Home > The 40 Hadith of Nawawi > Hadith 24 of Nawawi
Hadith number 24 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
📖 22 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.
Muslim extracted this hadith through the channel of Sa'id ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz, from Rabi'a ibn Yazid, from Abu Idris al-Khawlani, from Abu Dharr; at the end Sa'id ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz said: Abu Idris al-Khawlani, whenever he related this hadith, went down upon his knees. Muslim also extracted it through the channel of Qatada, from Abu Qilaba, from Abu Asma', from Abu Dharr, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), without quoting their wording, saying: "He related the hadith in a course near that of Abu Idris, and Abu Idris's hadith is the fullest." Imam Ahmad, at-Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah extracted it through the channel of Shahr ibn Hawshab, from 'Abd ar-Rahman ibn Ghannm, from Abu Dharr, who said: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: Allah, the Most High, says: "O My servants, you are all astray save him whom I have guided: ask Me for guidance, I will guide you.
You are all poor save him whom I have enriched: ask Me, I will give you provision. You are all sinners save him to whom I granted well-being: whoever among you knows that I have power to forgive, let him ask My forgiveness: I forgive him, and it weighs nothing upon Me. If your first and your last, your living and your dead, your fresh and your dry, stood upon the most pious heart of one single servant of Mine, it would add nothing to My dominion, not the wing of a gnat. And if they stood upon the most impious heart of one single servant of Mine, it would take nothing from My dominion, not the wing of a gnat. And if they gathered in one plain and each asked the filling of his ambition, and I gave each his request, that would diminish what is with Me no more than the needle diminishes the sea upon entering it."
Of this hadith of Abu Dharr, Imam Ahmad said: it is the noblest hadith of the people of Syria.
His words, relating from his Lord: "O My servants, I have forbidden injustice to Myself" mean that He prevented Himself from being unjust to His servants, as Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, said: "I am not in the least unjust to the servants", and: "Allah wills no injustice for the worlds", and: "Allah wills no injustice for the servants", and: "Your Lord is not in the least unjust to the servants", and: "Allah is not unjust to people in anything", and: "Allah is not unjust by the weight of an atom", and: "Whoever works righteous deeds while believing fears no injustice and no diminution": the diminution is that something be taken from the reward of his good deeds, and the injustice that he be punished for another's sins. This kind of verse is abundant in the Quran, and it indicates that Allah is capable of injustice but does not commit it, out of favour, generosity, munificence and beneficence toward His servants.
Many scholars explained injustice as placing things outside their place. As for those who explain it as disposing of another's property without his permission, which is transmitted from Iyas ibn Mu'awiya and others, they say: injustice is impossible of Him, unlike other things conceivable of Him, for all that He does is a disposal within His own property. Of this kind was Abu al-Aswad ad-Du'ali's answer to 'Imran ibn Husayn when he asked him about destiny. Abu Dawoud and Ibn Majah extracted from the hadith of Abu Sinan Sa'id ibn Sinan, from Wahb ibn Khalid al-Himsi, from Ibn ad-Daylami, who heard Ubayy ibn Ka'b say: "If Allah, the Most High, chastised the people of His heavens and His earth, He would chastise them without being unjust to them; and if He showed them mercy, His mercy would be better for them than their deeds"; he came then to Ibn Mas'ud who told him the like, then to Zayd ibn Thabit who related it from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) in this sense. This hadith is debatable, and Wahb ibn Khalid is not among those renowned for knowledge. It may be understood: if He willed to chastise them, He would decree for them that for which He chastises them, and would then not be unjust to them.
That He created the servants' acts, among which is injustice, does not entail that He be described by injustice, glorified and exalted be He, just as He is not described by the uglinesses the servants commit though they are His creation and His decree: He is described only by His acts, and not by the acts of His servants, for the servants' acts are His creatures and His effects, and nothing of that describes Him; He is described only by what is in Him of His attributes and acts, and Allah knows best.
His words, the Most High: "And I have made it forbidden among you: so do not wrong one another" mean He forbade injustice to His servants and forbade them to wrong one another: it is forbidden to every servant to wrong another, injustice in itself being absolutely forbidden, and it is of two kinds.
