Home > The 40 Hadith of Nawawi > Hadith 25 of Nawawi
Hadith number 25 of the collection of the 40 hadiths of Imam an-Nawawi, in a faithful English translation.
Updated on 10 September 2026 at 2:45 AM
📖 18 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.
In this hadith too: the poor envied the wealthy folk, meaning the wealths: for what reached them of charity's reward by their wealths; the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) guided them to charities within reach.
In the two authentic collections, from Abu Salih, from Abu Hurayra, may Allah be pleased with him: the Emigrants' poor came to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) saying: the wealthy folk carried off the high degrees and abiding bliss? He said: "and why is that?" They said: they pray as we pray, fast as we fast, give charity while we give not, and free slaves while we free not. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "Shall I teach you a thing whereby you catch whoever preceded you, precede whoever comes after, none being better than you but who does like what you do?" They said: yes, O Messenger of Allah! He said: "Glorify, magnify and praise thirty-three times after every prayer." Abu Salih said: the Emigrants' poor returned to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) saying: our brothers the wealthy heard what we did and did the like. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "That is Allah's grace: He gives it whom He wills." A like hadith is reported from a group of the Companions, among them Ali, Abu Dharr, Abu al-Darda, Ibn Umar, Ibn Abbas and others.
The meaning: the poor deemed charity only by wealth, being unable: the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) informed them every kind of good and kindness is charity. In the Sahih of Muslim, from Hudhayfa, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "Every good is charity." Al-Bukhari reports it from Jabir's hadith, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). Charity is thus applied to every kind of good and kindness, even Allah's grace reaching His servants being charity from Him upon them. Some predecessors denied it, saying: charity comes only from one seeking its reward. The correct is otherwise: the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said of shortening prayer in travel: "It is a charity Allah confers upon you: accept His charity." Muslim reports it. He said: "Whoever has a night prayer and sleep overcomes him, sleeping through it: Allah writes him his prayer's reward, and his sleep is Allah's charity upon him." An-Nasa'i and others report it from Aisha's hadith, may Allah be pleased with her; Ibn Majah from Abu al-Darda's. In the Musnads of Buqi ibn Makhlad and al-Bazzar, from Abu Dharr's hadith, in raised form: "No day, night, or hour without Allah having therein a charity gracing whom He wills of His servants; and Allah graced no servant with anything like inspiring him His remembrance." Khalid ibn Ma'dan said: "Allah gives charity daily: and Allah granted none of His creation anything better than granting him His remembrance."
Charity beyond wealth is of two types. The first: conveying kindness to creation: charity upon them, sometimes better than wealth charity: like enjoining right and forbidding wrong: calling to Allah's obedience and withholding His disobediences: better than wealth's benefit; likewise teaching beneficial knowledge, reciting the Qur'an, removing harm from the road, striving to bring people benefit and ward harm; likewise praying for Muslims and seeking forgiveness for them. Ibn Marduwayh reports, by a chain with weakness, from Ibn Umar, in raised form: "Whoever has wealth, give charity of it; whoever has strength, give charity of it; whoever has knowledge, give charity of it." Perhaps Companion's statement. At-Tabarani reports, by a weak chain, from Samura, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "The best charity: the tongue." It was said: O Messenger of Allah! What is the tongue's charity? He said: "intercession freeing the captive, sparing blood, drawing good and kindness to your brother, and repelling his unpleasantness." Amr ibn Dinar said: it reached us the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "No charity dearer to Allah than good speech," and he said: "hear His word:"
"Kind words and forgiveness are better than charity followed by harm."
Al-Baqara, 263
Ibn Abi Hatim reports it. In al-Hasan's mursal reports, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "Of charity: greeting people with open face." Ibn Abi al-Dunya reports it. Mu'adh said: "teaching knowledge to whoever knows it not is charity." Reported raised.
