Home > The 40 Hadith of Nawawi > Hadith 41 of Nawawi
Hadith number 41 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
📖 11 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.
"It was transmitted to us from our shaykhs; it was transmitted to us from Hicham or from another."
I say: the authentication of this hadith is very far-fetched, for several reasons. First, it is a hadith reported through a single channel by Nou'aym ibn Hammad al-Marouzi. This Nou'aym, although groups of imams graded him reliable and al-Boukhari reported from him, for the imams of hadith held a good opinion of him for his uprightness upon the Sunna and his firmness in refuting the people of passion, were nevertheless led to consider him negligent and to confuse him in certain hadiths; when their discoveries of his blameworthy reports multiplied, they graded him weak. Çalih ibn Muhammad the hafiz reports from Ibn Ma'in that he was asked about him and said, "He is nothing, but he is a man of the Sunna." Çalih said: he narrated from memory, and he had many uncorroborated blameworthy reports. Abu Dawoud said: in Nou'aym there are some twenty hadiths of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) with no basis at all.
An-Nasa'i said: weak; and once: "he is not trustworthy"; and another time: "his unique-channel reports from known imams have multiplied in many hadiths, to the point of ranking him among those who cannot be used." Abu Zur'a ad-Dimashqi said: "he transmits suspended hadiths", meaning that he raises suspended reports. Abu Ourouba al-Harrani said: "his situation is obscure."
Abu Sa'id ibn Younous said: "he reported blameworthy hadiths from reliable narrators"; others accused him of fabricating hadith. But where were the companions of 'Abd al-Wahhab ath-Thaqafi, the companions of Hicham ibn Hassan, the companions of Ibn Sirin with regard to this hadith, that Nou'aym should report it alone?!
Among the reasons also: Nou'aym's isnad is a matter of divergence. One reports from him, from Thaqafi, from Hicham. Another reports from him, from Thaqafi: "our shaykhs transmitted to us: Hicham or another"; in this version the shaykh Thaqafi is not identified. Another: "our shaykhs transmitted to us; it was transmitted to us from Hicham or from another"; in this one Thaqafi reports from an unknown shaykh, and his shaykh from an unidentified man: the obscurity of the isnad is doubled.
Among this also: his isnad contains 'Oqba ibn 'Aws as-Sadoussi al-Basri, also called Ya'qoub ibn 'Aws. Abu Dawoud, an-Nasa'i and Ibn Majah reported from him a hadith of 'Abdallah ibn 'Amr, or it is said 'Abdallah ibn 'Omar. His isnad is troubled; al-Ijli, Ibn Sa'd and Ibn Hibban graded him reliable. Ibn Khouzayma said: "Ibn Sirin reported from him in view of his greatness." Ibn 'Abd al-Barr said: "he is unknown." Al-Ghallabi said in his history: "it is claimed that he did not hear from 'Abdallah ibn 'Amr, but that he says: 'Abdallah ibn 'Amr said,' whereby his reports from 'Abdallah ibn 'Amr would be severed, and Allah knows best."
The meaning of the hadith is that a man does not possess the complete, obligatory faith so long as his love follows what the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) brought of commands and prohibitions and other things: he loves what has been commanded and detests what has been forbidden.
The Quran came with this in more than one place. The Most High says:
"No! By your Lord, they will not be believers until they make you judge over their disputes, then find within themselves no discomfort as to what you have decided, and submit in full."
An-Nisa, 65
And He says:
"It is not for a believing man or a believing woman, once Allah and His Messenger have decided a matter, to have any choice in their affair."
Al-Ahzab, 36
He, glory to Him, blamed whoever detests what Allah loves and loves what Allah detests. Allah the Most High says:
"That is because they detested what Allah sent down, so He rendered their deeds void."
Muhammad, 9
And He says:
"That is because they followed what angers Allah and disliked what pleases Him, so He rendered their deeds void."
Muhammad, 28
It therefore falls to every believer to love what Allah loves with a love that obliges him to come with what is obligatory in it; if the love grows until he performs what is recommended in it, that is a surplus. And to detest what Allah the Most High detests with a detestation that obliges him to abstain from what is illicit in it; if it grows until it obliges him to abstain from what is merely disliked, that is a surplus.
It is established in the two Sahihs that he (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "None of you truly believes until I am dearer to him than his own self, his child, his family and all mankind." The believer is therefore a believer only if he prefers the love of the Messenger to the love of all creation; and the love of the Messenger follows the love of the One who sent him (glory and purity to Him). True love demands following and agreement: loving the beloved things and detesting the detested things. The Most High says:
"Say: if your fathers, your sons, your brothers, your spouses, your tribe, the wealth you have acquired, a trade whose decline you fear, and dwellings you love are dearer to you than Allah, His Messenger and the struggle in His path, then wait until Allah comes with His command."