The first: injustice to oneself, the greatest of which is association, as Allah said: "Association is immense injustice": the associator places the creature in the rank of the Creator, worships it and takes it as deity: this is placing things outside their place. Most of the Quranic threats against the wrongdoers aim at the associators, as Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, said: "The disbelievers, they are the wrongdoers"; then come disobediences of every kind, greater and lesser.
The second: the servant's injustice to another, which is the one mentioned in this hadith. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said in his farewell-pilgrimage sermon: "Your blood, your wealth and your honour are sacred to you as this day is sacred, in this month, in this city." It is related he delivered this sermon on the day of 'Arafa, on the day of sacrifice, and on the second of the days of Tashriq.
In one version he then said: "Listen to me and you will live: wrong not one another; the wealth of a Muslim is not lawful but by his full consent." In the two Sahihs, from Ibn 'Umar, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "Injustice is darknesses on the Day of Resurrection." And in the two, from Abu Musa: "Allah grants respite to the wrongdoer, until, when He seizes him, He releases him not", and he recited: "Thus your Lord seized the cities when they were unjust; His seizure is painful and severe." In the Sahih of al-Bukhari, from Abu Hurayra, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "Whoever has wronged his brother, let him clear himself of it here below...", for on the Day of Resurrection there will be neither dinar nor dirham, but good deeds will be taken for the wrongs committed, according to what he did.
Ibrahim, the intimate friend of Allah (upon him be peace), based upon Allah's exclusiveness in these matters the fact that there is no deity but Him, and that all that is associated with Him is vain. He said to his people: "He said: What do you think of what you worshipped, you and your ancient forefathers? They are enemies to me, save the Lord of the worlds, who created me and guides me, who feeds me and gives me to drink, and who, when I fall ill, heals me, who causes me to die then gives me life, and whom I hope will forgive my fault on the Day of Judgement. Lord, grant me judgement and join me to the righteous." He who is exclusive in creating the servant, his guidance, his provision, his death and his revivification in this world, and the forgiveness of his sins in the hereafter, deserves to be exclusive in divinity, worship, asking, humility and submission; Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, said: "Allah who created you, then provided you, then causes you to die then gives you life: which of your associates does anything of that? Glory to Him, exalted above what they associate."
The hadith proves that Allah loves His servants to ask Him for all their needs of religion and life: food, drink, clothing and the like, just as they ask Him for guidance and forgiveness.
In the hadith: "Let each of you ask his Lord for all his need, down to the strap of his sandal if it breaks." One of the early generation would ask Allah in his prayer for all his needs, down to the salt of his dough and the fodder of his ewe. In the Israelite traditions: Musa (upon him be peace) said: "O Lord, a need of this world comes to me and I am ashamed to ask You. He said: Ask it of Me, down to the salt of your dough and the fodder of your donkey: everything the servant needs, when he asks it of Allah, manifests his need and dependence upon Allah, and that makes him beloved to Him." One of the early generation was ashamed to ask Allah for anything of the needs of this world; but following the Sunnah is preferable.
His words: "You are all astray save him whom I have guided": some thought this opposes the hadith of Iyad ibn Himar, where the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) relates: "Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, said: I created My servants upon the primordial nature", and in a version: "submitting, then the devils turned them away." Not so: Allah created the sons of Adam endowed by nature with accepting Islam and inclining to it rather than to anything else, disposed and ready in potency; but the servant must needs learn Islam in act, for before learning he is ignorant, knowing nothing, as Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, said: "Allah brought you forth from the bellies of your mothers knowing nothing."
His words: "O My servants, you will never attain to harm Me, nor to benefit Me" mean the servants cannot bring to Allah any profit or harm: Allah, the Most High, is in Himself rich and praiseworthy, without need of the servants' obediences, whose profit returns not to Him: it is they who profit; and He is not harmed by their disobediences: it is they who are harmed. Allah said: "Let not those who hasten into disbelief sadden you: they will in no way harm Allah." And: "Whoever turns back upon his heels will in no way harm Allah." The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) would say in his sermon: "Whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger has gone astray, and harms only his own soul and harms Allah in no way." Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, said: "If you disbelieve, to Allah belongs what is in the heavens and what is in the earth, and Allah is rich, praiseworthy." And reporting from Musa: "Musa said: if you disbelieve, you and all who are on the earth together, Allah is rich, praiseworthy." And: "Whoever disbelieves: Allah is independent of the worlds."
