Foundation  /  Al-Arbaʿūn al-Nawawiyya  /  Hadith 6

The lawful is clear and the unlawful is clear

إِنَّ الْحَلَالَ بَيِّنٌ وَإِنَّ الْحَرَامَ بَيِّنٌ، وَبَيْنَهُمَا أُمُورٌ مُشْتَبِهَاتٌ لَا يَعْلَمُهُنَّ كَثِيرٌ مِنَ النَّاسِ. فَمَنِ اتَّقَى الشُّبُهَاتِ فَقَدِ اسْتَبْرَأَ لِدِينِهِ وَعِرْضِهِ، وَمَنْ وَقَعَ فِي الشُّبُهَاتِ وَقَعَ فِي الْحَرَامِ، كَالرَّاعِي يَرْعَى حَوْلَ الْحِمَى يُوشِكُ أَنْ يَرْتَعَ فِيهِ. أَلَا وَإِنَّ لِكُلِّ مَلِكٍ حِمًى، أَلَا وَإِنَّ حِمَى اللَّهِ مَحَارِمُهُ. أَلَا وَإِنَّ فِي الْجَسَدِ مُضْغَةً إِذَا صَلَحَتْ صَلَحَ الْجَسَدُ كُلُّهُ، وَإِذَا فَسَدَتْ فَسَدَ الْجَسَدُ كُلُّهُ، أَلَا وَهِيَ الْقَلْبُ

Inna l-ḥalāla bayyinun wa-inna l-ḥarāma bayyin, wa-baynahumā umūrun mushtabihātun lā yaʿlamuhunna kathīrun mina n-nās. Fa-mani ttaqā sh-shubuhāti fa-qadi stabraʾa li-dīnihi wa-ʿirḍih, wa-man waqaʿa fī sh-shubuhāti waqaʿa fī l-ḥarām, ka-r-rāʿī yarʿā ḥawla l-ḥimā yūshiku an yartaʿa fīh.

“The lawful is clear and the unlawful is clear, and between the two are matters that resemble one another, which many people do not know.

Whoever guards against these doubtful matters has protected his religion and his honour; and whoever falls into them falls into the unlawful — like a shepherd grazing at the edge of a preserve, on the point of grazing inside it.

Take note: every king has a preserve, and God’s preserve is what He has forbidden.

Take note: in the body there is a morsel of flesh — if it is sound, the whole body is sound; and if it is corrupt, the whole body is corrupt. Take note: it is the heart.”

Translation by Alyph Academy. We translate rather than reprint: the classical Arabic is public domain, published English translations are not.

Reading notes

• Three categories, not two. The hadith is usually quoted for its first clause, but its subject is the third category — the middle ground. The lawful and the unlawful are dealt with in eight words so that the rest can be about what lies between them.
• “Many people do not know them” — not nobody. لا يعلمهن كثير من الناس leaves room for those who do. The doubtful is doubtful relative to the person; what is unclear to most may be clear to someone who has studied it. This is the classical basis for saying that the ruling on doubtful matters differs by knowledge, not that they are permanently undecidable.
• Istabraʾa is a legal word. استبرأ means to seek clearance, to put oneself beyond claim. Its use signals that the concern is not scrupulousness for its own sake but liability.
• And ʿirḍ — honour — is the second thing protected. The hadith names a social consequence alongside a religious one. A person acting near the boundary damages their standing among people even where the act itself turns out permissible.
• The ḥimā is a real institution, and the audience knew it. A ḥimā was a protected grazing reserve, its boundary enforced. The image is precise: the shepherd is not accused of trespass, only of grazing so close to the line that trespass becomes a matter of time.
• The ending changes register. Having spoken about boundaries in the world, the hadith turns inward without transition. The muḍgha — the same word used for the embryonic lump in hadith 4 — makes the whole discussion depend on one organ. Discernment about the doubtful is not presented as a technique but as a symptom of a sound heart.
• Al-Bukhārī places it in the Book of Faith. Not in a book of transactions, where its subject matter might suggest. Where a text is filed tells you how the compiler read it.

The views and conclusions in a lesson are those of its author and its reviewer. Alyph Academy publishes work by contributors of varying backgrounds and does not thereby endorse their views on any other matter or platform. Nothing here is a religious legal ruling on anyone's particular circumstances.