Home > The 40 Hadith of Nawawi > Hadith 42 of Nawawi
Hadith number 42 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
📖 16 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.
At-Tirmidhi alone extracted this hadith, through the channel of Kathir ibn Fa'id, from Sa'id ibn 'Ubayd, who heard Bakr ibn 'Abdallah al-Muzani say: Anas related it to us, and he mentioned it; at-Tirmidhi said: good and singular, we know it only through this channel. Its chain is sound. Sa'id ibn 'Ubayd is al-Hana'i; Abu Hatim said: a shaykh, and Ibn Hibban listed him among the reliable; whoever claims he is not al-Hana'i is mistaken. Ad-Daraqutni said: Kathir ibn Fa'id alone related it from Sa'id, raised; Salam ibn Qutayba related it from Sa'id ibn 'Ubayd as suspended from Anas. I say: it is related from him both raised and suspended, and Abu Sa'id, the freedman of the Banu Hashim, followed him in raising it, relating it from Sa'id ibn 'Ubayd likewise raised. It is also related from Thabit's hadith, from Anas, raised, but Abu Hatim said: it is rejected.
It is also related from Abu Dharr's hadith, extracted by Imam Ahmad from Shahr ibn Hawshab's channel, from Ma'dikarib, from Abu Dharr, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) relating it from his Lord, the Most High, in its meaning. Some related it from Shahr, from 'Abd ar-Rahman ibn Ghannm, from Abu Dharr, or from Shahr, from Umm ad-Darda', from Abu ad-Darda', from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): this does not stand. It is related from Ibn 'Abbas's hadith, extracted by at-Tabarani from Qays ibn ar-Rabi', from Habib ibn Abi Thabit, from Sa'id ibn Jubayr, from Ibn 'Abbas, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).
Part of it is related through other channels: Muslim extracted in his Sahih, from Ma'rur ibn Suwayd, from Abu Dharr, the Prophet's (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) words relating from Allah, the Most High: "Whoever draws near to Me by a handspan, I draw near to him by a cubit; whoever draws near to Me by a cubit, I draw near to him by a fathom; and whoever comes to Me walking, I come to him running; and whoever meets Me with the earth's fill of sins without associating anything with Me, I meet him with its fill of forgiveness." Imam Ahmad extracted it from Akhshan as-Sadusi's channel: "I entered upon Anas; he said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) say..." in this sense.
Anas's hadith cited at the head contains that these three causes obtain forgiveness. The first: supplication with hope; supplication is commanded and its answer promised, as Allah said: "Your Lord said: call upon Me, I will answer you." In the four Sunans, from an-Nu'man ibn Bashir, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "Supplication is worship", then he recited this verse. In another hadith extracted by at-Tabarani, raised: "Whoever was given supplication was given the answer, for Allah, the Most High, says: 'Call upon Me, I will answer you.'" And in another: "It is not of Allah to open to a servant the door of supplication and close upon him the door of the answer." But supplication is a cause entailings the answer when its conditions are complete and its impediments absent; the answer may fail through the absence of a condition or the presence of an impediment. We have mentioned some of its conditions, impediments and manners in the commentary on the tenth hadith.
Among the greatest conditions: presence of heart and hope of the answer from Allah, the Most High; at-Tirmidhi extracted, from Abu Hurayra (may Allah be pleased with him), the Prophet's (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) words: "Supplicate to Allah while certain of the answer, for Allah, the Most High, accepts not the supplication of a heart heedless and distracted." In the Musnad, from 'Abdallah ibn 'Amr: "These hearts are vessels, some more capacious than others; when you ask Allah, ask Him while certain of the answer, for Allah answers not the supplication of a servant from a heart distracted." Hence the servant was forbidden to say in his supplication: "O Allah, forgive me if You will"; let him be resolute in the asking, for none compels Allah. He was forbidden to hurry and abandon supplication out of the answer's slowness: this was counted among the impediments of the answer, lest the servant cut off hope of the answer to his supplication, however long the term, for Allah, glorified, loves those who insist in supplication.
It has come in the traditions: when the servant supplicates to his Lord and He loves him, He says: "O Jibril, do not hasten to fulfil My servant's need: I love to hear his voice." And Allah said: "And call upon Him with fear and hope: Allah's mercy is near the doers of good." As long as the servant insists in supplication and hopes for the answer without cutting off hope, he is near the answer; and whoever knocks often at the door is close to having it opened. In al-Hakim's Sahih, from Anas, raised: "Do not grow incapable of supplicating, for none perishes with supplication." Among the servant's most important requests of his Lord: forgiveness of his sins, or what entails it, like salvation from the Fire and entry into Paradise; the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "It is around this that we circle." And of Allah's mercy, the Most High...
