Home > The 40 Hadith of Nawawi > Hadith 7 of Nawawi
Hadith number 7 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
📖 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-Tousi said: "it is one of the four quarters of religion."
At-Tabarani reports from the hadith of Houdayfa ibn al-Yaman, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "Whoever cares not for the Muslims' affairs is not of them; and whoever passes not morning and evening as sincere counselor to Allah, His messenger, His book, his imam and the common Muslims is not of them." Imam Ahmad reports from the hadith of Abu Umama, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "Allah the Mighty and Majestic said: the most beloved worship My servant worships Me with: sincere counsel for Me."
Counsel to the Muslims in general came in many hadiths; in some, counsel to the holders of their affairs; in some, the holders' counsel to their subjects. As for the first, counsel to the Muslims in general, in the two Sahihs, from Jarir ibn Abdallah: "I covenanted with the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) to establish the prayer, give the zakat and counsel every Muslim." 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): "The believer's right upon the believer is six," mentioning among them: "and when he asks your counsel, counsel him." And this hadith is reported by other ways from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). In the Mousnad, from Hakim ibn Abi Yazid, from his father, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "When one of you asks his brother's counsel, let him counsel him." As for the second, counsel to the holders of affairs, and their counsel to their subjects, 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): "Allah is pleased with you for three: that you worship Him associating nothing with Him; that you hold to Allah's rope all together and not divide; and that you counsel those Allah entrusted with your authority." In the Mousnad and elsewhere, from Jubayr ibn Mou'tim (may Allah be pleased with him), that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said in his sermon at al-Khayf of Mina: "Three things upon which a Muslim's heart never cheats: sincerity of work for Allah, counsel to the holders of affairs, and holding to the Muslims' community." And this sermon is reported from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) by a group, among them Abu Sa'id al-Khudri. Abu Sa'id's hadith is also reported with another wording ad-Daraqoutni cites in the Gharaib with a good chain: the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "Three things upon which a Muslim's heart never cheats: sincere counsel for Allah, His messenger, His book and the common Muslims." In the two Sahihs, from Mouqil ibn Yasar, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "No servant Allah gives shepherd over a flock who guards it not with sincerity but shall enter Paradise."
Allah mentions in His Book that the prophets (peace upon them) counseled their nations sincerely, as Allah informs of Nouh (peace upon him) and of Salih (peace upon him).
The Most High says: "No blame upon the weak, nor the sick, nor those finding nothing to spend, if they counsel sincerely Allah and His messenger", meaning whoever stays from jihad for excuse has no blame, provided he is sincere counselor to Allah and His messenger in his staying; for the hypocrites showed lying excuses and stayed from jihad without sincere counsel to Allah and His messenger.
The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) informed religion is sincere counsel: that indicates counsel encompasses the traits of Islam, faith and excellence mentioned in the hadith of Jibril (peace upon him); and he named all that religion. For sincere counsel to Allah requires performing His obligations in the most complete manner, the station of excellence (ihsan), counsel for Allah is not completed without it; and it comes not without the perfection of obligatory and recommended love; and it entails striving to draw near Him by supererogatory obediences in that manner, and leaving the forbidden and disliked in that manner likewise.
In the mursals of al-Hasan (may Allah have mercy on him), from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "What think you: were one of you to have two servants, one obeying when he commands, rendering faithfully when entrusted, counseling him in his absence; the other disobeying when he commands, betraying when entrusted, cheating him in his absence: would they be equal?" They said: no. He said: "Such are you with Allah the Mighty and Majestic." Reported by Ibn Abi ad-Dunya. Imam Ahmad reports its meaning from the hadith of Abu al-Ahwass, from his father, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).
Al-Foudayl ibn Iyad said: "Love is better than fear, see you not: were you to have two servants, one loving you, the other fearing you: the loving one counsels you, present or absent, for loving you; the fearing one perhaps counsels when you witness what he fears, and cheats you in absence, counseling you not." Abd al-Aziz ibn Rouwayf said: the disciples said to Issa (peace and salvation upon him): what is the purest of deed? He said: that whose praise by people you love not. They said: and what is counsel for Allah? He said: beginning with Allah's right before people's right; and should two affairs present themselves, one for Allah the Most High, one for the world, beginning with Allah the Most High's right.
With al-Khattabi: sincere counsel is the word expressing a whole: willing good for the counseled. He said: nasiha's origin in language: purity, one says: I counseled (nasahtou) the honey purifying it from wax. Counsel for Allah the Sublime: soundness of belief in His oneness, sincerity of intention in worshiping Him. Counsel for His book: believing in it, acting on what it contains. Counsel for His messenger: attesting his prophethood, giving obedience in what he commands and forbids. Counsel for the common Muslims: guiding them to their interests. End of his word.
