Introduction


Corbis-42-59585768.jpgImam An-Nawawi (1233 – 1278 CE) was born in a small village named Nawa, situated in the vicinity of Damascus.  Before the age of ten he had memorised the entire Quran and at the age of nineteen he went to Damascus to study.  There Imam Nawawi learned from more than 20 celebrated masters in various fields and disciplines including the study of ahadith and Islamic jurisprudence.

It is said that Imam An-Nawawi was an ascetic and pious man, often sleep deprived due to worshipping or writing. He is known to have enjoined people to do good and prevented them from evil doing. Although he wrote more than 40 books, the most well-known of these is undoubtedly his collection of “The Forty Hadith”.

For over 800 years scholar and student alike have benefitted from this book. Each hadith in this collection teaches us about one of the fundamentals of Islam and the ahadith were taken predominantly from the collections of Saheeh Bukhari and Saheeh Muslim.

This is the first in a series of ahadith from the book.

Hadith 1


The first hadith in this collection is one narrated to us by Umar ibn Al-Khattab. He said that he heard Prophet Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of Allah be upon him, say the following:

“Actions are judged by their niyyah, so each man will have what he intended.  Thus, he whose migration (hijrah) was to Allah and His Messenger, his migration is to Allah and His Messenger; but he whose migration was for some worldly thing or for marriage, his migration is to that for which he migrated.”

This hadith occurred at a time when a man migrated from Mecca to Medina in order to marry and not for the sake of Islam. It is said to be one of the greatest ahadith in Islam because it can help a believer evaluate and judge actions of the heart and decide whether or not they can be considered ibadah. Imam As-Shafi (767 -820 CE) called it one third of knowledge and said it related to about seventy topics of fiqh. It is believed that Imam An-Nawawi started with this hadith because he wanted to remind every person who reads the book about the importance of ikhlas.

Prophet Muhammad began this hadith with a principle – actions are judged by their niyyah (intentions). He then gave us three examples; the first is an exemplary action, migration for the sake of Allah. The second and third actions are examples of situations in which we might need to evaluate our niyyah, migration for a worldly thing in general and migration more specifically in order to get married. Assuming that our intention is to make all aspects of our daily lives ibadah by doing them for the sake of Allah, we need to understand that actions will be sound if their intentions are sound but if their intentions are corrupted then the actions will be corrupted. If we make the niyyah for Allah Alone then the permissible actions become rewardable.

Being sincere, truthful and honest in our ibadah is one of the conditions that must be fulfilled if our good deeds are to be accepted by Allah. One of the root causes of insincerity is doing things in order to fulfil our own earthly desires. Imam Al-Harawi, who died in 846 CE, warned us that there were seven types of desires that could corrupt our ikhlas. The desire to:

1.     Make ourselves appear good in the hearts of others.

2.     Seek the praises of others.

3.     Avoid being blamed by others.

4.     Seek the glorification of others.

5.     Seek the wealth of others.

6.     Seek the love of others.

7.     Seek the help from something other than Allah.

Therefore it is wise for a believer to check their intentions and their ikhlas, not only before the obligatory acts of worship, but also throughout the course of the day. If necessary we can boost our ikhlas in three easy ways.

1.     By doing more righteous deeds.

2.     Seeking knowledge.

3.     Remembering to check our niyyah.

Four main things contradict ikhlas and will therefore nullify any good intentions we are trying to cultivate. They are:

1.     Committing sins.

2.     Associating others with Allah.

3.     Performing an act of worship in order to show off.

4.     Being a hypocrite.

It is worth remembering, that whether we are aware of it or not, every single act we perform when going about our daily lives has an intention attached to it. Therefore, teaching ourselves to remember Allah often during the day, and thinking about pleasing Him, will help us to make sincere, correct, and rewardable intentions.

