Hadith 20 of Nawawi : « Among what the people retained from the words of the first… »

This hadith shows that the earlier prophecies came with these words, and that they spread among the people until they reached the first of this community. In some versions he said: "the people retained from the words of the first prophecy only this." Reported by 'Obayd ibn Zanjawayh and others.

The meaning of "if you have no modesty, then do as you wish"

His words, "if you have no modesty, then do as you wish," admit two meanings. The first: it is not a command to do as one pleases, but carries the sense of blame and prohibition. The holders of this view follow two routes. The first: it is a command in the sense of threat and punishment. The meaning is: if you have no modesty, then do as you wish, and Allah will repay you for it, as in the words of the Most High, "Do as you will: He sees fully well what you do," and His words, "So worship, apart from Him, whatever you will," and the words of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), "Whoever sells khamr, let him carve it up for the pigs", meaning that he carves it up, whether to sell it or to eat it; examples of this kind are numerous. This is the choice of a group, among them Abu al-'Abas Tha'laba.

The second route: it is an informative statement. The meaning is that whoever has no modesty does as he wishes, for what holds a man back from committing vile deeds is modesty; whoever has no modesty abandons himself to every obscenity and every blameworthy thing, whereas the one who has modesty abstains from them, according to the words of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "Whoever lies about me deliberately, let him take his seat in the Fire." The wording is that of a command, and the meaning is informative: whoever lies about him will take his seat in the Fire. This is the choice of Abu 'Obayd al-Qasim ibn Sallam (may Allah have mercy on him), of Ibn Qoutayba, of Muhammad ibn Nasr al-Marwazi and others. Abu Dawoud reports from Imam Ahmad words to the same effect.

When modesty is taken away, man becomes a stray devil

Ibn Lahi'a reported, from Abu Qabil, from 'Abdallah ibn 'Amr, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "When Allah hates a servant, He takes away his modesty; when He takes away his modesty, you meet him only with disgust, despised; and He takes away his trustworthiness (amana); when He takes away his trustworthiness, He takes away his mercy; when He takes away his mercy, He takes away the bond of Islam from him; and when He takes away the bond of Islam, you meet him only as a stray devil."

Reported by Houmayd ibn Zanjawayh; and Ibn Majah reported it in the same sense with a weak chain, from Ibn 'Omar, likewise in raised form. From Salman al-Farisi: "When Allah wills the ruin of a servant, He takes away his modesty; when He takes away his modesty, you meet him only as a detestable, accursed man; when he is accursed, He takes away his trustworthiness, and you meet him only as a treacherous deceiver; when he is a treacherous deceiver, He takes away his mercy, and you meet him only as a harsh and coarse man; when he is harsh and coarse, He takes the bond of faith from his neck; and when He takes away the bond of faith, you meet him only as a stoned, banished devil." From Ibn 'Abbas (may Allah be pleased with both of them): "Modesty and faith are in one attachment: when modesty is taken away, the other follows it." All of this is reported by Houmayd ibn Zanjawayh in his Book of Manners (adab).

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) made modesty a part of faith, as in the two Sahihs, from Ibn 'Omar (may Allah be pleased with both of them): "The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) passed by a man who was blaming his brother for his modesty, saying: You are so modest! as if he were telling him: it has harmed you. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: Leave him, for modesty is part of faith." In the two Sahihs, from Abu Hourayra: "Modesty is a branch of faith." In the two Sahihs, from 'Imran ibn Houssayn, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "Modesty brings nothing but good." In a version of Mouslim: "Modesty is wholly good," or he said: "Modesty, entirely, is good."

Imam Ahmad and an-Nasa'i report the hadith of al-'Achja' al-'Asari: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said to me, "You have within you two qualities that Allah loves." I said: which are they? He said, "Gentleness (hilm) and modesty." I said: have I long possessed them, or are they recent? He said, "Rather, long possessed." I said: praise be to Allah who placed me upon two characters that Allah loves. Isma'il ibn Abi Khalid said: Ouayna ibn Houssayn entered upon the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) together with a man who asked for water; water was brought and he drank, and the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) covered him with modesty, and the man said: what is this? He said, "Modesty and faith: you have been prescribed both, and been held back by both."

Modesty is of two kinds

Know that modesty is of two kinds. The first is innate character, not acquired; it is one of the noblest characters Allah grants to His servant and fashions within him. That is why the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, "Modesty brings nothing but good": its possessor abstains from vile deeds and the baseness of character, and is driven to practise the noble characters and their summits; in this respect it is one of the traits of faith. 'Omar (may Allah be pleased with him) is reported to have said: "The man of modesty hides himself; the man who hides fears; the man who fears is protected." And al-Jarrah ibn 'Abdallah al-Hakami, who was the knight of the people of Syria, said: "I abandoned sins out of modesty for forty years, then pious scruple (wara') joined me." And one of them said: "I saw the low disobediences and abandoned them out of nobility; they became piety."