The meaning: Allah, the Most High, loves of His servants that they fear Him and obey Him, just as He dislikes that they disobey Him; hence He rejoices at the repentance of the penitent more than a man rejoices who finds his mount, bearing his food and drink, gone astray in a desert land: he sought it until exhaustion, despaired of it, resigned himself to death, despaired of living; then slumber overcame him, he slept, and awoke with it standing beside him: this is the highest joy a creature can conceive.
All this while He has no need of His servants' obediences and their repentances to Him, whose profit returns to them and not to Him; but it is of the perfection of His generosity, His beneficence toward His servants, His love of their good and of repelling harm from them: He loves of His servants that they know Him, love Him, fear Him, revere Him, obey Him and draw near to Him, and He loves that they know that none forgives sins but He, and that He is able to forgive His servants' sins, as in the version from 'Abd ar-Rahman ibn Ghannm from Abu Dharr: "Whoever among you knows that I have power to forgive, then asks My forgiveness, I forgive him, and it weighs nothing upon Me." In the Sahih, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) relates: "A servant committed a sin and said: O Lord, I have committed a sin, forgive me it. Allah said: My servant knows that he has a Lord who forgives the sin and seizes for the sin: I have forgiven him."
His words then: "O My servants, if your first and your last, your jinn and your mankind, were upon the most pious heart of one man among you, that would add nothing to My dominion; and if they were upon the most impious heart of one man among you, that would take nothing from My dominion" indicate that His dominion is not increased by the creatures' obedience, were they all pious and virtuous, their hearts upon the heart of the most pious among them, nor diminished by the disobedience of the disobedient, were jinn and mankind all disobedient and impious, their hearts upon the heart of the most impious among them: He, glorified, is rich through Himself in all besides Him, possessing absolute perfection in His essence, His attributes and His acts: His dominion is a perfect dominion without defect in any respect.
Some have said: bringing them into existence in this manner is more perfect than in another, and their existence is better than their non-existence; the evil therein is a relative evil, considered in relation to some things and not others, not an absolute evil whose non-existence would be better than its existence in every respect: their existence is better than their non-existence. And this is the meaning of His words: "In Your hand is the good." And the meaning of the Prophet's (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) words: "Evil is not toward You": pure evil, whose non-existence were better than its existence, is not found in Your dominion, for Allah, the Most High, brought His creation into existence...
This discourse proves that the foundation of piety as of impiety is in the hearts: when the heart becomes good and pious, the limbs become good; and when it becomes impious, the limbs become impious, as the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "Piety is here", indicating his breast.
His words: "O My servants, if your first and your last, your jinn and your mankind, stood in one single plain and asked of Me, and I gave every man his request, that would not diminish what is with Me more than the needle takes from the sea upon entering it" aim to recall the perfection of His power and His dominion, and that His dominion and His treasures are not exhausted and are not diminished by giving, were He to give the first and the last of jinn and mankind all they would ask in one single station; and in this is an exhortation to the creatures to ask Him and lay their needs before Him.
In the two Sahihs, from Abu Hurayra (may Allah be pleased with him), the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "Allah's hand is full, no spending diminishes it, outpouring night and day; have you seen what your Lord has spent since He created the heavens and the earth? For nothing has diminished what is in His right hand." In the Sahih of Muslim, from Abu Hurayra: "When one of you supplicates, let him not say: O Allah, forgive me if You will; rather let him be resolute in the request and magnify the hope, for nothing is too great for Allah." Abu Sa'id al-Khudri said: "When you supplicate to Allah, raise the request, for what is with Allah is exhausted by nothing; and be resolute when you supplicate, for none can compel Allah." In certain Israelite traditions Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, says: "Is other than Me hoped in for hardships, while hardships are in My hand, and I am the Living, the Self-Subsisting?
