Riyadh-us-Saleheen – (2 vol.)

“PREFACE

The majesty and importance of the sayings or traditions of the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad (S.A.W.), leaving aside their general moral value, can be fully appreciated only when one becomes aware that the whole religious, moral, social and political framework of nearly one-third of the humanity rests on the divine book, the Holy Quran, and sayings and Acts or Sunnah’,of the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.). The way of living of the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.) and his sayings are a commentary on the Holy Quran and they supplement it. The importance of the Holy Prophet’s (S.A.W.) sayings and actions and their difference from those of other religious leaders is that when the quotations of these leaders may become the object of veneration or admiration, only in the absence of any sanction to enforce them, the sayings (traditions) and the way of living (Sunnah) of the Prophet of Islam (S.A.W.)have already acquired the force of law. A believer may question the authenticity of a particular lying or Sunnah, but when once its genuineness is established, it is as binding upon him as any verse of the Holy Quran.

The Holy Quran together with the traditions and the Sun rah of the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.) are the source of the Sharia or the Islamic Jurisprudence. The Holy Quran is the divine word of Allah revealed to the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.). lt is for the Muslims of every school the unquestionable main source and final Author Name(s)ity for all laws – – religious, civil or criminal.

Our Holy Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.), is the last Messenger of Allah, and his message is the last divine message from the Almighty Allah to his servants. There will be no more prophets after the Holy Prophet of Islam (S.A.W.). As such Allah not only revealed His last Communication to him, He also made him a perfect specimen of a human being, and commissioned him as His last messenger, warner and guide for the humanity. The Holy Prophet (S.A.W.) combined all that was the best in morals and manners, and he was the very embodiment of all that was preached and enjoined ‘m the Holy Quran, which says:

“”Certainly there is for you m the Messenger of Allah an excellent exemplar.””(83:21)

The Holy Prophet of Islam (S.A.W.)was a perfect model to be copied and followed; in other words, he was the Quran personified. Every aspect, every one of his actions, his behaviour in home-life and outside, is recorded md preserved in its minutest details, to serve as a guide and example for the mankind.

The great Indian leader Mr. M. K. Gandhi in his foreword to Sir Abdullah Al-Mamun Al-Suhrawardy’s “”The Sayings of Muhammad””, “”They (the sayings) are among the treasures of mankind, not says:

merely Muslims.”” Count Leo Tolstoy, the famous Russian writer and thinker, had some to appraise and appreciate the august personality of the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.) through this book containing the sayings of the Holy Prophet (S.A.W), which he always carried with him. A Copy of this book was found in the large over-coat in which he had wrapped himself before setting out on that last walk of his to die in the fields he used to till.

The Holy Quran, no doubt, is the chief source of the Islamic Law. However, any point not covered explicitly by the Quran, is solved by a reference to the Holy Prophet’s (S.A.W.) words or actions, or words and actions of his companions, approved by him. The Holy Prophet’s (S.A.W.) actions and words were attentively heard and observed by his family members and companions, who preserved every word and action of his in their hearts and passed them intact to the next generations. They rightly believed that every word that came out of his mouth, or action, was inspired by- Allah.. This belief is corroborated by the Holy Quran:

“”He was taught by One Mighty in Power.”

(53:2-5)

and

“”Verily those who swear fealty unto thee (Muhammad) only swear fealty unto Allah: the hand of Allah is over their hands.””

(48:10)

In view of the importance of the sermons and sayings of the Holy Prophet (S.A.W. ) for our guidance, it is necessary that a Muslim should supplement his knowledge of the Holy Quran by the sayings of the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.). It is also a fact that while the Holy Quran is the Word of Allah, the Hadis and Sunnah are not. They are delivered in the language of the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.). The language of the two differ and those acquainted with the Arabic language can differentiate between them from their diction. The Holy Quran is undoubtedly a master-piece – matchless and inimitable. No human being can imitate it or produce even a single line like it. This is a stranding challenge, but unanswered since the last 1400 years. The Holy Quran is a living miracle and a proof of the truth and veracity of the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.) and Islam. Nevertheless, the language of the traditions, though not upto the standard of the language of the Holy Quran, surpasses any other wordly writing in composition and eloquence. They are classed as superb and excellent piece of Arabic literature.

