Home > The 40 Hadith of Nawawi > Hadith 4 of Nawawi
Hadith number 4 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
📖 23 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.
This hadith is unanimously agreed upon and the community received it with acceptance. Al-A'mash related it from Zayd ibn Wahb, from Ibn Mas'ud, and the two shaykhs extracted it through his channel. Muhammad ibn Yazid al-Asfati related: "I saw the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) in a dream and said: O Messenger of Allah, the hadith of Ibn Mas'ud which he relates from you? He said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), the truthful and confirmed, related it to us: by Him besides whom there is no deity, I am the one who related it to him, three times, then: may Allah pardon al-A'mach for having related it, and whoever related it before al-A'mach and after him." Ibn Mas'ud related it through other channels as well.
His words (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "Each of you is assembled in his mother's womb forty days as a drop": its explanation is related from Ibn Mas'ud: al-A'mach related from Khaythama, from Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him): "The drop, when it falls into the womb, flies through every hair and nail of the woman, remains forty days, then descends into the womb and becomes a clot: that is its assembling", extracted by Ibn Abi Hatim and others. The explanation of assembling is also related as raised in another sense: at-Tabarani and Ibn Manda extracted it in the Book of Monotheism, from the hadith of Malik ibn al-Huwayrith: "When Allah, the Most High, wills to create a servant and the man unites with the woman, his water flies through every vein and limb of hers; on the seventh day, Allah, the Most High, assembles it, then presents it to every vein lower than Adam: 'in whatever form He willed, He composed you.'" Ibn Manda said: its chain is continuous and known according to the method of Abu 'Issa and an-Nasa'i. Ibn Jarir, Ibn Abi Hatim and at-Tabarani extracted it through the channel of Muthahir ibn al-Haytham, from Musa ibn 'Ali ibn Riyah...
His words: "Then he is a clot for as long", meaning forty days: the clot is a piece of blood. "Then a morsel of flesh for as long", forty days: the morsel is a piece of flesh. "Then Allah sends the angel who breathes the soul into it and is commanded to write four words: his provision, his deed, his term, and wretched or blessed."
This hadith indicates that the embryo turns through one hundred and twenty days in three stages: in each forty-day period it is in one stage: the first forty as a drop, the second as a clot, the third as a morsel of flesh; after the one hundred and twenty days the angel breathes the soul into it and writes for it these four words.
Allah, the Most High, mentioned in the Quran, in many places, the embryo's turning through these stages, such as His word: "O mankind, if you doubt the resurrection, We created you from earth, then from a drop, then from a clot, then from a morsel formed and unformed, to show you; and We settle in the wombs what We will, until a named term." These three stages, drop, clot and morsel, recur in many places. In another place He mentioned an addition, in the sura of the Believers: "We created man from an essence of clay, then We made him a drop in a safe receptacle, then We created the drop into a clot, and the clot into a morsel, and the morsel into bones, and clothed the bones with flesh, then We produced him as another creation: blessed be Allah, the best of creators": seven stages in this verse.
Ibn 'Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them) would say: the son of Adam is created in seven stages, and he would recite this verse. Asked about withdrawal, he recited it then said: "None is formed without these stages running in him", and in a version: "No soul dies without passing through this creation." Rif'a'a ibn Rafi' related: 'Ali, az-Zubayr, Sa'd and a group of companions were sitting with 'Umar and they discussed withdrawal, saying: no harm in it; a man said: they claim it is the lesser burying alive; 'Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "She is not buried alive until she passes through the seven stages: essence of clay, then drop, then clot, then morsel, then bones, then flesh, then another creation. 'Umar said: you have spoken the truth, may Allah prolong your life", related by ad-Daraqutni.
A group of jurists permitted the woman to expel what is in her womb before the breathing of the soul, likening it to withdrawal. This view is weak: the embryo is a constituted child, perhaps already formed; in withdrawal no child exists at all, one merely prevents its constitution, which may not be prevented if Allah wills to constitute and create it, as the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), asked about withdrawal, said: "No blame on you if you do not withdraw: there is no destined soul but Allah is its creator." Our companions explicitly stated that when the child becomes a clot, the woman may not expel it, for it is a constituted child, unlike the drop, not yet constituted, and which may never become one.
In some versions of Ibn Mas'ud's hadith (may Allah be pleased with him) the mention of bones appears: forty days as bones. Imam Ahmad extracted the version of 'Ali ibn Zayd: "I heard Abu 'Ubayda relate: 'Abdallah said: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: 'The drop is in the womb forty days without changing; when the forty have passed, it becomes a clot, then a morsel likewise, then bones likewise; when Allah, the Most High, wills to perfect its form, He sends to it an angel'", and the rest of the hadith. It is related from the hadith of 'Asim, from Abu Wa'il, from Ibn Mas'ud, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "The drop, established in the womb, is forty nights a drop, then a clot forty nights, then bones forty nights, then Allah clothes the bones with flesh." The version of Imam Ahmad indicates the embryo is not clothed with flesh until after one hundred and sixty days: this is an error without doubt, for...