His words: "As long as you call upon Me and hope in Me, I forgive you what was of you, and it matters not to Me" mean: however many your sins and faults, they are not too great for Me, nor do I deem them much. In the Sahih, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "When one of you supplicates, let him magnify the hope, for nothing is too great for Allah." The sins of the servants, however immense, Allah's pardon and forgiveness are more immense still: they are small beside Allah's pardon and mercy. In al-Hakim's Sahih, from Jabir: a man came to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) saying: woe to my sins, twice or thrice; the Prophet said to him: "Say: O Allah, Your pardon is vaster than my sins, and Your mercy more hoped by me than my deed." He said it, then he said: "Say it again", he repeated it, then: "Again", he repeated; he then said: "Rise, Allah has forgiven you."
In this sense one said: "O you of immense sin: Allah's pardon is greater than your sin. Sin, the greatest of things, becomes small beside Allah's pardon." And another: "O Lord, if my sins are immense in number, I know Your pardon is more immense. If none hopes in You but the virtuous, who then calls and hopes, if not the sinner? I have no means to You but hope and the beauty of Your pardon, and I am one submitting."
The second cause of forgiveness: the seeking of forgiveness, even if the sins are immense and reach the sky's cloud, that is the clouds, or what the sight reaches of them; and in the other version: "If you erred until your errors reached what is between heaven and earth, then sought Allah's forgiveness, He would forgive you." The seeking of forgiveness is the request of forgiveness; and forgiveness is the protection from sins' evil together with their veiling. The seeking of forgiveness recurs abundantly in the Quran: at times commanded, as His word: "And seek Allah's forgiveness: Allah is forgiving, merciful", and: "And seek your Lord's forgiveness, then turn to Him"; at times its people praised, as His word: "And who seek forgiveness at the dawns", and: "In the watches of the dawn they seek forgiveness"; and His word concerning Nuh: "I said: seek your Lord's forgiveness, He is ever forgiving; He will send down upon you rain in torrents..." to the verses' end.
As for the tongue's seeking of forgiveness while the heart persists in the sin, it is a bare supplication: if Allah wills He answers it, if He wills He rejects it. Persistence may bar the answer. In the Musnad, from 'Abdallah ibn 'Amr, raised: "Woe to those who persist in what they did, while knowing." Ibn Abi ad-Dunya extracted from Ibn 'Abbas's (may Allah be pleased with them) hadith, raised: "The penitent of sin is as one without sin, and whoever seeks forgiveness of a sin while persisting in it is like one mocking his Lord"; its raising is rejected, and it is perhaps suspended. Ad-Dahhak said: "Three whose supplication is not answered", and among them he mentioned: "A man persisting in fornication with a woman: whenever he satisfies his desire of her, he says: O Lord, forgive me what I did with such a woman; the Lord says: turn from her and I forgive you; as long as you persist, I forgive you not.
And a man holding people's wealth, seeing their plight, saying: O Lord, forgive me what I eat of such a one's wealth; the Most High says: restore their wealth and I forgive you; as long as you restore it not, I forgive you not." The words "I seek Allah's forgiveness" mean: I request His forgiveness, like saying: O Allah, forgive me. The complete seeking of forgiveness, entailings forgiveness, is that accompanied by absence of persistence, whose people Allah praised and to whom He promised forgiveness. One of the knowers said: "He whose seeking of forgiveness bears not the fruit of rectifying his repentance is a liar in his seeking of forgiveness." One of them said: "This our seeking of forgiveness itself needs much seeking of forgiveness." And in this sense one said: "I seek Allah's forgiveness for my 'I seek Allah's forgiveness': a word that came out against its meaning.
How hope for the answer of supplication, when I have blocked its course with Allah through sin?" The best seeking of forgiveness is that accompanied by leaving persistence: it is then a sincere repentance. If his tongue says "I seek Allah's forgiveness" while his heart does not desist, he calls upon Allah for forgiveness, like saying: O Allah, forgive me: that is good, and the answer may be hoped for. As for him who said it is "the repentance of liars", he meant it is not repentance as some believe: true, for repentance does not occur with persistence.
The best form of seeking forgiveness is that the servant begin with praise of his Lord, then continue with acknowledgment of his sin, then ask Allah for forgiveness, as in Shaddad ibn Aws's hadith from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "The master of seekings of forgiveness is the servant's saying: O Allah, You are my Lord, there is no deity but You; You created me and I am Your servant; I keep Your covenant and Your promise as much as I can; I seek refuge in You from the evil of what I did; I acknowledge Your favour upon me and I acknowledge my sin: forgive me, for none forgives sins but You", extracted by al-Bukhari. In the two Sahihs, from 'Abdallah ibn 'Amr, Abu Bakr as-Siddiq said: "O Messenger of Allah, teach me a supplication I may make in my prayer.