After the Holy Book these Ahadis (traditions) and Sunnah of the Holy Prophet (S.A.W. ) have played very important role in the making and development of the Law of Islamic Sharia These are regarded as the basic principles of Muslim faith. They contain exhaustive material and guidance on all aspects of a Muslim ‘s life. Therefore without some knowledge of the traditions and Sun rah, it would he difficult for la Muslim to know the proper approach to the problems of life, and know his rights and duties in his day to day life.

These traditions and Sun rah contain matters covering all departments of human life, and they are, in fact, the Treasure Chest of good manners and excellent morals aimed at improving spiritual and material life of a person. To follow the footsteps of the Holy Prophet (S.A W.) should, therefore be the aim of a Muslim to achieve suCCess and salvation in this world and in the Hereafter. In a’ verse Allah has directed us:

“”Say, if you love Allah, then walk in my footsteps and Allah will love you. “” (3:31 )

Now something about the collection and preservation of these traditions and Sun rah. In pre-Islamic Arabian society there were hardly three dozen persons who could read and write. This was a time when making of books in a systematic manner or any publishing industry was unknown. The Hungarian writer Ignaz Goldziher says that “”The Arabs did not like reading and writing, and entirely depended for reproduction mostly on their remarkable memory.”” Professor Nicholson in his “”A Literacy History of the Arabs””, says: “”Writing was sparingly used by the Arabs, and pre-Islamic poetry which had attained a high level of excellence was preserved only by oral tradition.”” This situation helped rise a class of professionals who made their power of memory a lucrative business. One of such professionals, Hammad, claimed and proved, that he could recite for each letter of the alphabet one hundred long poems rhyming in that letter. He further claimed that he knew by heart 27,000 poems. Another person, Abu Zam Zam, once recited poems of one hundred poets bearing the name of ‘U.mar’. Yet another professional reciter (Rawi) claimed that he could recite poems continuously for one month without resorting to any repetition. It will be interesting to quote a recent example. Hasan-al-Banna, the famous Egyptian genius and savant, was once called upon to recite a few couplets from a particular Divan, and in reply he read out, extempore, one thousand couplets from that Divan, and said that he could quote more. Similarly he remembered by heart the names of 3,00,000 members of the Ikhwan-ul-Muslemoon.

In the beginning, the traditions of the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.) and his Sunnah, were memorised by his family members and companions, who were very close to him and enjoyed the privilege of being constantly in his company. These persons were, therefore, in a better position to hear and watch the activities of the august personality.

These collectors and reporters of the traditions and Sunnah were extremely pious persons possessing excellent and inimitable moral character. These honest and God-fearing persons used to either write down or commit to their memories these traditions and Sunnah of the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.). Since the circulation of Hadis and Sunnah increased, they were being recited,by those who knew and remembered them, at different public places, mosques and gatherings. Although bulk of these traditions had been recorded, a considerable number of traditions were preserved in the hearts of the close associates of the Holy Prophet (S.A.W. ).

After some time as a result of political rivalries between the followers of Hazrat Ali and Amir Mu’awiya, each group started producing sayings, commands and directions of the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.) in defence of their view-point. At this time hypocrites and enemies of Islam, started forging fake traditions and false anecdotes about the life and mission of the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.). They mingled a lot of spurious traditions with true ones. To check this racket Muslim scholars and theologians felt the necessity of devising some system to control spread of fake traditions and to sort out genuine traditions from the false ones.

