Home > The 40 Hadith of Nawawi > Hadith 6 of Nawawi
Hadith number 6 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 authentic, unanimously acknowledged, related by ash-Sha'bi from an-Nu'man ibn Bashir; its versions contain some additions and omissions of identical or near meaning. It is related from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) through the hadiths of Ibn 'Umar, 'Ammar ibn Yasir, Jabir, Ibn Mas'ud and Ibn 'Abbas; an-Nu'man's hadith is the most authentic of the chapter.
His words (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "The lawful is clear and the unlawful is clear, and between the two are doubtful matters that many people do not know" mean: the purely lawful is evident, without ambiguity, likewise the purely unlawful; but between the two are things ambiguous to many people: are they of the lawful or of the unlawful? As for those firmly rooted in knowledge, nothing of it is ambiguous to them: they know of which of the two categories it is.
The purely lawful: eating the good things of crops, fruits, beasts of the flocks, drinking the good beverages, wearing what one needs of cotton, linen, wool or hair, marriage and concubinage, and the like, when their acquisition comes through a valid contract such as sale, inheritance, gift or spoils.
The purely unlawful: eating carrion, blood, the flesh of swine, drinking wine, marrying the forbidden relatives, wearing silk for men, and forbidden gains such as usury, gambling, the price of what may not lawfully be sold, and taking people's wealth by theft, robbery or deception.
The doubtful: eating certain things whose permissibility or prohibition is disputed, either in substances, like the horse, the mule, the donkey and the desert lizard, or beverages whose prohibition is disputed among the fermented drinks that intoxicate in quantity, or wearing what is disputed, like the skins of wild beasts, or disputed gains like the questions of sale with repurchase and the recourse to credit purchase; in this sense Ahmad, Ishaq and other imams explained the doubtful matters.
The summary: Allah, the Most High, sent down the Book upon His Prophet and set out in it for the community what it needs of lawful and unlawful, as He said: "And We sent down upon you the Book, an exposition of everything", which Mujahid and others explain: everything they were commanded or forbidden. And Allah said at the end of the Sura of Women, where He detailed many rules of wealth and wives: "Allah expounds to you lest you stray; Allah is of everything knowing." And: "What ails you that you do not eat of what Allah's name has been pronounced upon, when He has detailed for you what He forbade you, except what you are constrained to."
The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was not taken before the religion was completed for him and his community; hence he received at 'Arafa, shortly before his death: "Today I have completed for you your religion, perfected My favour upon you, and approved for you Islam as religion." He said: "I leave you upon a white, pure path, whose night is like its day: none strays from it but one lost." Abu Dharr (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) died while there was no bird in the sky beating its wings but he had given us knowledge of it." When people doubted his death, his uncle al-'Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "By Allah, the Messenger of Allah has not died..." and he recited the verse of the completion of the religion.
What was less widely expounded: certain things are known among the bearers of the Law in particular, and the scholars are unanimous on their permissibility or prohibition, which may escape whoever is not of them; others are unknown to the bearers of the Law as well, and they diverged over their permissibility or prohibition, for causes: sometimes the text is hidden, related by few, without reaching all bearers of knowledge; sometimes two texts are related, one permitting, the other forbidding, one reaching one group without the other, and they hold to what reached them; or both reach one who knows not the chronology, and he halts for not knowing the abrogating; sometimes there is no explicit text but only a general, an implication or an analogy, and the scholars' understandings diverge much; sometimes there are command and prohibition together...
The causes of divergence are more numerous than we have said; despite this, the umma never lacks a scholar whose word conforms to the truth: he, for that rule, is the scholar, and for the other the matter is doubtful, without his being its scholar. This community does not gather upon misguidance, and the people of falsehood do not prevail over the people of truth: the truth is never abandoned and unapplied in all lands and times. Hence he said, of the doubtful matters: "that many people do not know", indicating that among the people are those who know them: they are doubtful only to whoever does not know them, not doubtful in themselves. That is the cause of the ambiguity of certain things to many scholars.
Ambiguity may arise otherwise, for scholars and others: certain things have a known cause of permissibility, certain possession; others a known cause of prohibition, the established possession of another. The first does not lose its permissibility except by certainty of the loss of possession, except for wives according to him who pronounces divorce upon doubt, like Malik, or upon prevalence of opinion, like Ishaq ibn Rahawayh; the second does not lose its prohibition except by certain knowledge of the transfer of possession.
