Chapters on Righteousness And Maintaining Good Relations With Relatives

Bahz ibn Hakīm reported from his father from his grandfather that he said: I said: O Messenger of Allah, to whom should I be dutiful? he said: "Your mother, then your mother, then your mother, then your father, then the next in nearness and so on."

‘Abdullah ibn Mas‘ūd (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: I asked the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him): Which deed is dearest to Allah? He said: "Offering prayer at its earliest appointed time." I said: Then, what comes next? He said: "Dutifulness to one's parents." I said: Then, what comes next? He said: "Jihad in the way of Allah." He said: These were the things he said to me, and if I had asked him for more, he would have given me more.

Abu Bakrah (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Shall I inform you of the gravest of the major sins?" He repeated this three times. They said: "Yes, O Messenger of Allah." He said: "Associating partners with Allah and undutifulness to parents." He was reclining and then sat up and said: "And indeed, the false statement." He repeated it so many times that we wished he would stop.

‘Abdullāh ibn ‘Amr ibn al-‘Ās (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Messenger of Allah (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) said: "It is one of the major sins when a man abuses his parents." It was asked: "Would a man ever abuse his parents?" He replied: "Yes. He abuses the father of another man, who in return abuses his father, and he abuses his mother, and so the latter abuses the former’s mother."

‘Abdullāh ibn ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that a man from the Bedouins met him on his way to Makkah. ‘Abdullāh ibn ‘Umar greeted him, made him ride on a donkey that he was riding, and gave him a turban that was wrapped around his head. Ibn Dinār said: "We said to him: 'May Allah grant you righteousness! These people are Bedouins and they are pleased with much less.'" ‘Abdullāh ibn ‘Umar said: "This man’s father was a dear friend of ‘Umar ibn al-Khattāb (may Allah be pleased with him) and I heard the Messenger of Allah (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) say: 'The finest form of dutifulness is maintaining relations with those whom one’s father loved.'" In another narration by Ibn Dinār, he reported that when Ibn ‘Umar set out to Makkah, he kept a donkey with him that he would ride when he became tired of riding his camel, and had a turban that he would tie around his head. One day, while he was riding this donkey, a Bedouin passed by him. Ibn ‘Umar asked him: "Aren’t you so and so the son of so and so?" He said: 'Yes.' So he gave him his donkey and said: "Ride this," and he gave him his turban and said: "Tie this around your head." Some of his companions said to him: "May Allah forgive you! You gave this Bedouin a donkey that you would rest on, and a turban that you would tie your head with?" He said: "I heard the Messenger of Allah (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) say: "The finest form of dutifulness is maintaining relations with those whom one’s father loved after his death”, and his father was a friend of ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with him).

Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said: "There are three supplications that will undoubtedly be answered: the supplication of the oppressed, the supplication of the traveler, and the supplication of a parent against his child."

‘Abdullāh ibn ‘Amr (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Prophet (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The one who maintains ties of kinship is not the one who recompenses the good done to him by his relatives; rather, he is the one who keeps good relations with those relatives who severs the bond of kinship with him."

Hudhayfah (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: I heard the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) say: "A scandalmonger will not enter Paradise."

‘Ā’ishah, the Mother of the Believers (may Allah be pleased with her) and wife of the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) reported: A woman, along with her two daughters, came to me asking (for charity). She found that I had nothing except one date, so I gave it to her. She divided it between her two daughters, then she got up and left. The Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) then came in, and I informed him about this, and he remarked: "Whoever takes care of daughters and treats them kindly, they will be a screen for him from Hellfire."

‘Ā’ishah, the Mother of the Believers (may Allah be pleased with her) and wife of the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) reported: A woman, along with her two daughters, came to me asking (for charity). She found that I had nothing except one date, so I gave it to her. She divided it between her two daughters, then she got up and left. The Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) then came in, and I informed him about this, and he remarked: "Whoever takes care of daughters and treats them kindly, they will be a screen for him from Hellfire."

Jarīr ibn ‘Abdullāh (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever does not show mercy to people, Allah Almighty does not show mercy to him."

‘Abdullāh ibn ‘Amr (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Those who are merciful are shown mercy by the Most Merciful. Be merciful to the inhabitants of earth and the One in the heaven will be merciful to you."

Jarīr ibn ‘Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: I gave the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) a pledge to testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, to establish the prayer, to pay Zakah, to hear and obey, and to give sincere advice to every Muslim.

Abu ad-Dardā’ (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Prophet (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever protects the honor of his brother in his absence, Allah will protect his face from the Fire on the Day of Judgment."

Abu Ayyūb al-Ansāri (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said: "It is unlawful for a Muslim to desert his fellow Muslim for more than three nights. As they meet, both of them turn their backs on each other. But the best of them is the one who starts by greeting the other."

