Home > The 40 Hadith of Nawawi > Hadith 21 of Nawawi
Hadith number 21 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
📖 10 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.
At-Tirmidhi graded it hasan sahih. Imam Ahmad and an-Nasa'i authenticated it through 'Abdallah ibn Soufyan ath-Thaqafi, from his father, who said: a man said, "O Messenger of Allah, prescribe for me one deed of Islam such that I will need to ask no one after you." He said, "Say: I believe in Allah, then stand upright." The man asked, "And what of the fear of Allah (taqwa)?" The Prophet pointed to his tongue.
Soufyan ibn 'Abdallah asked the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), "Tell me one word about Islam such that no one will need to ask you about it after me." He was asking him to teach him a word that embraced the whole affair of Islam, sufficient in itself, so that he would have no need of anyone else after it. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said to him, "Say: I believe in Allah, then stand upright." In another version: "Say: my Lord is Allah, then stand upright."
This is drawn from the words of the Mighty and Majestic:
"Those who said: Our Lord is Allah, and then stood upright: upon them the angels descend. Fear not, and grieve not, but rejoice in the Paradise you were promised."
Fussilat, 30
And the words of the Mighty and Majestic:
"Those who said: Our Lord is Allah, and then stood upright: no fear shall come upon them, and they shall not grieve. They are the companions of Paradise, abiding therein eternally, as a reward for what they used to do."
Al-Ahqaf, 13-14
An-Nasa'i reported it in his Tafsir, from Souhayl ibn Abi Hazm: Thabit reported to us from Anas that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) recited, "Those who said: Our Lord is Allah, and then stood upright," and then said, "The people said it and then disbelieved; whoever dies upon that is among the people of uprightness." At-Tirmidhi reported it with this wording: he said, "The people said it, then most of them disbelieved; whoever dies upon that is among those who stood upright." And he graded it hasan gharib. Souhayl was criticized for his memory. Abu Bakr as-Siddiq said, concerning the interpretation of "then stood upright": they associated nothing with Allah. And he said again: they did not turn to any deity other than Him; and again: they stood upright by affirming that Allah is their Lord.
It is reported from Ibn 'Abbas, with a weak chain: "This is the lightest verse in the Book of Allah: Those who said: Our Lord is Allah, and then stood upright, compared with the testimony that there is no god but Allah." A similar report comes from Anas, Moujahid, al-Aswad ibn Hilal, Zayd ibn Aslam, as-Suddi, Ikrima and others. 'Omar ibn al-Khattab is reported to have recited this verse on the minbar, "Those who said: Our Lord is Allah, and then stood upright," and to have said: "they did not scheme as the fox schemes." 'Ali ibn Abi Talha reported from Ibn 'Abbas, concerning the words of the Most High, "Those who said: Our Lord is Allah, and then stood upright": they stood upright in the fulfilment of His obligations. It is reported from Abu al-'Aliya: they made their religion and their deeds sincere for Him. Qatada said: they stood upright in obedience to Allah. Al-Hasan, whenever he recited this verse, would say, "O Allah, You are our Lord: so grant us uprightness."
Perhaps the one who says that what is meant is uprightness upon tawhid means the complete tawhid whose possessor is forbidden the Fire: it is the realization of the meaning of "there is no god but Allah", for the object of worship (ila) is the One worshipped, obeyed and never disobeyed, out of fear, reverence, majesty, love, hope, trust and supplication. Every act of disobedience undermines this tawhid, for it is the answer to the call of passion, which is the devil. Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, says: "Have you seen the one who takes his own passion for his god?" Al-Hasan and others said: "it is the man who desires nothing but what he does." That is the very opposite of uprightness upon tawhid.
As for the version, "Say: I believe in Allah", the meaning is more evident there; for faith, according to the Ancients and their followers among the people of hadith, encompasses good deeds. Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, says: "Stand upright as you have been commanded, together with those who turn in repentance with you, and do not transgress the limits: He sees fully well what you do." He commanded him uprightness, together with those who repented with him, and He forbade them to exceed what they had been commanded, and this excess is tyranny (tughyan); and He informed them that He sees their deeds clearly. The Most High says: "Call to that way, and stand upright as you have been commanded, and do not follow their passions." Qatada said: Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was commanded to stand upright upon the command of Allah. Ath-Thawri said: upon the Quran.