What whose origin of possession is unknown, like what a man finds in his house not knowing whether it is his or another's: it is doubtful, but it is not forbidden to him to use it, for the appearance is that what is in his house belongs to him, his hand being established upon it; scrupulousness is to leave it: the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "It happens that I return to my family and find a date fallen upon my bed; I pick it up to eat it, then I fear it may be of charity, and I cast it away", extracted in the two Sahihs.
If there is there something of the kind of the forbidden and one doubts whether it is of it, the doubt strengthens. In the hadith of 'Amr ibn Shu'ayb, from his father, from his grandfather (may Allah be pleased with him): the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) suffered insomnia; one of his wives said: O Messenger of Allah, did you stay awake tonight? He said: "I found a date beneath my side and ate it, while we had dates of charity: I feared it might be of it." Likewise what whose origin is permissibility, like the purity of water, garment and ground: if one is not certain of the loss of its origin, one may use it; and what whose origin is prohibition, like wives and the flesh of animals: these become lawful only by certainty of their lawfulness, through ritual slaughter or contract.
If he hesitates over something of this by the appearance of another cause, he returns to the founding principle and builds upon it: he builds upon prohibition what whose origin is prohibition. Hence the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) forbade eating game in which the hunter finds the trace of an arrow not his own, or of a dog not his own, or which he finds fallen into w ater, giving as reason: one knows not whether it died of the cause making it lawful or of another.
And he returns to permissibility for what whose origin is permissibility: water, ground and garment do not become impure by mere suspicion of impurity. Likewise the body: if one is certain of its purity and doubts its nullification by ritual impurity, according to the majority of scholars, contrary to Malik (may Allah have mercy on him) if one has not entered prayer. It is authenticated from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), complained to about the man who seems to find something during prayer: "Let him not turn away until he hears a sound or finds an odour"; in some versions: "in the mosque" instead of "in prayer", which holds for prayer and elsewhere.
If he finds a strong cause making prevalent the suspicion of impurity of what whose origin is purity, like a garment worn by a disbeliever who guards not against impurities: it is a place of ambiguity; some scholars permitted it, relying on the principle; others disapproved it out of precaution; others forbade it when the suspicion is strong, for instance if the disbeliever is of those whose slaughter is forbidden, or if the object touches his nakedness, like trousers and shirt.
These questions and their like revert to the rule of the conflict between principle and appearance: the principle is purity, the appearance impurity.
The proofs opposed on this: the partisans of purity rely upon Allah's, the Most High, having made lawful the food of the People of the Book, their food being made with their hands in their vessels; the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) accepted the invitation of a Jew, and he and his companions wore and used what was brought them, woven by the disbelievers with their hands, garments and vessels; on campaigns they divided the captured containers and garments and used them; it is authenticated of them that they used water from the waterskin of a polytheist woman. The partisans of impurity rely upon what is authenticated from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), asked about the vessels of the People of the Book who eat pork and drink wine: "If you find no others, wash them with water then eat from them."
Imam Ahmad explained doubt as a rank between the purely lawful and the purely unlawful, and said: whoever fears it has secured his religion; he also explained it as the mixing of lawful and unlawful. From this follows the case of him whose wealth mixes lawful and forbidden: if the forbidden is the greater part, Ahmad said: it should be avoided, unless it be something slight or unknown; our companions diverged: disliked or forbidden? two views. If the lawful is the greater part, one may deal with him and eat of his wealth.
Al-Harith related from 'Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) concerning the sovereign's gifts: no harm in them: what he gives you of lawful is more than what he gives you of forbidden.
The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and his companions dealt with the polytheists and the People of the Book, knowing they did not avoid all the forbidden.
If the matter remains ambiguous, it is a doubt, and scrupulousness is to leave it. Sufyan said: that does not please me, leaving it pleases me more. Az-Zuhri and Makhul said: no harm in eating of what one does not know is forbidden in particular; if one knows no specific forbidden thing in his wealth but knows it contains a doubt, no harm in eating of it: Ahmad explicitly said this in Hanbal's narration. Ishaq ibn Rahawayh followed what is related from Ibn Mas'ud and Salmane on the permission, and what is related from al-Hasan and Ibn Sirin on the lawfulness of taking what is repaid of usury and gambling, related from him by Ibn Mansur. Imam Ahmad, concerning wealth whose lawful and forbidden are confounded: if the wealth is abundant, let him take out the equivalent of the forbidden and dispose of the rest; if it is little, let him avoid it all, for if he takes of it a part in the little, one knows not what befalls him.