In the year 101 A.H. Hazrat Umar bin Abdul Aziz, a pious and virtuous Caliph, appointed some learned Ulama (theologians) to sort out the genuine traditions. These learned Ulama laid down rules to find out the sources of the traditions and the biographical data of the narrators with special attention to their religious views. Their efforts resulted in the creation and development of critical sciences like ‘Ilm-ul-Hadis’, ‘Ilm-ur-Rijal’ and ‘lim-ul-Asma’. ACCordingly each and every tradition was subjected to the severest scanning and scrutiny as regards its language, style, form, redaction and vocabulary . Then the idea or the subject matter of the tradition was minutely examined as regards its coherence ‘with the Holy Quran and other traditions and its relevance with other established historical facts. The content or subject matter was also tested for its judiciousness and rationality. Last of all every chain of reporters (Isnad) was subjected to the most exacting tests of historicity and verification, in aCCordance with the principles laid down in “”Ilm-ur-Rijal””, or the critical examination of the minutest details of the personal life of thousands of the companions of the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.) and contemporaries. This is the modus operandi of enquiry, evolved by the Muslim scholars, more than one thousand years ago, to assess the authenticity or otherwise of a historical fact. At this time the western nations were ignorant of these sophisticated branches of the art and science, This Islamic criticism or enquiry was objective and scientific textual research of a type which is unique and unparalleled and which the world has never seen nor probably will see.

As a result of the research and lab our of these learned theologians (Ulama) many standard books dealing with the lives of the narrators, specially their character and behaviour in their day to day life and their reputation for honesty, were written and published. In this exercise the style of narration of the narrators and the subject matter was thoroughly probed. Some of the notable traditionists or compilers who systematically worked on these lines were Ibni-i-Shihab Az-Zuhri and Abu Bakr ibn Hazm. An idea about the care and labour involved in the collection and shifting of traditions can be had from these instances.

Hazrat-Aiyab Ansari travelled from Madina to Egypt to collect one Hadis (tradition) ; similarly Hazrat Jabir bin Abdullah spent one month on his journey to obtain one Hadis from Hazrat Abdullah bin Anas. Another collector of these traditions learnt that a certain person knew one Hadis. ACCordingly he journeyed long to meet the said person. Oh reaching his destination he made enquiries about the said person. Somebody pointed this person who was then trying to catch hold of his horse which had strayed by showing an empty bucket as if it had some food for the horse The collector, seeing this person, thus decoying an animal, thought that such a person is not reliable enough, and therefore his version of a Hadis cannot be aCCepted, and he returned home without talking to the said person.

In the second century of the Hijri era and thereafter, a large number of scholars of traditions have worked on this subject and have left valuable record of their marvel ous research and codification of traditions; among these luminaries were Hazrat Abu Juraij in MeCCa, Imam Malik in Madina, Imam Sufyan Sauri in Kula, Imam Hammad bin Salma in Basra, Imam Abdullah bin Mubarak in Khurasan, Imam Auzaee in Syria and Imam Abu Hanifa in Iraq. Imam Abu Hanifa is the founder of the Hanafi School, Imam Malik is the founder of Maliki School, Imam Shafi’i is the founder of Shafi’i School and -Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal founded the Hanbali School of Islamic Law.

The work done so far on the compilation and codification of traditions was not very comprehensive. As for instance Imam Malik’s Muwa-tta contained only 1700 sayings of the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.) dealing with only few topics like prayers, fasting, zakat, pilgrimage etc, Therefore it was felt necessary to make such compilations more comprehensive and representative by including all the subjects and widen its scope to embrace the whole of the Muslim world. ACCordingly with this end in view work on larger scale involving minute critical research of the traditions was taken up by eminent scholars like Imam Muslim (d. 181 A.H.) and Imam Bukhari (d. 256 A.H.).

The chief characteristic of this work was to attach to each tradition a chain of its reporters or Author Name(s)ities, tracing upto the original narrator. Besides this, very thorough’ and detailed investigation was carried out about the moral character, truthfulness, religious views and power of memory of a reporter. Imam Bukhari paid much attention to the careful examination of each tradition and sorting out the most authentic ones out of the thousands of traditions then in circulation. Out of a lot of 6,03,000 traditions placed before him, he selected only 7,275 and included them in his book ‘Sahih-al-8ukhari’, which is a master-work of research scholarship and hard labour. Similarly Imam Muslim picked up only 9,200 traditions out of 8,00,000. The collections of Imams Bukhari and Muslim are very much respected by the Muslims who regard them only next to the Holy Quran.