Some bore Ibn Mas'ud's hadith upon this: in the first forty-day period the description of semen predominates, in the second that of the clot, in the third that of the morsel, while its formation would already be complete and its shaping accomplished. Ibn Mas'ud's hadith does not mention the time of shaping; it is related from Ibn Mas'ud himself indicating shaping may occur before the third forty-day period: ash-Sha'bi relates from 'Alqama, from Ibn Mas'ud: "The drop, established in the womb, the angel comes, takes it in his palm and says: O Lord, formed or unformed? If it is said unformed, it is not a soul and the wombs cast it out as blood; if it is said formed, he says: O Lord, male or female? wretched or blessed? what term, what footprint, in what land will it die? The drop is told: who is your Lord? It says: Allah. Who is your provider? Allah. Go to the Book: you will find in it the story of this drop. Then it is formed, lives its term, eats its provision, treads its footprint; when its term comes, it dies and is buried in that", then ash-Sha'bi recited the verse of the stages.
Groups of jurists followed the apparent sense of this version and preferred it to the raised hadith of Ibn Mas'ud, saying: the minimum in which the child's creation is distinguishable is eighty-one days, for it is not a morsel except in the third forty-day period, and is not formed before being a morsel. Our companions and those of ash-Shafi'i, on this principle, said: the waiting period is not completed and the mother of a child is not emancipated except with a formed morsel, at the minimum eighty-one days. Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him) said of the clot: it is blood, creation is not distinguishable in it.
If the morsel is unformed: does the waiting period end with it, and does the mother of a child become established? Two views, two narrations from Ahmad. If the outlining does not show in it but remains hidden, known only to expert women, their testimony is accepted. There is no difference between after four full months or before, according to the majority of scholars; Imam Ahmad explicitly stated this in a narration from Khalaf. His son Salih related from him, concerning the child whose creation is distinguishable at four months: ash-Sha'bi said: if she miscarries it in the fourth month formed, the waiting period ends with it and the female slave is emancipated; likewise related from him by Hanbal: if she miscarries it formed at four months...
Ahmad said in one narration: when its creation is distinguishable, without disagreement, the female slave is emancipated by it. A group related from him concerning the clot, when it is established that it is a child: the female slave is emancipated by it; this is the view of an-Nakha'i, related as one view of ash-Shafi'i. Among our companions, some extended this narration from Ahmad to the completion of the waiting period by it.
All this rests upon the possibility of forming in the clot, supported by the hadith of Hudhayfa ibn Asid already cited; except to say that this hadith shows forming when it becomes flesh and bones, which may occur in the second forty-day period, not as a clot; this is debatable, and Allah knows best. What the physicians say shows the clot is formed and outlined, and the midwives testify to it; the hadith of Malik ibn al-Huwayrith attests shaping even at the stage of a drop, and Allah knows best.
It remains, in Ibn Mas'ud's hadith, that after the stage of morsel the angel is sent, writes the four words and breathes the soul: all this after one hundred and twenty days.
The wordings of the versions diverge on the order of the writing and the breathing: in the Sahih of al-Bukhari: "The angel is sent to it and is commanded with four words, then the soul is breathed into it": this version explicitly delays the breathing after the writing. In a version extracted by al-Bayhaqi in the Book of Destiny: "The angel is sent, breathes the soul into it, then is commanded with the four words": this one puts the breathing first. This comes either from the activity of the narrators with the sense, or the order concerns the report, not the thing reported.
In any case, Ibn Mas'ud's hadith (may Allah be pleased with him) indicates that the breathing of the soul into the embryo and the angel's writing are delayed past four months, the third forty-day period completed. As for the breathing, it is explicitly related from the companions (may Allah be pleased with them) that it occurs only after four months, as the apparent sense of Ibn Mas'ud's hadith.
Zayd ibn 'Ali related from his father, from 'Ali (may Allah be pleased with him): "When the drop completes four months, an angel is sent to it and breathes the soul into it in the darknesses: this is His word: 'Then We produced him as another creation'", extracted by Ibn Abi Hatim, the chain being disconnected.
Al-Lalika'i extracted, through his chain, from Ibn 'Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them): "The drop fallen into the womb remains four months and ten days, then the soul is breathed into it; then forty nights; then an angel is sent to it, strikes it on the nape and writes wretched or blessed." Its chain is debatable; the breathing is delayed ten days past the four months.