Anas ibn Mālik (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) saw the trace of saffron on ‘Abdur-Rahmān ibn ‘Awf so he said: "What is this?" He replied: "O Messenger of Allah, I married a woman." He asked: "How much did you give her as dowry?" He replied: "A date seed weight of gold." He then said: "May Allah grant you blessing. Hold a wedding feast, even if only with a sheep."

Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Do you know what backbiting is?" They said: "Allah and His Messenger know best." He said: "It is to say of your brother what he dislikes." It was said: "What do you think if what I say of my brother is true?" He said: "If what you say of him is true, you have backbitten him; and if not, you have slandered him."

Jābir (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: I heard the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) say: "Verily, the devil has lost hope of being worshiped by those who engage in prayer in the Arabian Peninsula, but has not lost hope of sowing dissension between them."

Abu Sirmah (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever causes harm will be harmed by Allah, and whoever causes hardship will be put in hardship by Allah."

Ibn ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Messenger of Allah (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Jibrīl kept enjoining me regarding the good treatment of the neighbor to the extent that I thought he would inherit him."

Ibn ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Messenger of Allah (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Jibrīl kept enjoining me regarding the good treatment of the neighbor to the extent that I thought he would inherit him."

‘Abdullāh ibn ‘Amr (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The best of companions in the sight of Allah, the Almighty, is the best of them to his companion, and the best of neighbors in the sight of Allah, the Almighty, is the best of them to his neighbor."

Al-Ma‘rūr ibn Suwayd reported: I saw Abu Tharr (may Allah be pleased with him) wearing a nice clothes, and his slave was wearing a similarly nice clothes also. I asked him about this and he said that he had exchanged harsh words with a person during the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) and insulted him by making an offensive reference to his mother. That person came to the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) and made mention of that (abuse) to him. Then the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said: "You are a person who has remnants of the ignorant pre-Islamic manners. Your slaves are your brothers and servants whom Allah has placed under your authority. He who has his brother under his authority should feed him from whatever he eats, dress him with whatever he wears, and not assign burdensome and difficult tasks to them that are beyond their capacity. If you do this then help them."

Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: I heard the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) say: "If somebody slanders his slave and the slave is innocent of what he says, he (the master) will be flogged on the Day of Judgment unless the slave really is as he described him."

Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said: "While a man was walking on a path, he found a thorn branch on the road, so he put it aside. Allah, thus, thanked him and forgave him."

Thawbān (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The best dinar a man spends is a dinar that he spends on his dependents, and a dinar that a man spends on his mount in the cause of Allah, and a dinar that he spends on his companions in the cause of Allah." Abu Qilābah said: He began with the dependents. Then Abu Qilābah said: No man is greater in reward than a man who spends on young dependents, by virtue of whom Allah makes them chaste, or brings them benefit and enriches them.

Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day should say what is good or keep silent. Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day should honor his neighbor. Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day should honor his guest."

Abu Hurayrah reported that the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The one who looks after a widow or a needy person is like one who performs Jihad in the cause of Allah, or one who regularly observes voluntary prayer at night and fasting during the day."

Jābir ibn ‘Abdullāh (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Every act of goodness is charity."

‘Abdullah ibn Mas‘ūd (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Adhere to truthfulness, for truthfulness leads to righteousness, and righteousness leads to Paradise. A man will keep telling the truth and strive to tell the truth until he is recorded with Allah as the most truthful. Beware of lying, for lying leads to wickedness and wickedness leads to Hellfire. A man will keep telling lies and strive to tell lies until he is recorded with Allah as a persistent liar."

‘Abdullāh ibn ‘Amr (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) was neither obscene, nor would he use obscene language, and he used to say: "Verily, the best of you are those who have the best manners."

Samurah ibn Jundub (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Do not curse one another, invoking the curse of Allah or His wrath or the fire of Hell."

‘Abdullāh ibn Mas‘ūd (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said: "A believer is not a slanderer, nor a curser, nor a person who speaks obscenely, nor a person who uses foul language."

‘Abdullah ibn Mas‘ūd (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Reviling a Muslim is Fusūq (deobedience) and fighting him is Kufr (disbelief)."

Abu Dharr, Jundub ibn Junādah, and Abu ‘Abdur-Rahmān, Mu‘ādh ibn Jabal (may Allah be pleased with both of them) reported that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: "Fear Allah wherever you are; follow a bad deed with a good deed and it will erase it; and treat people with good morals."

Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Beware of false thought, for false thought is the most untruth speech. Do not search for the faults of one another, do not spy on one another, do not envy one another, do not turn your backs on one another, do not harbor hatred for one another, and be, O slaves of Allah, brothers."