The second kind is acquired: it comes from knowing Allah, knowing His greatness, His nearness to His servants, His knowledge of them, His science of the treachery of the eyes and of what the breasts conceal. This is one of the highest traits of faith, indeed among the highest degrees of excellence (ihsan); it was mentioned above that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said to a man, "Have modesty before Allah as you have modesty before a righteous man of your family." And in the hadith of Ibn Mas'oud: "Modesty before Allah is to guard the head and what it contains, the belly and what it holds, and to remember death and decomposition; and whoever desires the Hereafter abandons the adornment of this world. Whoever does that has shown modesty before Allah as it should be shown." Reported by Imam Ahmad and at-Tirmidhi in raised form. Modesty before Allah can also be born of contemplating His blessings (may He be exalted) and of seeing one's shortcoming in gratitude for them. When acquired and innate modesty are both taken from a servant, nothing remains to keep him from the ugly deed and the base characters: he becomes as one who has no faith.

It is reported among the mursal reports of al-Hasan, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "Modesty is twofold: one part is of faith, and the other is weakness." It is perhaps a saying of al-Hasan himself. Likewise Bachir ibn Ka'b al-'Adawi said to 'Imran ibn Houssayn: we find in certain books that there is a modesty which is serenity and gravity for Allah, and a modesty which is weakness. 'Imran grew angry and said: I report to you from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and you find contradiction in it?! The matter is as 'Imran (may Allah be pleased with him) said: the modesty praised in the words of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) is the character that drives a man to do the beautiful and leave the ugly. As for the weakness and impotence that lead to failing a right of Allah or of the servants, that is not modesty: it is weakness and abjection, impotence and baseness. And Allah knows best.

The second meaning of "do as you wish"

The second meaning of his words, "if you have no modesty, then do as you wish," is that it is a command to do what one wishes according to its apparent wording. The meaning is: if what you wish to do belongs to that which one is not ashamed to do, neither before Allah nor before people, because it is an act of obedience, or a beautiful character, or a praiseworthy rule, then do as much of it as you wish.

This is the saying of a group of imams, among them Abu Ishaq al-Marwazi the Shafi'ite. Something similar is reported from Imam Ahmad; it also appears in certain versions of the abridged questions of Abu Dawoud concerning him, alongside what is found in the reliable complete versions, as we have cited previously, and al-Khallal reported it from him in the Book of Manners.

Likewise this saying of an Ancient, asked about nobility (mourou'a): it is to do nothing in secret that one would be ashamed to do in public. And the words of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), "Sin is what stirs in your breast and which you dislike that people should discover," will come in their place in this book, Allah the Most High willing. 'Abd ar-Razzaq reports in his book, from Ma'mar, from Abu Ishaq, from a man of Mouzayna: it was said, "O Messenger of Allah, what is the best thing given to a Muslim man?" He said, "Beautiful character." It was said, "And what is the worst given to a Muslim man?" He said, "When you dislike that people see you do a thing in the assembly of the people, do not do it when you are alone." And in the Sahih of Ibn Hibban, from 'Usama ibn Charik: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, "What Allah hates of you, do not do it when you are alone."

At-Tabarani reports from the hadith of Abu Malik al-'Ach'ari: I said, "O Messenger of Allah, what completes righteousness (birr)?" He said, "Acting in secret as in public." And he also reports from the hadith of Abu 'Amir as-Sakouni: I said, "O Messenger of Allah..." and he mentions it. 'Abd al-Ghani ibn Sa'id the hafiz reports in his Book of Manners, from his narrator, from his chain, from Harmala ibn 'Abdallah: I came to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) to increase my knowledge, and I stood before him and said, "O Messenger of Allah, what do you command me to practise?" He said, "Do good, avoid the blameworthy, and look at what your ear has heard as good that people say to you when you rise from among them: go on with it; and look at what you dislike that people say to you when you rise from among them: avoid it." He said: "I considered, and behold, two things leave nothing out: doing good and avoiding the blameworthy."

Ibn Sa'd reports it in his Tabaqat in the same sense. And Abu 'Obayd reports, by way of commentary on the hadith, another saying which he cites from Jarir: its meaning is that a man wants to do good and the modesty of people holds him back, as if he feared ostentation. He says: let modesty not hold you back from what you wish, as comes in the hadith: when the devil comes to you during the prayer and says, you admire yourself, then lengthen it. Then Abu 'Obayd says: this hadith lends itself, neither by its text nor by its wording, to that interpretation, and it is not upon it that people carry it. I say: if it were as Jarir holds, the wording of the hadith would be: when you have modesty about that of which there is no modesty, then do as you wish. And the distance between that and the text and meaning of the hadith is manifest. And Allah knows best.