Imam Ahmad founded his known school upon the apparent sense of Ibn Mas'ud's hadith: the soul is breathed into the child after four months, and if it is miscarried after four full months, prayer is said over it, the soul having been breathed into it and it then dying.
This is also related from Sa'id ibn al-Musayyab; it is one of the two views of ash-Shafi'i and Ishaq.
More than one related from Ahmad: "At four months and ten days: in those ten days the soul is breathed into it, and prayer is said over it." In the narration of Abu al-Harith: "The being is a drop forty nights, a clot forty nights, a morsel forty nights, then bones and flesh; at four months and ten completed, the soul is breathed into it."
The apparent sense of this narration: the soul is not breathed except after four months and ten full days, as related from Ibn 'Abbas; the previous narrations from Ahmad indicate the breathing within the ten days after the four months: this is what is known from him. Thus said Ibn al-Musayyab, asked about the waiting period of death set at four months and ten days: "Why the ten days? He said: it is when the soul is breathed into it."
The physicians said: if the embryo is shaped at thirty-five days, it moves at seventy days and is born at two hundred and ten days, that is seven months; shaping and birth may advance or recede by a few days. If it is shaped at forty-five days, it moves at ninety days and is born at two hundred and seventy days, that is nine months; and Allah knows best. As for the angel's writing, Ibn Mas'ud's hadith indicates it also occurs after the four months. In the two Sahihs, from Anas, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "Allah charged an angel with the womb who says: O Lord, a drop! O Lord, a clot! O Lord, a morsel! When Allah wills to complete a creation, he says: O Lord, male or female? wretched or blessed? what provision, what term? And that is written thus in the womb of his mother."
Some reconciled these hadiths and transmissions with Ibn Mas'ud's hadith by establishing two writings; one may also say: one in heaven, the other in the mother's womb. The most apparent, and Allah knows best: one single writing; it varies according to the embryos: for some it occurs after the first forty-day period, for others after the third. One may also say the "then" in Ibn Mas'ud's hadith orders the report, not the thing reported in itself; and Allah knows best.
Among the later scholars, some preferred the writing to occur at the start of the second forty-day period, as in the hadith of Hudhayfa ibn Asid, saying: its mention was delayed in Ibn Mas'ud's hadith until after the morsel, with "then", only so as not to interrupt the three stages in which the embryo turns: drop, clot, morsel; these three as one sequence are finer, hence the delay of the complement, though it precede part of it in order. They support it with: "He began the creation of man from clay, then made his progeny from an essence of despised water, then formed him and breathed into him of His spirit...": the man meant is Adam (upon him be peace), whose forming is known after...
It has come that this writing is placed between the embryo's eyes: in the Musnad of al-Bazzar, from Ibn 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with them), from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "When Allah creates the being, the angel of the wombs says: O Lord, male or female? Allah conveys His command to him; he says: O Lord, wretched or blessed? Allah conveys His command to him; then is written between its eyes what awaits it, down to the sin it will commit"; this is also related as suspended from Ibn 'Umar. The hadith of Hudhayfa ibn Asid is explicit: the angel writes it on a scroll; perhaps he writes on a scroll and between the child's eyes.
It is related that with this writing are created together with the embryo the traits it contains: from 'A'isha (may Allah be pleased with her), from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "When Allah wills to create a creature, He sends an angel who enters the womb and says: O Lord, what? He says: boy, girl, or what He wills to create; he says: O Lord, wretched or blessed? what He wills; he says: O Lord, its term? this and that; he says: O Lord, its provision? this and that; he says: O Lord, its constitution, its traits? this and that: there is nothing that is not created with it in the womb", extracted by Abu Dawoud in the Book of Destiny and by al-Bazzar.
In any case, this writing made for the embryo in its mother's womb is not the writing of destinies prior to creation, mentioned in His word: "No adversity on earth or in yourselves but is in a Book before We created it; that is easy for Allah." In the Sahih of Muslim, from 'Abdallah ibn 'Amr, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "Allah decreed the destinies of the creatures fifty thousand years before creating the heavens and the earth." And in the hadith of 'Ubada ibn as-Samit: "The first thing Allah created was the pen; He said to it: write, and it ran with what would be until the Day of Resurrection."
The texts abound on the prior Book containing felicity or misery.
In the two Sahihs, from 'Ali ibn Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him), the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "There is no destined soul but Allah has written its place in Paradise or the Fire, but it is written wretched or blessed." A man said: O Messenger of Allah, should we not stay upon our writing and abandon work? He said: "Work: each is made easy for what he was created for; the people of felicity are made easy for the works of the people of felicity, and the people of misery for the works of the people of misery", then he recited: "As for the one who gives and fears, and confirms the fairest word: We ease him toward ease; and as for the one who is miserly and deems himself self-sufficient, and denies the fairest word: We ease him toward hardship."
