Home > The 40 Hadith of Nawawi > Hadith 3 of Nawawi
Hadith number 3 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
📖 12 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.
The purpose is likening Islam to a building, and the pillars of this building are these five: the building does not stand without them, and the rest of Islam's traits act as the building's plaster. When something of them is lost, the building is diminished but remains standing, and does not collapse by that lack, unlike the loss of these five pillars: Islam is abolished by losing all of them without dispute. Likewise it is abolished by losing the two testimonies.
The two testimonies mean: faith in Allah and His messenger. It came in a version cited by Bukhari as commentary: "Islam is built upon five: faith in Allah and His messenger," and he mentions the rest of the hadith. And in a version of Muslim: "upon five: upon unifying Allah the Mighty and Majestic." And in a version of him: "upon worshipping Allah and disbelieving in what is besides Him."
By this one knows that faith in Allah and His messenger is included within Islam, as was established previously in the preceding hadith.
As for establishing the prayer: multiple hadiths indicate that whoever leaves it has exited Islam. In the Sahih of Muslim, from Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him), from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "Between the man, polytheism and disbelief: leaving the prayer." The like is reported from the hadiths of Bourayda, Thawban, Anas and others.
Muhammad ibn Nasr al-Marwazi reports from the hadith of Oubada ibn as-Samit (may Allah be pleased with him), from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "Do not leave the prayer deliberately: whoever leaves it deliberately has exited the religion." And in the hadith of Muadh (may Allah be pleased with him), from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "The head of the matter is Islam, and its pillar is the prayer." He made the prayer like the tent's pole: the tent stands not and holds not except by it; were the pole to fall, the tent falls, and it stands not without it.
Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "No portion in Islam for whoever leaves the prayer." Sa'd (may Allah be pleased with him) and Ali ibn Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "Whoever leaves it has disbelieved." Abdallah ibn Chaqiq said: "The Companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) saw no deed whose abandonment was disbelief except the prayer." Ayyoub as-Sakhtiyani said: "Leaving the prayer is disbelief, without disagreement." A group of the Ancients and the Moderns went to this opinion; Ibn al-Moubarak, Ahmad and Ishaq cite it; and Ishaq cites the consensus of the people of knowledge upon it. Muhammad ibn Nasr al-Marwazi said: it is the opinion of the majority of the people of hadith.
[Whoever leaves something of Islam's pillars]: and a portion of them went so far as to say that whoever deliberately leaves something of the five pillars of Islam is thereby a disbeliever. This is reported from Sa'id ibn Joubayr, Nafi' and al-Hakam, and it is a narration of Imam Ahmad chosen by a portion of his companions, and it is the opinion of Ibn Habib among the Malikites.
Ad-Daraqoutni and others report from the hadith of Abu Hourayra (may Allah be pleased with him): it was said: "O Messenger of Allah, the pilgrimage every year?" He said: "Were I to say yes, it would become obligatory upon you; and were it obligatory, you could not manage it; and were you to leave it, you would disbelieve." Al-Lalaka'i reports by the way of Moumammal: Hammad ibn Zayd narrated to us, from Amr ibn Malik an-Nakri, from Abu al-Jouzai, from Ibn Abbas, and I think it is none other than raised: "The stakes of Islam and the foundations of religion are three: upon them Islam was founded: the testimony that there is no deity but Allah, the prescribed prayer and the fast of Ramadan. Whoever leaves one of them is thereby a disbeliever, lawful of blood. You will find him wealthy in goods having not made the pilgrimage: he remains thereby a disbeliever and his blood is not unlawful; and you will find him wealthy without paying zakat: he remains thereby a disbeliever and his blood is not unlawful." And Qutayba ibn Sa'id reports it from Hammad ibn Zayd in suspended abbreviated form. And Sa'id, brother of Hammad, reports it from Amr ibn Malik with this chain in raised form, and he said: "Whoever leaves one of them is by Allah a disbeliever, and neither exchange nor compensation is accepted from him, and his blood and wealth become lawful." And he mentions nothing after that. It is also reported from Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) the imposition of the jizya upon one who has not made the pilgrimage, and he said: "they are not Muslims." And from Ibn Mas'oud (may Allah be pleased with him) that whoever leaves the zakat is not a Muslim. And from Ahmad, in one narration, that leaving the prayer and zakat specifically is disbelief, without the fast and the pilgrimage.
Ibn Ouyayna said: the Mourji'a named abandoning the obligations a sin like committing forbidden things. But it is not equal; for committing forbidden things deliberately without deeming them lawful is a disobedience, whereas abandoning the obligations without ignorance or excuse, is disbelief. Its illustration is the command of Iblis and the scholars of the Jews who acknowledged by their tongues the sending of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) without acting upon his laws.
Ahmad and Ishaq argued the disbelief of the prayer-leaver by the disbelief of Iblis omitting prostration to Adam; and prostration to Allah is greater. In the Sahih of Muslim, from Abu Hourayra (may Allah be pleased with him), from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "When the son of Adam recites the prostration verse and prostrates, Iblis withdraws weeping and says: Woe to me! The son of Adam was commanded to prostrate and he prostrated, and Paradise is his; and I was commanded to prostrate and refused: the Fire is mine."
