassed by the length of two sandal-straps and more: is this not injustice? He said: No! It is not injustice; rather injustice belongs to the one who swells with pride, or says: I am wiser, and strips the people."
Abu Dawoud reports from the hadith of Abu Hourayra (may Allah be pleased with him), from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), the meaning, and in his hadith: "pride" in place of "injustice", denying that his dislike of being surpassed in beauty by anyone is injustice or pride, and explaining injustice and pride as the swelling against the truth, which is pride towards it, and the refusal to accept it as pride when it contradicts his passion.
From this, some of the Ancients said: "Humility is to accept the truth from whoever brings it, were he small." Whoever accepts the truth from whoever brings it, small or great, loved or unloved, is humble. Whoever refuses to accept the truth out of disdain is proud. And the stripping of the people means their contempt and disdain; it arises from looking at one's own soul with the eye of perfection and at the other with the eye of defect.
In sum, it falls to the believer to love for the believers what he loves for himself, and to detest for them what he detests for himself; if he sees in his Muslim brother a defect in his religion, let him strive to reform it. The righteous among the Ancients said: "The people of love for Allah looked by the light of Allah, and had compassion on the people of Allah's disobediences: they detested their deeds and pitied them, seeking to turn them away by the exhortations of their deeds, and they were concerned for their bodies before the Fire."
And the believer is not a true believer until he approves for people what he approves for himself. And if he sees in another a virtue surpassing his, let him wish the like for himself: if that virtue is religious, it is good. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) wished for himself the station of martyrdom. And he said: "No envy except in two: a man to whom Allah has given wealth and who spends it night and day; and a man to whom Allah has given the Quran and who recites it night and day." And he said of the one he saw spending his wealth in obedience to Allah: "Were I to have wealth, I would do as this one does": the two are equal in reward. And if it is worldly, there is no good in wishing it, as the Most High says: "He went out to his people in his adornment. Those who desired the life of this world said: would that we had the like of what Qaroun has been given: he holds a great portion. But those to whom knowledge was given said: woe to you, the reward of Allah is better for whoever believes and does good."
As for the words of the Mighty and Majestic, "And do not wish for that by which Allah has preferred some of you over others," it was interpreted as envy: desiring for oneself what was given to one's brother of family and wealth, and that it be transferred to one; and it was interpreted as wishing for what is legally or by decree prevented, as the women wishing to be men, or to have as men have religious virtues such as jihad, or worldly ones such as inheritance, full legal capacity and testimony. It has been said: the verse embraces all of that. And despite all this, it falls to the believer to grieve over the loss of the religious virtues; that is why he was commanded, in religion, to look to the one above him, and to compete in seeking that with all his effort and capacity, as the Most High says: "Let the rivals compete, then." And he does not detest that anyone share with him in this; rather it falls to all people to compete in it, and he exhorts them to it: that is part of the perfect fulfilment of counsel to brothers.
Al-Foudayl said: "If you love that people be like you, you have not rendered counsel to your Lord, let alone if you love that they be beneath you?!" He indicates that counsel for them is to love that they be above him, and that is a lofty station, a high degree of counsel, but it is not obligatory. What is commanded in the Law is to love that they be like him; and despite that, if anyone surpasses him in religious virtue, he strives to catch up with him, and grieves over the failing of his soul and its lagging behind the predecessors, not out of envy for what Allah has given them, but in rivalry with them, rejoicing for others, and sorrow over his own soul for its failing and its lagging behind the stations of the predecessors.
It falls to the believer always to see himself as falling short of the lofty stations, drawing from that two precious benefits: the striving in the quest for virtues, and growth in them; and the looking at his own soul with the eye of defect. From this arises that it falls to the believers to be better than him; for he does not approve for them to be in his state, just as he does not approve for himself what is his, but strives to reform it.
Muhammad ibn Was' said to his son: your father, may Allah not multiply his like among the Muslims. Whoever is not satisfied with himself, how would he love that the Muslims be like him, while counselling him? Rather he loves for the Muslims to be better than he, and loves for himself to be better than he is.
And if a man knows that Allah has specifically preferred him to another by a grace, and informs of it for a religious interest, his information being in the form of mentioning graces, and he sees himself as falling short in gratitude: that is permitted; Ibn Mas'oud said: "I know of no one more learned in the Book of Allah than I." That does not prevent loving that people share with him what Allah has singled him out by: Ibn 'Abbas (may Allah be pleased with both of them) said: I pass by a verse of the Book of Allah and I would wish that all people knew of it what I know.
And al-Chafi'i said: "I would have loved that people learn this science without anything being attributed to me for it."
'Outba the servant, when he wanted to break his fast, would say to certain of his brothers informed of his deeds: "Bring me out water or dates to break my fast upon: you will have the like of my reward."