This meaning is related from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) through many channels. In Ibn Mas'ud's hadith, felicity and misery depend upon the final works. It has been said that his words at the end, "by Allah besides whom there is no deity, one of you works the works of the people of Paradise...", to the end, are inserted, a saying of Ibn Mas'ud, thus related by Salama ibn Kuhayl, from Zayd ibn Wahb, as Ibn Mas'ud's own word; this meaning is also related from the Prophet through many channels.
In the Sahih of al-Bukhari, from Sahl ibn Sa'd, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "Deeds are only by their endings."
In the Sahih of Ibn Hibban, from 'A'isha (may Allah be pleased with her), the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "Deeds are only by their endings."
In the same, from Mu'awiya: "I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) say: Deeds are only by their endings, like the vessel: if its top is good, its bottom is good; and if its top is bad, its bottom is bad."
In the Sahih of Muslim, from Abu Hurayra, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "A man works long at the works of the people of Paradise, then his deed is sealed with the works of the people of the Fire; and a man works long at the works of the people of the Fire, then his deed is sealed with the works of the people of Paradise."
Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him) extracted from the hadith of Anas (may Allah be pleased with him), from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "No blame in not marvelling at anyone until you see with what he is sealed: the worker works a time of his life, a span of his age, at a pious deed such that, were he to die upon it, he would enter Paradise, then he changes and works evil; and the servant works a span at an evil deed such that, were he to die upon it, he would enter the Fire, then he changes and works piously." He also extracted it from the hadith of 'A'isha (may Allah be pleased with her), from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).
Al-Bazzar extracted it in his Musnad in the same sense, from the hadith of Ibn 'Umar, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).
In the two Sahihs, from Sahl ibn Sa'd: the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) met the polytheists; among his companions was a man who left neither isolated nor unique but struck them with his sword. They said: none today has rendered service like so-and-so; the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "He is of the people of the Fire." A man said: I am his companion, and followed him; the man was gravely wounded, hastened his death, set the tip of his sword on the ground, its hilt between his two breasts, leaned upon his sword and killed himself. The man went out to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and said: I testify that you are the Messenger of Allah. He said: "And why?" He said: such-and-such did such-and-such. He said: "Some work at the works of the people of Paradise according to what appears to people, while they are of the people of the Fire."
His words "according to what appears to people" indicate that the inward may be otherwise, and that the evil ending comes from a hidden device of the servant inaccessible to people: an evil deed or the like; this hidden vice brings the evil ending at death. Likewise a man may work at the works of the people of the Fire, with a hidden vice of virtue inside him, which prevails at the end of his life and earns him the good ending. 'Abd al-'Aziz ibn Abi Rawwad related: "I attended a dying man being prompted with the testimony: there is no deity except Allah; he said, last: I disbelieve in what you say, and he died upon that; I inquired about him: he was an inveterate drunkard." 'Abd al-'Aziz would say: beware of sins: it is they which...
In sum, endings are the inheritance of precedents, and all this has preceded in the prior Book.
Hence the fear of the early generation of an evil ending was intense; some were anguished by the mention of precedents. It has been said: the hearts of the virtuous hang upon endings: with what shall we be sealed?; and the hearts of the near ones hang upon precedents: what has preceded for us?
One of the companions wept at his death; asked why, he said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) say: "Allah, the Most High, seizes His creation in two handfuls and says: these for Paradise, and these for the Fire; and I know not in which handful I was." One of the early generation said: "Nothing makes the eyes weep like the prior Book!" Sufyan said to one of the virtuous: "Has Allah's knowledge of you ever made you weep?" The man said: "You have left me with no joy ever." Sufyan, whose anguish over precedents and endings was intense, would weep and say: "I fear being wretched in the Mother of the Book", and weep: "I fear being stripped of faith at death." Malik ibn Dinar would stand the whole night, fist to his beard...
Hence the companions and the virtuous early generation after them feared hypocrisy for themselves, with intense anguish and dread: the believer fears lesser hypocrisy for himself, and fears it may prevail at the ending and bring him out into greater hypocrisy, as stated above: the hidden devices of evil bring the evil ending. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) used often to say in his supplication: "O Turner of hearts, establish my heart upon Your religion." It was said: O Prophet of Allah, we believe in you and in what you brought: do you fear for us? He said: "Yes: hearts are between two fingers of the fingers of the All-Merciful, Mighty and Majestic: He turns them as He wills."