When one knows the thing itself is forbidden and taken through a forbidden channel, it is unlawful to use it: Ibn 'Abd al-Barr and others related the consensus. It is related from Ibn Sirin, of the man repaid of usury: no harm; and of him repaid of gambling: no harm, extracted by al-Khallal through an authentic chain; from al-Hasan the contrary: "These gains are corrupted: take of them like the compelled." Facing what is related from Ibn Mas'ud and Salmane comes what is related from Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him): he ate of food then learned it came from a forbidden source, and made himself vomit it.
The ambiguity of the ruling may come from a case balanced between principles each attracting it, like the man who forbids his wife: it balances between the prohibition of zihar, lifted by the great expiation, the prohibition of a single divorce extinguished by its waiting period, after which the wife becomes lawful through a new contract, the prohibition of triple divorce, after which she is lawful only after a husband and consummation, and the man's forbidding to himself what Allah made lawful to him of food and drink, which forbids nothing and entails only the lesser expiation or nothing, per the divergence. Hence the abundance of divergences on this question at the time of the companions and after them.
In any case, the doubtful matters not clear, lawful or forbidden, to many people, as the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) announced, may become clear to some: lawful or forbidden, through the surplus of knowledge they have of them. The Prophet's word indicates that among the people are those who know them and many who do not; those who do not know them are of two sorts: he who halts before them for their ambiguity to him, and he who believes them other than they are. His word indicates that the others know them, that is, as they are in reality, permitted or forbidden. This is one of the most manifest proofs that he who is correct before Allah in the ambiguous lawful and forbidden questions is one.
If he engages in them believing them lawful, through a valid effort of interpretation or a valid imitation, while being mistaken in his belief: his status is that of the preceding. If the effort is weak or the imitation invalid, carried only by following passion: his status is that of him who commits it while it is ambiguous to him.
Of him who commits the doubtful matters while they are ambiguous to him, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) announced that he has fallen into the forbidden: this is understood in two ways. The first: committing the doubt believing it a doubt, as a path toward the forbidden he believes forbidden, by gradation and indulgence; in a version of the two Sahihs: "And whoever dares upon what he doubts of sin, or doubts of touching what has become clear..."; in another: "Whoever frequents doubt is near to daring upon the pure forbidden": the daring one goes forward fearing none and observing none; some related it with the shin: "yarta'", the roaming of pasture, like the beast led to graze.
The scholars diverged: obey one's parents by entering into a doubt, or not? It is related from Bishr ibn al-Harith: no obedience to them in the doubt; from Muhammad ibn Muqatil al-'Abadani: obey them; Ahmad halted at the question, saying: manage them gently, and he refused to answer it.
Ahmad said: let a man not satiate himself with the doubt, and not buy the garment of adornment with the doubt; he halted over the lawfulness of what is eaten and worn of it, and said, of the date the bird leaves: let him not eat it, not take it, not concern himself with it.
Ath-Thawri said, of the man who finds in his house coins or dirhams: I prefer he keep away from them, meaning if he knows not whence they come. One of the early generation ate nothing without knowing whence it came, and would inquire until he knew its origin; a raised hadith on it was related with weakness. His words (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "Like the shepherd grazing around a reserved domain: he is near to entering it; know that every king has a reserved domain, and Allah's reserved domain is His prohibitions": a parable struck by the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) of him who falls into the doubtful matters: his fall into the pure forbidden is near. In some versions: "I strike you a parable..."
This indicates it is proper to keep away from the forbidden and that a man place between himself and them a barrier.
He may also leave a portion of the permitted, as we shall see.
At-Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah extracted, from 'Abdallah ibn Yazid, the Prophet's (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) words: "The servant does not attain being among the Allah-fearing until he leaves what is harmless, out of caution for what is harmful." Abu ad-Darda (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "The perfection of taqwa is that the servant fear Allah to the point of fearing Him for the weight of an atom, and leave part of what he deems lawful, fearing it be unlawful, as a barrier between him and the forbidden." Al-Hasan said: "Taqwa kept restraining the Allah-fearing until they left much of the lawful for fear of the unlawful." Ath-Thawri said: "They were called the Allah-fearing because they feared what need not be feared." Ibn 'Umar said: "I love to leave between myself and the forbidden a veil of lawful which I do not tear." Maymun ibn Mihran said: "The servant attains not piety but by leaving many a harmless thing."
This hadith serves as proof to those who follow the closing of means toward the forbidden and the forbidding of the channels leading to them; attesting it too, among the rules of the Law, the forbidding of the small quantity of what intoxicates in large, the forbidding of seclusion with an unrelated woman, the forbidding of prayer after dawn and after the afternoon to close the channel of prayer at sunrise and sunset, and preventing the faster from foreplay if it stirs his desire. Many scholars prevented touching the menstruating woman between navel and knee save over a barrier, as the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) would order his menstruating wife to gird herself so he might embrace her over the girdle. As an example near the Prophet's parable: whoever lets his beast loose to graze another's field is guarantor for what it spoils, even by day.