At-Tawba, 24
And He says:
"Say: if you love Allah, then follow me; Allah will love you and forgive you your sins."
Al 'Imran, 31
Al-Hasan said: the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said to the Prophet, "O Messenger of Allah, we love our Lord with an intense love." Allah willed that His love should have a sign, and Allah revealed this verse.
In the two Sahihs the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "Three things: whoever unites them tastes the sweetness of faith: that Allah and His Messenger be dearer to him than all else; that he love a man and love him only for Allah; and that he detest returning to disbelief after Allah has saved him from it, as he detests being cast into the Fire."
Whoever loves Allah and His Messenger with a sincere love of the heart is thereby obliged to love in his heart what Allah and His Messenger love, to detest what they detest, to approve of what they approve, to disapprove of what they disapprove, and to set his limbs acting according to that love and that aversion. If he sets one of his limbs acting against this, committing part of what they detest or neglecting part of what they love, while it is obligatory and within his capacity, that indicates a defect in the obligatory love: he must repent of it and return to the perfection of the obligatory love.
Abu Ya'qoub an-Nahrajouri said: "Whoever claims to love Allah the Most High without following His command: his claim is false; and every lover who does not fear Allah is deceived." Yahya ibn Mu'adh said: "Insincere is the one who claims to love Allah (glory and purity to Him) without guarding its limits."
Rouwaym was asked about love and said: "Agreement in every situation." And he recited:
And if you told me: die, I would die, hearing and obeying...
And I would say to the call of death: welcome and greeting!!
And an Ancient said:
You disobey Allah, yet claim to love Him...
By my life, by all logic, that is ugly!
Were your love sincere, you would obey Him...
For the lover, towards the one he loves, is obedient!
Every act of disobedience is born of preferring the desire of the souls to the love of Allah and His Messenger. Allah described the polytheists as following their passions in several places in His Book. He says:
"If they do not answer you, then know that they follow their passions; and who is more astray than the one who follows his passion without guidance from Allah?"
Al-Qasas, 50
Likewise, innovations are born of preferring passion to the Law: that is why their adherents are named "people of passion". And likewise, acts of disobedience arise only from preferring passion to the love of Allah and His Messenger and to what He loves.
The same applies to love of persons: what falls to the believer is to follow what the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) brought. It falls to the believer to love Allah, and to love whomever Allah loves among the angels, the messengers, the prophets, the truthful, the martyrs and the saints in general. Thus one of the signs of the presence of the sweetness of faith is that one loves a person and loves for him only for Allah; and it is illicit to hold the allegiance of the enemies of Allah and of those Allah detests in general, as has already been mentioned elsewhere. Thus the whole of religion is for Allah. Whoever loves for Allah, hates for Allah, gives for Allah and withholds for Allah has perfected faith.
Whoever's love, hatred, giving and refusal obey the passion of his soul: that is a defect in his obligatory faith; he must repent of it and return to following what the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) brought: preferring the love of Allah and His Messenger and what earns their approval to the desire of the soul and all its wishes.
'Ouwayb ibn al-Ward said: "It has reached us, and Allah knows best, that Moussa (peace be upon him) said: O my Lord, counsel me. He said: I counsel you from Myself. He said it three times, until at the end He said: I counsel you from Myself: let no thing present itself to you without you preferring My love in it to all else. Whoever does not do that, I do not purify him, and I show him no mercy."
What is known in the usage of hawa in the absolute is the inclination towards the opposite of the truth, as in the words of the Most High:
"And do not follow the passion, lest it lead you astray from the path of Allah."
Sad, 26
And He says:
"Whoever fears the station of his Lord and forbids his soul its passion: the Paradise is the refuge."
An-Naziat, 40-41
It happens that hawa is used in the sense of love and inclination in the absolute, embracing inclination towards the truth and towards other things; and it is sometimes used in the sense of love of the truth alone and submission to it.
Safwan ibn Assal was asked: did you hear the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) mention hawa? He said: a bedouin asked him about the man who loves a people without joining them; he said, "The man is with the one he loves." When the words of the Most High were revealed, "You make hopeful whom You will of them, and You shelter near Yourself whom You will," 'Aicha said to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), "I see nothing in your Lord but hindering in favour of your desire." And 'Omar (may Allah be pleased with him), concerning the story of the consultation over the captives of Badr, said: "the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) inclined to it, and Abu Bakr said nothing and did not incline to what I had said."
This hadith is among those in which hawa is used in the sense of praised love. A similar usage is often met in the Israelite traditions; and the sayings and allusions of the shaykhs of the community, in verse and in prose, abound in this usage.
And among what suits the meaning of this hadith is this saying of someone:
Your passion that dwells in my heart...
Has made me an obedient listener;
You have taken my heart and closed my eye...
You have robbed me of sleep and of rest;
Leave my heart and take my sleep...
He said: rather, the two together.