It is reported from al-Hasan: when this verse came down, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) rolled up his sleeves, and he was never again seen to smile. Reported by Ibn Abi Hatim. Al-Kuchayri and others mention that some said: he saw the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) in a dream and said to him, "O Messenger of Allah, you said: Houd has made me white-haired, and its sisters. What has made you white-haired among them?" He said: the words of the Most High, "Stand upright as you have been commanded." And the Mighty and Majestic says: "Say: I am only a human being like you: it is revealed to me that your God is one God. So stand upright towards Him and seek His forgiveness."
Allah, the Most High, also commanded the establishment of religion in general, as He says: "He has legislated for you in religion what He enjoined upon Nouh, what We have revealed to you, and what We enjoined upon Ibrahim, Moussa and 'Issa: establish the religion and do not divide therein. Heavy upon the polytheists is that to which you call them. Allah chooses for Himself whom He wills and guides to Himself whoever turns back." And He commanded the establishment of prayer in more than one place in His Book, just as He commanded uprightness upon tawhid in these two verses.
Uprightness (istiqama) means walking the straight path, the upright religion, without swerving from it to the right or to the left; it embraces the performance of every act of obedience, outward and inward, and the avoidance of every prohibition as well. This commandment therefore embraces every feature of the religion.
In the words of the Most High, "So stand upright towards Him and seek His forgiveness," there is the indication that some shortcoming in the commanded uprightness is unavoidable, and that it is repaired by seeking forgiveness, which entails repentance and a return to uprightness. It is like the words of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) to Mu'adh: "Fear Allah wherever you are, and follow a bad deed with a good one which will erase it."
The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also informed us that people would be unable to perform uprightness perfectly, as Imam Ahmad and Ibn Majah reported from Thawban, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "Stand upright, but you will never be able to number yourselves among the upright; know that the best of your deeds is the prayer, and only a believer preserves his ablution." In a version of Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him): "Aim straight and draw near; and none preserves the prayer but a believer." In the two Sahihs, from Abu Hourayra (may Allah be pleased with him), from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "Aim straight and draw near." The sidad is the reality of uprightness: hitting the mark in every word, deed and intention, like an archer who shoots at a target and hits it.
The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) commanded 'Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) to ask Allah for straight aim and guidance, and said to him: "By straight aim, your arrow will reach the target; and by guidance, your path will be kept straight." And drawing near (mouqaraba) means reaching what is near the mark when the mark itself is not reached, provided one was resolved to aim straight and to hit the mark: the near miss would then be unintended. This is indicated by the words of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) in the hadith of Hakam ibn Hazn al-Kulafi: "O people, you will never accomplish, or never be able to accomplish, all that I have commanded you; but aim straight and rejoice." The meaning is: aim at straight aim, at the mark and at uprightness; for if you hit the mark in every deed, you will have done all that you were commanded.
The origin of uprightness is the uprightness of the heart upon tawhid, as Abu Bakr as-Siddiq and others explained in the words, "Those who said: Our Lord is Allah, and then stood upright": they turned to no other. When the heart is upright in the knowledge of Allah, in fear of Him, reverence of Him, awe of Him, love of Him, His will, hope in Him, supplication of Him and trust in Him, and turns away from all besides Him, then all the limbs are upright in His obedience. For the heart is the king of the organs, and they are its soldiers: when the king is upright, his soldiers and subjects are upright.
In the same way the words of the Most High, "So direct your face towards the religion, in true monotheistic faith," were interpreted as: sincerity of aim for Allah and will for Him alone, without any associate.
The greatest of the limbs to watch for uprightness after the heart is the tongue, for it is the interpreter of the heart and its expression. That is why, when the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) commanded Soufyan ibn 'Abdallah ath-Thaqafi to uprightness, he followed it with the guarding of the tongue. And in the Mousnad of Imam Ahmad, from Anas, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "The faith of the servant does not stand upright until his heart stands upright; and his heart does not stand upright until his tongue stands upright." In the version of at-Tirmidhi, from Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, whether as a saying of the Companion or traced to the Prophet: "When the son of Adam rises in the morning, all the limbs beg forgiveness of the tongue and say: fear Allah concerning us, for we are only by you. If you are upright, we are upright; if you are crooked, we are crooked."