Afterwards, these two books were supplemented by four more compilations known as the “Four Sunans” of Imam Abu Daud (d. 275 A.H.) Imam Tirmizi (d. 279 A.H.) Imam Ibn-i-Majah (d 295 A.H.) and Imam Nasal (al 303 A.H). Besides these, there is the most important compilation of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 241 A.H.).

These collections of sayings and anecdotes of the Holy Prophet (SAW). Apart from their religious and moral values, are the most authentic and day to day record of the events and happenings of the early days of Islam. They are very useful for writing books on history, biography etc. The Hungarian scholar Ignaz Goldziher in volume II of his book ‘Muslim Studies , says that these traditions throw much light on the development and spread of Islam during its early stages and on the political, social and sectional movements during this period.

The collection of Hadis is so large and voluminous that it is not possible for every man to read them, understand them and remember to act upon them Therefore it was necessary to compile a condensed volume containing important and selected traditions for those who may not have enough time to read the bulky volumes. Such a book is one titled as “”Riyadh-us-Saleheen “” or the “”Garden of the Virtuous Persons””, in two parts by the great saintly scholar and traditionist, Hazrat Imam Mohiuddin Abu Zakariya Yahya bin Sharaf An-Nawawi of Nawa in Syria, who lived from 631 A.H. (1233 A,D.) to 676 A.H.(1278 A.D.).

Imam Nawawi has taken pains to select about 1900 traditions from Muslim and Bukhari and one or two other standard books on Hadis, like “”Muwatta’ of Imam Malik. He has arranged these traditions under different topics. The learned Author Name(s) has supplemented these traditions with appropriate verses from the Holy Quran. He has given these verses in the beginning ‘of the Chapter containing traditions on a particular topic. This creates an awful respect in the minds of the readers, and confirms the point that the traditions are the annotations of and adjunct to the Holy Quran. In the original Arabic text, some items coming under more than one chapter, have been repeated. In the present translation, however, such duplicate items have been omitted.

The present work is a literal translation of the first part of the Arabic text, and care has been taken to adhere to the original text as far as possible.

The personality of Imam Nawawi doesn’t need any introduction, as he is already well-known in the Islamic world. Suffice it to say that he is one of the greatest theologian, traditionist, savant, saint and self- denying person, who had forsaken the world and worldly comforts, and throughout led a retired life, devoted to the service of Muslims and Islam. In his devotion to religion and praying, piety and self-denial, he is perhaps one of those who are unparalleled.

Imam Nawawi is the Author Name(s) of a large number of books, particularly on traditions and their commentaries. But his ‘Riadh-us-Saleheen-‘ is one of the most important, very useful and popular book. For the last hundreds of years it has been serving as guide and a compendium of useful information to Muslim Ulama and theologians, and of great help to them in preaching Islam and its practice.

Since the original work is in Arabic, it is not possible for a large number of non-Arable knowing Muslims to derive any benefit from it. Although a number of translations of such useful books are now available in other languages like Urdu, Turkish and Persian, yet there are not many in English other languages spoken in the West . Hence this English translation of ‘Riadh-us-Saleheen’ is presented to the English-knowing people particularly Muslims. This book will also be of great help to the new Muslim generation and the new brethren in Islam, living in Europe, America and other puts of the globe, to enable them to mould their life in aCCordance with the Islamic code of ethics. ‘ It should be borne in mind that true Islamic education alerts the mind to the meaning and value of life and enlivens it and guides in all its pursuits. Islam is a religion which is complete ‘m all respects and the last word from Allah» the Almighty; It is s coherent and systematic human philosophy, a natural way of life and a practical creed. The Muslims, living in non-Muslim countries have to face a number of problems; they not only live in an alien environment but are surrounded by un-Islamic and strange customs and practices. Life in these countries is no doubt exciting and interesting, but this is all a mirage, ultimately lt leads to frustration, despondency and ruin. In such a situation, it is very difficult for a Muslim to maintain is Islamic identity.. if they are not properly equipped and instructed in Islamic manners and way of life.

lt is hoped that this book will enable these Muslims to preserve their Muslim character, no matter what others around them may be doing.

S.M. MADNI ABBASI

January 5, 1983

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