Is other than Me hoped in, and another door knocked upon at dawn, while the keys of the treasuries are in My hand, and My door is open to whoever calls upon Me? Who is he who placed his hope in Me for an adversity and I cut him off? Or who hoped in Me for something great and I disappointed his hope? Who knocked at My door and I opened not to him? I am the utmost of hopes: how should hopes be cut short before Me? Am I miserly, that My servant should imagine Me miserly? Are not the two worlds, generosity and favour, all Mine? What prevents the hopeful from hoping in Me? If I gathered the people of the heavens and the earth, then gave each what I gave to all, and brought each to his hope, that would not diminish of My dominion the limb of an atom. How should the dominion diminish, I who make it subsist?"
In the hadith extracted by at-Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah, Allah set out the reason why what is with Him is not diminished by giving: "It is that I am generous, rich, magnificent: I do what I will; My giving is a word, and My chastisement is a word: My command, when I will a thing, is only to say to it: Be, and it is." This is like His words: "His command, when He wills a thing, is to say to it: Be, and it is", and His words: "Our word, when We will a thing, is to say to it: Be, and it is." In the Musnad of al-Bazzar, through a debated chain, from Abu Hurayra, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "The treasuries of Allah are speech: when Allah wills a thing, He says to it: Be, and it is." When He wills a thing, giving, chastising or otherwise, He says to it: Be, and it is: how could one conceive that to be diminished?
Likewise when He wills to create a thing, He says to it: Be, and it is, as He said: "The likeness of 'Issa with Allah is as that of Adam: He created him from dust then said to him: Be, and he was." In certain Israelite traditions: "Allah, the Most High, revealed to Musa (upon him be peace): O Musa, fear none but Me as long as authority belongs to Me, and My authority is everlasting, unbroken. O Musa, be never anxious for your provision as long as My treasuries are full, and My treasuries will never be exhausted. O Musa, seek intimacy with none but Me as long as I am an intimate for you: when you seek Me, you find Me. O Musa, be not secure from My device until you cross the bridge into Paradise."
His words: "O My servants, it is only your deeds: I reckon them for you, then I will pay them to you in full" mean that He, glorified, reckons His servants' deeds then pays them back entirely in retribution, as His words: "Whoever does an atom's weight of good shall see it, and whoever does an atom's weight of evil shall see it"; and: "They will find present what they did, and your Lord wrongs no one"; and: "The day every soul finds present the good it did and the evil it did, it will wish that between it and it were a long distance"; and: "The day Allah resurrects them all and informs them of what they did: Allah counted it, and they forgot it."
The apparent meaning is that the full payment occurs on the Day of Resurrection, as His words: "And your wages are not given you but on the Day of Resurrection." It may also be that He pays His servants the retribution of their deeds in this world and the hereafter, as His words: "Whoever does evil will be recompensed for it." It is related from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) that he explained it thus: the believers are recompensed for their evil deeds in this world, their good deeds are kept for them for the hereafter where their wages are paid them in full; as for the disbeliever, the reward of his good deeds is hastened to him in this world, and his evil deeds are kept for him to be punished for them in the hereafter.
The full payment of deeds is the payment of their wage, in good or evil: evil is recompensed by its like without increase, save Allah's pardon; and good is multiplied: the good deed is worth ten likes, up to seven hundred times, up to multiplications whose extent none knows but Allah, as He said: "The patient are given their wage without reckoning."
His words: "Whoever finds good, let him praise Allah; and whoever finds other than that, let him blame none but his own soul" indicate that all good is a favour from Allah upon His servant, which he has not earned, and that all evil comes from the son of Adam, from following his soul's passion, as Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, said: "Whatever good reaches you is from Allah, and whatever evil befalls you is from yourself." 'Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "Let no servant hope but in his Lord, and fear but his sin." Allah, glorified, when He wills good for His servant...
His words then: "Whoever finds good, let him praise Allah; and whoever finds other than that, let him blame none but his own soul" admit two interpretations.
If the one meant is he who finds this in this world, he is then commanded to praise Allah for the recompense of righteous deeds hastened to him in this world, as His words: "Whoever works righteousness, male or female, while believing: We will surely give him a goodly life, and We will recompense them with the reward of the best of what they used to do"; and he is commanded to blame his soul for the sins it committed and whose consequence he sees in this world, as Allah said: "We will surely make them taste the lesser punishment before the greater punishment, that they may return." The believer, when a trial befalls him in this world, turns back upon his soul to blame it, and this calls him to return to Allah through repentance and the seeking of forgiveness.