[Of charity's kinds:] Of charity's kinds: withholding harm from people: in the two authentic collections, from Abu Dharr, may Allah be pleased with him, who said: I said: O Messenger of Allah! Which deed is best? He said: "Faith in Allah and jihad in His path." I said: which neck is best? He said: "the dearest to its holders, highest in price." I said: if I do it not? He said: "aid a worker, or craft for the unskilled." I said: O Messenger of Allah! Were I unable of part of deed? He said: "withhold your harm from people: it is charity of your soul." Other additions are reported in Abu Dharr's hadith: at-Tirmidhi reports from Abu Dharr's hadith, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), who said: "Your smile at your brother's face is for you charity; enjoining right and forbidding wrong is charity; guiding a man in lost land is for you charity; removing stone, thorn and bone from the road is for you charity; and pouring your bucket into your brother's is for you charity." Ibn Hibban reports in his Sahih from Abu Dharr's hadith, may Allah be pleased with him, that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "No soul of the son of Adam without a charity upon it every day the sun rises." It was said: O Messenger of Allah! Whence a charity to give? He said: "Good's gates are many: glorification, praise, magnification and the declaration of oneness; enjoining right, forbidding wrong; removing harm from the road; making the deaf hear, guiding the blind, directing the seeker to his need; hastening your legs to the distressed supplicant, bearing with your arms the weak: all this is charity from you upon your soul." Imam Ahmad reports from Abu Dharr's hadith, who said: "I said: O Messenger of Allah! The wealthy carried the reward: praying, fasting, pilgrimage? He said: pray you not, fast you not, pilgrimage you not? I said: O Messenger of Allah! They give charity while we give not? He said: "in you is charity: removing bone from the road is charity; guiding the road is charity; aiding the weak by your strength's surplus is charity; declaring the sad is charity; and your intimacy with your wife is charity?!" I said: "O Messenger of Allah! We come to our desire and be rewarded?" He said: "see: placing it in the forbidden, would you sin?" I said: yes. He said: "would you love being credited by evil and credited not by good?" Another version: the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "in you is much charity," mentioning his hearing's and sight's merit. Another Ahmad version: "Of charity's gates: magnification, Glory to Allah, praise to Allah, there is no deity but Allah, I seek Allah's forgiveness; enjoining right, forbidding wrong; removing thorn, bone and stone from the road; guiding the blind; making the deaf and mute hear until understanding; directing the seeker to his need whose place you know; hastening your legs to the distressed supplicant; bearing with your arms the weak. All that of charity's gates from you upon your soul; and in intimacy with your wife is reward." I said: "how reward in my desire?" The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "see: had you a child growing, hoping its good, then it died: credited by it?" I said: yes. He said: "created you it?" I said: Allah created it. He said: "guided you it?" I said: Allah guided it. He said: "providing you it?" I said: Allah provided it. He said: "place it then in its lawful, barring forbidden: if Allah wills He gives life; wills, death: and yours is reward." This context's apparent requires reward for intimacy with family intending child, reward arising by rearing and discipline in life, crediting it at death; whoever intended nothing by satisfying desire: people disputed his entering this hadith. The hadith is authenticated that man's spending on his family is charity: in the two authentic collections, from Abu Mas'oud al-Ansari, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "Man's spending on his family is charity." Muslim's narration: "and he counts it." Al-Bukhari's wording: "when a man spends on his family counting it, it is for him charity." Indicated: rewarded only if counted with Allah: as in Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas's hadith, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), who said: "You spend not an expenditure seeking Allah's face thereby but you are rewarded: to the morsel you lift to your wife's mouth." Both authenticated it.