Imam Abu Abdallah Muhammad ibn Nasr al-Marwazi cites in his Book of Magnifying the Prayer's Rank, from some people of knowledge, an explanation of this hadith admitting no improvement, which we cite here with its wording, Allah the Most High willing. Muhammad ibn Nasr said: some people of knowledge said: "The whole interpretation of sincere counsel: the heart's care for the counseled, whoever he is, of two ways: one obligatory, one supererogatory." The obligatory counsel: the counsel prescribed for Allah is the counselor's intensity of care in following Allah's love, performing what is prescribed and avoiding what is forbidden. The supererogatory counsel: preferring His love over the love of one's self: two affairs present, one for self, one for his Lord, beginning with the Lord's and deferring the self's. That is the whole interpretation of counsel for Allah, prescribed and supererogatory. And we shall cite some of its interpretation, that who understands not the whole may understand by the interpretation.
The prescribed: avoiding His prohibition, establishing His obligation, with all limbs possible; if unable to establish, by a malady of illness, prison or otherwise, resolved to perform what is prescribed when the preventing cause lifts. Allah the Mighty and Majestic says: "No blame upon the weak, nor the sick, nor those finding nothing to spend, if they counsel sincerely Allah and His messenger; no way against the well-doers." He named them well-doers for counseling Allah with their hearts when jihad by their selves was prevented.
Works all may be lifted from the servant in some states, but counsel for Allah is never lifted: were he ill wholly unable to work any limb, by tongue or otherwise, his reason standing: counsel for Allah by his heart is not lifted, regretting his sins, intending, if possible, to perform what Allah prescribed and avoid what He forbade; else he is not sincere counselor to Allah by his heart. Likewise counsel for Allah and His messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) in what He imposed on people of his Lord's command.
Of the obligatory counsel for Allah: not being pleased with the sinner's disobedience, and loving the obedience of him obeying Allah and His messenger.
The supererogatory counsel, not prescribed: giving effort preferring Allah the Most High over every heart-beloved and the rest of the limbs; such that no superiority over another be in the counselor; for the counselor, striving, prefers not his self over another, standing to all whose doing is his joy and love. Thus the counselor for his Lord. Whoever volunteers for Allah without effort counsels to his deed's measure, not deserving counsel in completeness.
Counsel for Allah's book: intense love of it, magnifying its rank: it is the Creator's speech; intense desire of understanding it, intense care of its contemplation, pausing at its recitation seeking the meanings of what its Master loves understood of it, and acting for Him after understanding. [Likewise the counselor of servants understands the testament of whom he counsels, and should a book come from him, enriched by its understanding] to act upon what he wrote to him therein. Thus the counselor for his Lord's book: understanding to act for Allah as He loves and pleases; then spreading what he understood among the servants, and continual study with love of it, adopting its characters, being disciplined by its manners.
Counsel for the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) in his life: giving effort in obedience and support, aiding him, giving wealth if wanted, hastening to his love. After his death: care of seeking his sunna, researching his characters and manners, magnifying his affair, holding to acting upon it, intense anger, turning from whoever makes religion contrary to his sunna, anger at whoever wastes it for preferring worldly gain, were he religious by it; loving whoever was of him by lineage or marriage, migration, support or an hour's company of night or day for Islam; resembling him in dress and clothing.
Counsel for the imams of the Muslims: loving their righteousness and guidance, their justice; loving the community's unity upon them; hating the community's division against them; making religion of obeying them in obedience to Allah the Mighty and Majestic; hating whoever sees rebellion against them; loving their honoring in obedience to Allah the Mighty and Majestic.
Counsel for the Muslims: loving for them what he loves for himself, hating for them what he hates for himself, pitying them, mercying their young, honoring their old, grieving their grief, rejoicing their joy, were that to harm him in his world, like their prices rising, or losing profit of his trade's sale, and likewise all harming them generally; loving their welfare, their union and lasting blessing upon them, their victory over their enemy, repelling every harm and disliked thing from them.
Abu Amr ibn as-Salah said: sincere counsel is a comprehensive word containing the counselor's standing for the counseled by faces of good, in will and act. Counsel for Allah the Most High: unifying Him, describing Him with attributes of perfection and majesty, purifying Him of what opposes and contradicts, avoiding His disobediences, acting in His obedience, loving Him in sincerity, love in Him, hate in Him, striving against whoever disbelieves in Him, the like, calling to that, urging it. Counsel for His book: believing in it, magnifying and purifying it, reciting it as due recitation, pausing with its commands and prohibitions, understanding its sciences and examples, contemplating its verses, calling to it, repelling the exaggerators' distortion and the heretics' attack from it.