He said: Say: O Allah, I have wronged myself greatly, and none forgives sins but You: forgive me with a forgiveness from You, and have mercy upon me; You are the Forgiving, the Merciful." Among the forms: "I seek Allah's forgiveness, there is no deity but He, the Living, the Self-Subsisting, and I turn to Him"; it is related from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) that whoever says it is forgiven, even if he fled the battlefield: extracted by Abu Dawoud and at-Tirmidhi. In an-Nasa'i's Book of Day and Night, from Khabbab ibn al-Aratt: "I said: O Messenger of Allah, how do we seek forgiveness?
He said: Say: O Allah, forgive us, have mercy upon us and turn to us: You are the Turner, the Merciful." And in it, from Abu Hurayra (may Allah be pleased with him): "I saw no one say more often 'I seek Allah's forgiveness and turn to Him' than the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)." In the four Sunans, from Ibn 'Umar: "We counted for the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), in a single sitting, a hundred times: 'Lord, forgive me and turn to me: You are the Turner, the Forgiver.'" In al-Bukhari's Sahih, from Abu Hurayra (may Allah be pleased with him), the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allah, I seek Allah's forgiveness and turn to Him more than seventy times a day." And in Muslim's Sahih, from al-Agharr al-Muzani: "It comes upon me that I am veiled, and I seek Allah's forgiveness a hundred times in the day."
In sum, the remedy of sins is the seeking of forgiveness. It is transmitted from Abu Dharr's hadith, raised: "Every disease has a remedy, and the remedy of sins is the seeking of forgiveness." Qatada said: "This Quran shows you your disease and your remedy: your disease, the sins; your remedy, the seeking of forgiveness." One of them said: "The recourse of sinners is weeping and the seeking of forgiveness: let whomsoever his sins concern multiply the seeking of forgiveness for them." Riyah al-Qaysi said: "I have above forty sins; for each I have sought Allah's forgiveness a hundred thousand times."
One of them audited his soul from the age of majority: his lapses did not exceed thirty-six; for each lapse he sought forgiveness a hundred thousand times, prayed for each a thousand rak'as, and completed a full recitation in every rak'a; he said: "Despite all that, I am not safe from my Lord's rigour seizing me for them: I am in great peril as to the acceptance of repentance." And whoever is more concerned with his sins may cling to the skirts of those whose sins are few, seeking their seeking of forgiveness. 'Umar would seek forgiveness from the boys, saying: "You have not yet sinned." Abu Hurayra would say to the schoolchildren: "Say: O Allah, forgive Abu Hurayra", and he would say amen to their supplication.
Bakr al-Muzani said: "If a man went door to door like the beggar saying: seek forgiveness for me, he would deserve it be done." Whoever's sins and faults exceed number and counting, let him seek Allah's forgiveness for what Allah knows, for Allah knew everything and counted it, as He said: "The day Allah resurrects them all and informs them of what they did: Allah counted it, and they forgot it." And in Shaddad ibn Aws's hadith, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "I ask You for the good You know, I seek refuge in You from the evil You know, and I seek Your forgiveness for what You know: You are the Knower of the unseen." In this one said: "I seek Allah's forgiveness for what Allah knows. Wretched is he whom Allah has not mercy on. How clement Allah is toward him who observes Him not: all err, but Allah is clement. Seek Allah's forgiveness for the stumbles past; bliss is his who refrains from what Allah hates. Bliss is his whose inner secret is good; bliss is his who halts at what Allah forbade."
The third cause of forgiveness is monotheism, and it is the greatest of causes: whoever lacks it lacks forgiveness, and whoever brings it brings the greatest cause of forgiveness. Allah, the Most High, said: "Allah forgives not that anything be associated with Him, and forgives what is beyond that to whom He wills." Whoever comes with monotheism, bearing the earth's fill of sins, that is its filling or what approaches it, Allah meets him with its fill of forgiveness. But this remains under Allah's will, the Mighty and Majestic: if He wills He forgives him; if He wills He seizes him for his sins, then his final outcome is that he is not made eternal in the Fire: he is brought out of it then entered into Paradise.
One said: "The unitarian is not thrown into the Fire as the disbelievers are thrown, nor remains in it as the disbelievers remain." If the servant's monotheism is complete, with his sincerity in it for Allah and all its conditions, by his heart, his tongue and his limbs, or by his heart and tongue at death, it entails forgiveness of all past sins and his total prevention from entering the Fire. Whoever realises the word of unity in his heart, it expels from it all besides Allah, in love, magnification, reverence, awe, fear, hope and trust; then all his sins and faults are burned, were they like the sea's foam, and perhaps changed into good deeds, as was said of the changing of evil deeds into good: this monotheism is the greatest elixir; were an atom of it laid upon the mountains of sins and faults, it would turn them into good deeds.
In the Musnad and elsewhere, from Umm Hani', the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "There is no deity except Allah leaves no sin standing and no deed precedes it." And in the Musnad, from Shaddad ibn Aws and 'Ubada ibn as-Samit, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said to his companions: "Raise your hands and say: there is no deity except Allah." We raised our hands a while, then the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) lowered his hand...