In the Sahih of Muslim, from Thawban, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "The best of dinars: the dinar a man spends on his dependants; the dinar spent on his horse in Allah's path; the dinar a man spends on his companions in Allah's path." Abu Qulaba said, at this hadith's narration: "He began with the dependants: what man's reward greater than the man spending on small dependants Allah preserving them thereby from indecency, enriching them thereby?" In the same collection also, from Sa'd, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "Your spending on your dependants is charity; your wife's eating of your wealth is charity." Restricted in the other narration by seeking Allah's face. In the Sahih of Muslim, from Abu Hurayra, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "A dinar spent in Allah's path; a dinar in a slave's neck; a dinar given a poor; a dinar spent on your family: the best: the dinar spent on your family." Imam Ahmad and Ibn Hibban report in his Sahih from Abu Hurayra's hadith, may Allah be pleased with him, who said: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "Give charity." A man said: I have a dinar? He said: "give charity with it upon yourself." He said: I have another dinar. He said: "give charity with it upon your wife." He said: I have another dinar. He said: "give charity with it upon your child." He said: I have another dinar. He said: "give charity with it upon your servant." He said: I have another dinar. He said: "you are more perceptive." Imam Ahmad reports from al-Miqdam ibn Ma'dikarib's hadith, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), who said: "What you feed your soul is for you charity; what you feed your child is for you charity; what you feed your wife is for you charity; what you feed your servant is for you charity." Of this meaning many hadiths, long to mention.
In the two authentic collections, from Anas, may Allah be pleased with him, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "No Muslim planting a plant or sowing a crop: man, bird or beast eating of it: but it is for him charity."
In the Sahih of Muslim, from Jabir, may Allah be pleased with him, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), who said: "No Muslim planting a seedling: what is eaten of it is for him charity, stolen for him charity, beast's eating for him charity, birds' eating for him charity: none diminishes him but it is for him charity." Another narration of his: "man, beast or bird eating of it: charity for him to the Resurrection Day." In the Musnad, by a weak chain, from Mu'adh ibn Anas al-Juhani, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), who said: "Whoever builds a building without injustice or aggression, or plants a planting without injustice or aggression: running reward so long as any of the Merciful's creation benefits."
Al-Bukhari mentions in his history from Jabir's hadith, in raised form: "Whoever digs a water no thirsty liver of jinn, man, beast or bird drinks: Allah rewards him on the Resurrection Day."
All these hadiths' apparent indicates these things are charity rewarded to the sower, planter and such, without intent or intention; likewise the Prophet's word (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "see: placing it in the forbidden, sin upon him? Likewise placing it in the lawful: reward his." Its apparent indicates reward for intimacy with family without intention (the family-intimate is like the sower tilling earth and sowing). Some scholars went to this; Abu Muhammad ibn Qutayba inclined in eating, drinking and intimacy, arguing the Prophet's word (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "the believer is rewarded in everything, to the morsel he lifts to his mouth." That argued wording is unknown: the known is the Prophet's word (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) to Sa'd: "You spend not an expenditure seeking Allah's face thereby but rewarded: to the morsel lifted to your wife's mouth": restricted by sincere intention for Allah: the absolute hadiths carried upon it. And Allah knows best.
And the proof
Allah's word, the Mighty and Majestic, indicates it too:
"No good is there in much of their private conversation, except one ordering charity, or right, or reconciliation between people; whoever does that seeking Allah's pleasure: We will give him a great reward."
An-Nisa, 114
He made it good, a name reward ordered upon, except with sincerity intention. Riya-doing: punished. The doubt place: doing it with neither good nor corrupt intention. It is said: Islam's intention suffices him. Abu Sulayman ad-Darani said: "Whoever does a good deed without intention: his choosing-Islam intention over other religions suffices." Its apparent: rewarded without intention wholly: entering Islam, choosing good deeds wholesale: rewarded each deed thereof by that intention. And Allah knows best.
His saying: "see: placing it in the forbidden, sin upon him? Likewise placing it in the lawful: reward his": this is called, with the legal theorists, the converse analogy: like Ibn Mas'oud's saying, may Allah be pleased with him, who said: the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, and I say other: he said (the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "Whoever associates anything with Allah enters the Fire," and I say (I): whoever dies associating nothing with Allah enters Paradise.
The second type of non-financial charity: whose benefit is restricted to its doer: like remembrance kinds: magnification, glorification, praise, declaration of oneness, seeking forgiveness; likewise walking to mosques is charity; prayer, fasting, pilgrimage and jihad were not mentioned charity in any hadith. Most of these deeds are better than financial charities: mentioned answering the poor who asked him what matches the wealthy's volunteering by their wealths; the obligations: all shared therein.
