Mu’adh’s counsels: the ten recommendations

As for the hadith the Imam Ahmad reported: Waki’ narrated to us, from al-A’mach, from Abu Dhabyan, from Mu’adh: when he returned from Yemen he said: O Messenger of Allah, I saw men in Yemen among whom some prostrated to others; shall we not prostrate to you? He said: ’were I to command any created being to prostrate to any created being, I would have commanded the woman to prostrate to her husband.’ Ahmad reported it, from Ibn Numayr, from al-A’mach: I heard Abu Dhabyan relate from a man of the Ansar, from Mu’adh ibn Jabal: Mu’adh returned from Yemen and said: O Messenger of Allah, I saw men, and mentioned its meaning. It returns to an unspecified man, and the like cannot be argued from, especially as others of note contradicted it, saying: when Mu’adh returned from Syria: thus Ahmad reported it. Ahmad said:

Ibrahim ibn Mahdi narrated to us: Isma’il ibn Ayyash narrated to us, from Abdallah ibn Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi Husayn, from Shahr ibn Hawshab, from Mu’adh ibn Jabal: the Messenger of Allah said: ’the keys of Paradise are the testimony that there is no deity but Allah.’ Ahmad said: Waki’ narrated to us: Sufyan narrated to us, from Habib ibn Abi Thabit, from Maymun ibn Abi Shabayb, from Mu’adh, that the Messenger of Allah said: ’O Mu’adh, follow the evil deed with the good deed that will erase it, and deal with the people with a good character.’ Waki’ said: I found it in my book, from Abu Dhar, and that is the first audition; and Sufyan said once: from Mu’adh. Then the Imam Ahmad said: Isma’il narrated to us, from Layth, from Habib ibn Abi Thabit, from Maymun ibn Abi Shabayb, from Mu’adh, that he said: O Messenger of Allah,

counsel me. He said: ’fear Allah wherever you are.’ He said: add for me. He said: ’follow the evil deed with the good deed that erases it.’ He said: add for me. He said: ’deal with the people with a good character.’ At-Tirmidhi reported it in his Jami’, from Mahmud ibn Ghaylan, from Waki’, from Sufyan ath-Thawri, likewise, and said: fair. Our shaykh said in al-Atrash: Fudayl ibn Iyad followed it up, from Layth ibn Abi Sulaym and al-A’mach, from Habib, likewise. Ahmad said: Abu l-Yaman narrated to us: Isma’il ibn Ayyash narrated to us, from Safwan ibn Amr, from Abd ar-Rahman ibn Jubayr ibn Nufayr al-Hadrami, from Mu’adh ibn Jabal, who said: the Messenger of Allah counseled me with ten words. He said: ’associate nothing with Allah even if you are killed and burned; disobey not your parents even if they command you to leave your family and your wealth; forsake not a prescribed prayer deliberately,

for whoever forsakes a prescribed prayer deliberately Allah’s covenant is quit of him; drink not wine, for it is the head of every obscenity; beware of disobedience, for by disobedience the wrath of Allah is attracted; beware of fleeing the battle even if the people perish; when death befalls the people and you are among them, stand firm; spend upon your family of your bounty, and raise not over them your staff in discipline, and fear them for Allah.’ Ahmad said: Yunus narrated to us: Baqiyya narrated to us, from as-Sari ibn Yan’am, from Murih ibn Masruq, from Mu’adh ibn Jabal, that the Messenger of Allah, when he sent him to Yemen, said: ’beware of softness of living, for the servants of Allah are not people of soft living.’