Foundation  /  Al-Arbaʿūn al-Nawawiyya  /  Hadith 2

Islām, īmān and iḥsān

بَيْنَمَا نَحْنُ جُلُوسٌ عِنْدَ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ ﷺ ذَاتَ يَوْمٍ، إِذْ طَلَعَ عَلَيْنَا رَجُلٌ شَدِيدُ بَيَاضِ الثِّيَابِ، شَدِيدُ سَوَادِ الشَّعْرِ، لَا يُرَى عَلَيْهِ أَثَرُ السَّفَرِ، وَلَا يَعْرِفُهُ مِنَّا أَحَدٌ، حَتَّى جَلَسَ إِلَى النَّبِيِّ ﷺ فَأَسْنَدَ رُكْبَتَيْهِ إِلَى رُكْبَتَيْهِ، وَوَضَعَ كَفَّيْهِ عَلَى فَخِذَيْهِ، وَقَالَ: يَا مُحَمَّدُ أَخْبِرْنِي عَنِ الْإِسْلَامِ. فَقَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ﷺ: الْإِسْلَامُ أَنْ تَشْهَدَ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَأَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا رَسُولُ اللَّهِ، وَتُقِيمَ الصَّلَاةَ، وَتُؤْتِيَ الزَّكَاةَ، وَتَصُومَ رَمَضَانَ، وَتَحُجَّ الْبَيْتَ إِنِ اسْتَطَعْتَ إِلَيْهِ سَبِيلًا. قَالَ: صَدَقْتَ. فَعَجِبْنَا لَهُ يَسْأَلُهُ وَيُصَدِّقُهُ. قَالَ: فَأَخْبِرْنِي عَنِ الْإِيمَانِ. قَالَ: أَنْ تُؤْمِنَ بِاللَّهِ وَمَلَائِكَتِهِ وَكُتُبِهِ وَرُسُلِهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ، وَتُؤْمِنَ بِالْقَدَرِ خَيْرِهِ وَشَرِّهِ. قَالَ: صَدَقْتَ. قَالَ: فَأَخْبِرْنِي عَنِ الْإِحْسَانِ. قَالَ: أَنْ تَعْبُدَ اللَّهَ كَأَنَّكَ تَرَاهُ، فَإِنْ لَمْ تَكُنْ تَرَاهُ فَإِنَّهُ يَرَاكَ. قَالَ: فَأَخْبِرْنِي عَنِ السَّاعَةِ. قَالَ: مَا الْمَسْئُولُ عَنْهَا بِأَعْلَمَ مِنَ السَّائِلِ. قَالَ: فَأَخْبِرْنِي عَنْ أَمَارَاتِهَا. قَالَ: أَنْ تَلِدَ الْأَمَةُ رَبَّتَهَا، وَأَنْ تَرَى الْحُفَاةَ الْعُرَاةَ الْعَالَةَ رِعَاءَ الشَّاءِ يَتَطَاوَلُونَ فِي الْبُنْيَانِ. ثُمَّ انْطَلَقَ، فَلَبِثْتُ مَلِيًّا، ثُمَّ قَالَ: يَا عُمَرُ أَتَدْرِي مَنِ السَّائِلُ؟ قُلْتُ: اللَّهُ وَرَسُولُهُ أَعْلَمُ. قَالَ: فَإِنَّهُ جِبْرِيلُ أَتَاكُمْ يُعَلِّمُكُمْ دِينَكُمْ

Baynamā naḥnu julūsun ʿinda rasūli Llāhi ﷺ dhāta yawmin, idh ṭalaʿa ʿalaynā rajulun shadīdu bayāḍi th-thiyāb, shadīdu sawādi sh-shaʿr, lā yurā ʿalayhi atharu s-safar, wa-lā yaʿrifuhu minnā aḥad… Qāla: akhbirnī ʿani l-iḥsān: an taʿbuda Llāha ka-annaka tarāh, fa-in lam takun tarāhu fa-innahu yarāk.

“While we were sitting one day with the Messenger of God ﷺ, there appeared before us a man in intensely white clothing, with intensely black hair. No trace of travel showed on him, and none of us knew him. He came and sat before the Prophet ﷺ, set his knees against the Prophet’s knees, placed his palms on his own thighs, and said: ‘Muhammad, tell me about Islam.’

The Messenger of God ﷺ said: ‘Islam is that you testify there is no god but God and that Muhammad is the Messenger of God; that you establish the prayer, give the zakāt, fast Ramadan, and make pilgrimage to the House if you are able to find a way to it.’

He said: ‘You have spoken truly.’ And we were astonished at him — asking, and then confirming the answer.

He said: ‘Tell me about faith.’ He said: ‘That you believe in God, His angels, His books, His messengers and the Last Day; and that you believe in the decree, its good and its ill.’

He said: ‘You have spoken truly. Tell me about excellence.’ He said: ‘That you worship God as though you see Him; for if you do not see Him, He sees you.’

He said: ‘Tell me about the Hour.’ He said: ‘The one asked knows no more of it than the one asking.’

He said: ‘Then tell me of its signs.’ He said: ‘That the slave-woman gives birth to her mistress; and that you see the barefoot, the naked, the destitute, herdsmen of sheep, competing in raising tall buildings.’

Then he left. I waited a while, and then he said: ‘ʿUmar, do you know who was asking?’ I said: ‘God and His Messenger know best.’ He said: ‘That was Jibrīl. He came to teach you your religion.’”

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

Reading notes

• The description is doing work before a word is spoken. No dust of travel, yet nobody in Medina knows him. Those two details are incompatible for an ordinary visitor — a stranger who has not travelled cannot have come from anywhere. The narration establishes what he is before ʿUmar is told.
• Three questions, ascending inward. Islam is answered with acts you can watch a person perform. Īmān is answered with things held in the heart. Iḥsān is answered with neither an act nor a belief but a quality — the manner in which the first two are done.
• The fourth answer is a refusal. Asked about the Hour, the Prophet ﷺ says the one asked knows no more than the questioner. An answer that establishes a limit rather than filling it in.
• The two signs given are social inversions, not cosmic ones. Not the sun or the sky, but a reordering of who is above whom, and the poorest competing to build the tallest. Commentators differ considerably on what each phrase means.
• The pillar order here differs from hadith 3. Here fasting comes before pilgrimage; in the next hadith pilgrimage comes before fasting. Both are as printed in the received text. Neither ordering is a ranking.
• Al-Nawawī cut the frame. In Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim this hadith arrives inside a long preamble about people in Basra denying the divine decree, where Muslim deploys it as evidence in a dispute about qadar. Al-Nawawī removes all of it and lets the hadith stand alone as a statement of the religion. That is an editorial decision, and it changes how the text reads.

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