Counsel for His messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), near that: believing in him and what he came with, respecting and venerating him, holding to obedience of him, reviving his sunna, stirring its sciences and spreading them, opposing his enemy and him opposing, adopting his characters, being disciplined by his manners, loving his family and companions and the like.
Counsel for the imams of the Muslims: aiding them in truth, obeying them therein, reminding them, alerting them with gentleness and kindness, avoiding falling upon them, praying for them success, urging others to that.
Counsel for the common Muslims: guiding them to their interests, teaching them their religion and world affairs, covering their faults, filling their gaps, supporting them against enemies, defending them, avoiding deceit and envy toward them, loving for them what one loves for self, hating for them what one hates for self, and the like. End of his mention.
And among the kinds of counseling them: repelling harm and disliked things, preferring their poor, teaching their ignorant, returning whoever deviated of them from truth in word or deed, with gentleness of returning them to truth, and kindness in enjoining good and forbidding wrong, loving removing their corruption, though harm occur in his world, as some Ancients said: "I wish this creation obeyed Allah though my flesh be cut with saws." And Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz said: "Would I acted among you by Allah's Book and you acted by it; whenever I acted among you by a sunna, a limb fell from me, until the last of it being my soul's exit."
Among the kinds of counsel for Allah the Most High, His book and messenger, scholars' specialty, replying misleading desires with Book and Sunna at their occurrence, showing their indication against all desires; likewise replying weak sayings of scholars' slips, showing Book and Sunna's indication of rejecting them; and of that: showing what is authentic of the Prophet's hadith (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and what is not authentic, clarifying narrators' states and who accepts their narrations, who accepts not; and showing the mistake of the mistaken of their trusted ones whose narrations are accepted.
Among the greatest kinds of counsel: counseling whoever consults in his affair, as said (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "When one of you counsels his brother, let him advise." In some hadiths: "Of the Muslim's right upon the Muslim is counseling him in absence." Its meaning: mentioned in absence with evil, supporting and repelling; seeing who intends harm in his absence, restraining from that; for counsel in absence proves the counselor's truth: counsel may be shown in presence out of flattery, cheating in absence!
Al-Hasan said: "You reach not your counsel's right to your brother until you command him what you are incapable of." And al-Hasan said: some of the Prophet's Companions said, He in whose hand my soul, if you wish I would swear to you by Allah: "Allah's servants most beloved to Allah are those loving Allah to His servants, making Allah's servants love Allah, striving in earth with counsel." Farqad as-Sabakhi said: I read in some books: "Loving Allah the Mighty and Majestic: commander over commanders; his group the first group on Resurrection day, his session nearest sessions there, love there the limit of nearness and effort; lovers tire not of long effort for Allah the Mighty and Majestic: loving Him, loving His remembrance, loving Him to His creation: walking among servants with counsels, fearing for them their deeds the day scandals show; those are Allah's allies, beloveds and chosen: no rest for them without meeting Him."
Ibn Ouyayna said, in Abu Bakr al-Mazni's word: what surpassed Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) Muhammad's companions (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was neither fast nor prayer, but a thing in his heart. That in his heart: love for Allah the Mighty and Majestic, and counsel for His creation. Al-Foudayl ibn Iyad (may Allah have mercy on him) said: "The attainment known among us now is not by abundance of prayer and fast; attainment among us is by souls' generosity, chests' soundness, and counsel for the community." Ibn al-Moubarak was asked: which deeds best? He said: "Sincere counsel for Allah." Ma'mar said: "It used to be said: we counsel the people for you: whoever fears Allah regarding you." And the Ancients, wanting to counsel someone, exhorted him secretly, some said: "Whoever exhorts his brother between him and him: that is counsel; exhorting him over people's heads is but reproach." Al-Foudayl ibn Iyad (may Allah have mercy on him) said: "The believer hides and counsels; the shameless exposes and taunts." Abd al-Aziz ibn Abi Rawwad said: "Those before you: man seeing of his brother a thing, commanded him gently; rewarded in command and prohibition; one of these would pierce his companion, angering his brother, tearing his veil." Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) was asked of the sultan's enjoining good and forbidding wrong; he said: "If doer, and unavoidable, between you and him." Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him) said: the Muslim owes no counsel to the dhimmi; upon him the Muslim's counsel. And the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "And counsel to every Muslim, and counseling the Muslims' community and their common."