Know that these five pillars are linked one to another, and it is reported that some of them are not accepted without the others, as in the Mousnad of Imam Ahmad, from Ziyad ibn Na'im al-Hadrami: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "Four things Allah prescribed in Islam: whoever comes with three, nothing suffices him until he comes with all: the prayer, the zakat, the fast of Ramadan and the pilgrimage of the House." And this is a mursal hadith. It is also reported from Ziyad, from Oumara ibn Hazm, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). And it is reported from Outhman ibn Atta al-Khurasani, from his father, from Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "The religion is five: Allah accepts from one of them nothing without the others: the testimony that there is no deity but Allah and that Muhammad is His servant and messenger, faith in Allah, His angels, His books, His messengers, Paradise, the Fire and life after death, that is one; and the five prayers are the pillar of the religion: Allah accepts not faith without the prayer; and the zakat is purification from sins, and Allah accepts neither faith nor prayer without the zakat. Whoever does these three, then Ramadan comes and leaves its fast deliberately: Allah accepts from him neither faith, nor prayer, nor zakat. Whoever does these four, then the pilgrimage becomes easy for him and he does not perform it, and recommends not his pilgrimage, and none of his family performs it for him: Allah accepts not from him the four He accepted before." Ibn Abi Hatim mentions it and says: I asked my father about it and he said: it is a discredited hadith; it may be from the speech of Atta al-Khurasani. I say: the apparent is that it is his explanation of Ibn Umar's hadith; and Atta is among the notables of the scholars of Syria. And Ibn Mas'oud (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "Whoever pays not the zakat has no prayer." And the denial of acceptance here does not mean negating validity, nor the obligation of repeating by abandonment; rather it means the absence of pleasure with it, and the praise of its doer, and his glorification thereby in the highest assembly, and his presentation to the angels. Whoever performs these pillars as they should obtains acceptance in this sense. Whoever performs some without the others does not obtain that, though he is not punished for what he did of them, the punishment of the leaver, but he is exonerated by it, and may also be rewarded.
From here one knows that committing some forbidden things that diminish faith prevents accepting some obediences, even if they were pillars of Islam in the sense we mentioned, as the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "Whoever drinks khamr, his prayer is not accepted for forty days." And he said: "Whoever goes to a soothsayer and believes him in what he says: his prayer is not accepted forty days." And he said: "Any servant who flees his masters: his prayer is not accepted."
The hadith of Ibn Umar serves as proof that when a name encompasses multiple things, the name is not required to vanish by the loss of some of them; thereby collapses the word of whoever says: if works entered faith, it would be necessary that it vanish by the loss of a work entering its designation, for the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) made these five pillars the foundations and buildings of Islam, and explained by them Islam in the hadith of Jibril and in the hadith of Talha ibn Obaydillah, wherein a Bedouin asked the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) about Islam and he explained it to him by these five. And their opponents say: and yet, the contradictors concerning faith say: were a single trait of Islam to vanish, or four traits besides the two testimonies, he would not thereby exit Islam. And some of them report that Jibril asked the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) about the laws of Islam, not about Islam. And this wording did not authenticate with the imams of hadith and their critics, among them Abu Zur'a ar-Razi, Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj, Abu Ja'far al-Ouqayli and others.
The scholars likened faith to a tree having a root, branches and twigs: the tree's name encompasses all of that; and were something of its twigs and branches to vanish, the name of tree would not vanish from it; one would rather say: it is an incomplete tree, or another is more complete than it! Allah struck the example of faith likewise in His word: "Do you not see how Allah strikes an example: a good word like a good tree whose root is firm and whose branch is in the sky, giving its fruit at every season by permission of its Lord." The word intended: the word of tawhid; its root: the tawhid established in the hearts; its fruit: the righteous works born from it. And the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) likened the believer and Muslim to the palm tree; and were something of the palm's branches and fruits to vanish, it would not thereby entirely lose the name of palm, though deficient in branches or fruits.
Jihad was not mentioned in this hadith of Ibn Umar though it is the best of deeds. In a narration, it was said to Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both): and jihad? He said: "Jihad is good, but thus the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) narrated to us." Reported by Imam Ahmad. And in the hadith of Muadh ibn Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him): "the head of the affair is Islam, its pillar is the prayer, and the peak of its hump is jihad." The peak of its hump: the highest thing in it; but it is not among its foundations and pillars upon which it is built, for two reasons. The first: jihad is a collective obligation according to the majority of scholars, not an individual obligation, unlike these pillars. The second: jihad is not continued to the end of time, for when Issa (peace upon him) descends and no religion remains other than Islam, war will lay down its burdens and jihad will be dispensed with. Unlike these pillars: they are obligatory upon the believers until Allah's command comes, and they remain upon that. And Allah the Sublime, the Most High, knows best.