Hence it is said: the heart is the king of the limbs, the other limbs its soldiers, obedient soldiers, launched in its obedience and executing its orders, contradicting it in nothing. If the king is sound, these soldiers are sound; if corrupt, his soldiers are likewise corrupt. With Allah nothing profits but the sound heart, as He said: "The day when wealth and sons profit not, save whoever comes to Allah with a sound heart." The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) would say in his supplication: "O Allah, I ask You for a sound heart." The sound heart is that safe from all afflictions and blameworthy things, wherein there is naught but love of Allah and of what Allah loves, fear of Allah and of what distances from Him.
In the Musnad of Imam Ahmad (may Allah be pleased with him), from Anas, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "The faith of a servant becomes upright only when his heart becomes upright."
The uprightness of his faith aims at the uprightness of his limbs' deeds, and the limbs' deeds become upright only through the heart's uprightness. The heart's uprightness is its being filled with love of Allah, the Most High, love of His obedience and aversion to His disobedience. Al-Hasan said to a man: "Treat your heart, for Allah's need of the servants is their hearts' health": His will and demand concern their hearts' health; and hearts have no health unless there settle in them knowledge of Allah, His greatness, His love, His fear, His reverence, hope in Him and trust in Him, and they are filled with it.
This is the reality of monotheism, the meaning of the words "there is no deity except Allah": hearts have no health unless their deity, which they worship, know, love and fear, is Allah alone, without associate. Were there in the heavens and the earth a deity worshised besides Allah, the heavens and the earth would be corrupted, as He said: "Were there in them deities other than Allah, both would be corrupted." Thus one knows the world above and below has no health unless the movements of its inhabitants and of the body follow the movement of the heart and its will: if its movement and will are for Allah alone, it is sound and all the body's movements become sound; if they are for other than Allah, it is corrupted, and the body's movements corrupted in proportion.
Al-Layth related from Mujahid concerning His word: "Associate nothing with Him": love none other than Me. In the Sahih of al-Hakim, from 'A'isha (may Allah be pleased with her), the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "Associating is more hidden than the creeping of the ant upon the black rock in the dark night; its least is loving for a part of injustice and hating for a part of justice; and is religion anything but love and hate?" Allah said: "Say: if you love Allah, follow me: Allah will love you."
This indicates that loving what Allah hates and hating what Allah loves, allying upon it and opposing for it, belong to hidden association; the proof is His word: "Say: if you love Allah, follow me: Allah will love you": Allah made the mark of sincerity in His love the following of His Messenger, showing that love is not realised without obedience and conformity.
Al-Hasan (may Allah have mercy on him) related: the companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "O Messenger of Allah, we love our Lord with intense love"; Allah willed to make for His love a mark, and sent down this verse: "Say: if you love Allah, follow me: Allah will love you." Hence al-Hasan said: "Know that you will not love Allah until you love His obedience." Dhu an-Nun al-Misri was asked: when do I love my Lord? He said: "When what He hates is to you more bitter than patience." Bishr ibn as-Sari said: "It is no mark of love to love what your beloved hates." Abu Ya'qub an-Nahrajuri said: "Whoever claims the love of Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, without conforming to Allah in His command, his claim is vain." Ruwaym said: "Love is conformity in every state." Yahya ibn Mu'adh said: "He is not sincere who..."
In the Sunans, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "Whoever gives for Allah, withholds for Allah, loves for Allah and hates for Allah has perfected his faith." The meaning: when all the movements of heart and limbs are for Allah, the servant's faith is perfected, outwardly and inwardly.
The soundness of the heart's movements entails that of the limbs' movements: if the heart is sound, containing only the will of Allah and the will of what He wills, the limbs launch only into what Allah wills: they hasten to what pleases Him and halt before what He hates and before what is feared He hates without certainty.
Al-Hasan (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "I cast not my sight, nor spoke with my tongue, nor seized with my hand, nor walked upon my feet, without looking: is it obedience or disobedience? If obedience, I advanced; if disobedience, I held back." Muhammad ibn al-Fadl al-Balkhi said: "For forty years I took not a step for other than Allah, the Mighty and Majestic." Dawoud at-Ta'i was told: would you not move from the shade into the sun? He said: "These are steps I know not how they are recorded." These people, when their hearts became sound and no will for other than Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, remained in them, their limbs became sound and moved o nly for Allah and what pleases Him; and Allah, the Most High, knows best.