Texts multiplied preferring remembrance over wealth charity and other deeds: like Abu ad-Darda's hadith, may Allah be pleased with him, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), who said: "Shall I tell you your deeds' best, purest with your King, highest in your degrees, better for you than spending gold and silver, better than meeting your enemy striking their necks and they yours?" They said: yes, O Messenger of Allah! He said: "remembering Allah, the Mighty and Majestic." Imam Ahmad and at-Tirmidhi report it; Malik mentions it in the Muwatta as Companion's statement upon Abu al-Darda. In the two authentic collections, from Abu Hurayra, may Allah be pleased with him, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "Whoever says a hundred times a day: there is no deity but Allah alone, without partner: His the dominion, His the praise; He gives life and death, and He is powerful over all things: he has the like of ten slaves' freeing; a hundred good deeds written, a hundred sins erased: protection from the devil that day until evening: none came better than what he brought, but whoever did more." In the two also, from Abu Ayyub, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), that he said: "Whoever says it ten times is like one freeing four souls of Isma'il's children." Imam Ahmad and at-Tirmidhi report from Abu Sa'id's hadith that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was asked: "which of the servants is best in degree with Allah on the Resurrection Day?" He said: "the much rememberers of Allah." I said: "O Messenger of Allah! And the raider in Allah's path?" He said: "were he to strike with his sword the disbelievers and polytheists until it breaks and he be blood-stained: the rememberers of Allah would be better in degree than he." A like is reported from Mu'adh's and Jabir's hadith, in raised form: the correct is its Companion's statement upon Mu'adh, of his word. At-Tabarani reports from Abu al-Wazi's hadith, from Abu Burda, from Abu Musa, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), who said: "Were a man to have in his sleeve dirhams distributing, and another remembering Allah: the rememberer of Allah better." I say: the correct is from Abu al-Wazi', from Abu Burza al-Aslami, of his word; Ja'far al-Faryabi reports it. He reports also from Anas's hadith, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "Whoever magnifies a hundred, glorifies a hundred, and declares oneness a hundred: better for him than ten slaves he would free, and seven offerings he would slaughter." Ibn Abi al-Dunya reports by his chain from Abu al-Darda that it was said: "a man freed a hundred souls." He said: "a hundred souls of a man's wealth: much; better than that: faith adhered night and day, and the tongue of one of you never dry of Allah's remembrance, the Mighty and Majestic." From Abu al-Darda too, who said: "Saying Allah is greater a hundred times is dearer to me than charity of a hundred dinars." Salman the Persian and others of the Companions and Followers said likewise: remembrance is better than the equivalent's wealth charity. Imam Ahmad and an-Nasa'i report from Umm Hani's hadith that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said to her: "Glorify Allah a hundred glorifications: equaling a hundred necks of Isma'il's children; praise Allah a hundred praises: equaling for you a hundred bridled, saddled horses you ride in Allah's path; magnify Allah a hundred magnifications: equaling for you a hundred offerings haltered, accepted; and declare oneness a hundred times" (I count not but he said): "filling what is between heaven and earth: none raised that day like your deed, but whoever comes with like what you brought." Ahmad also and Ibn Majah report it, with them: "and my saying: there is no deity but Allah, a hundred times, leaves no sin, deed preceding it not." At-Tirmidhi reports it from Amr ibn Shu'ayb's hadith, from his father, from his grandfather, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), likewise. At-Tabarani reports from Ibn Abbas's hadith, in raised form, who said: "No charity better than remembering Allah, the Mighty and Majestic." Al-Faryabi reports, by a chain with observation, from Abu Umama, in raised form: "Whoever missed the night to toil it, was stingy of his wealth to spend it, cowardly of the enemy to fight: let him multiply: Glory to Allah and praise be to Him: dearer to Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, than a mountain of gold or silver spent in the path of Allah, the Mighty and Majestic." Al-Bazzar reports it, by a like chain, from Ibn Abbas's hadith, in raised form, saying in his hadith: "let him multiply Allah's remembrance": adding no more. In the meaning other hadiths, many.