Imam Ibn Uthaymeen said that this hadith teaches us that if a person intends to do a good deed, but is then unable to complete it due to any obstacle in his way, the reward for what he intended would still be recorded for him. This is due to the fact that Prophet Muhammad said: “Allah has recorded the good deeds and the evil deeds. Whoever intends to do a good deed but does not do it, Allah records it with Himself as a complete good deed; but if he intends it and does it, Allah records it with Himself as ten good deeds, up to seven hundred times, or more than that. But if he intends to do an evil deed and does not do it, Allah records it as a complete good deed; but if he intends it and does it, Allah records it as one single evil deed.”

Among the definitions of stranger to be found on Dictionary.com we find, something or someone unusual, extraordinary, or unfamiliar.  A stranger is someone we are unaccustomed to or unacquainted with.  We could say that someone is a stranger, as in, “I have never seen that person here before.” Or we could be the stranger, as in, “I feel out of place here, it is strange and unfamiliar to me.”  Muslims today are well acquainted with being considered strange or feeling strange.  We tend to think that this is some sort of 21st century phenomenon but we are wrong about that.

Those who worship One God have all at some time felt that sensation of strangeness. The prophets and messengers felt as if they were one person among so many others. Most people did not think the way they did. Their families stood out from the crowd, their followers looked and felt strange among their respective societies. The early Muslims in Mecca must have felt strange too. Imagine them wondering why their loved ones did not feel the same way they did. Imagine how it felt to be one person among many, or a small group within a crowd. Prophet Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of Allah be upon him, told the sahabah that their strangeness was a good sign; glad tidings, he said, belonged to the strangers.

A very well-known hadith explains the strangeness we feel. “Islam began as something strange, and it shall return to being something strange, so give glad tidings to the strangers.”[1]  His listeners then asked, “Who are those strangers, O Messenger of Allah?”  He replied, “Those that correct the people when they become corrupt.”[2]  In another narration of the hadith he said in response to the same question, “They are a small group of people among a large evil population.  Those who oppose them are more than those who follow them”.[3]

When Prophet Muhammad began to call the people to Islam there were very few people who bothered to listen to his warnings and message.  Those who did listen were considered to be strange.  Then as throngs of people entered into the deen of Allah they became less strange, those who refused to accept the message were the strangers.  Prolific Islamic scholar Ibn al-Qayyim (1292 – 1350 CE) explained that there are strangers even among the strangers.  He said, Muslims are strangers among humankind; the true believers are strangers among Muslims; and the scholars are strangers among the true believers.  And the followers of the Sunnah, those that abandon all forms of innovation, are likewise strangers.[4]

Ibn al-Qayyim also divided strangeness into three grades:

1.     Praiseworthy strangeness.  That is the strangeness that comes when a person says there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is His messenger. To be a believer in a world full of non-believers is a commendable strangeness, a comforting strangeness.

2.     Blameworthy strangeness.  This is the strangeness that comes from not being among the believers.  It is something that we should all seek Allah’s protection from because these people are strangers to God.

3.     This is the strangeness that the traveler feels. It is neutral, neither praiseworthy nor blameworthy. Ibn al-Qayyim supports the idea that it does have the potential to become praiseworthy.

The strangeness of the traveler is the peculiar feeling a person gets when he is far away from the place in which he feels most comfortable, his home. When a person stays in a place for a short period of time knowing that he has to move on, he feels strange, as if he does not belong there, or perhaps anywhere. Prophet Muhammad said, “Live in this world as though you are a stranger or a traveler.”[5]

There are many believers who feel as if they are strangers in this dunya. New Muslims are often surprised to find that even when they embrace Islam their feeling of not quite belonging does not seem to go completely away. And this feeling is not limited to new Muslims. Many people who were born into the deen of Islam also feel this sense of not belonging in this place. To this end there are many who believe that the feeling of strangeness will not leave until we are safe in our true home, Paradise.

Throughout the Quran Allah reminds the believers that the Hereafter is our final destination. This world, He tells us, is no more than a diversion, a test and a trial. Ibn Rajab (1335 -1393 CE) pointed out that Prophet Muhammad used the analogy of a stranger because a stranger is usually a person who is travelling and always prepared to go home; traveling through this dunya preparing for the Hereafter and longing for Paradise.

In addition to this, a stranger does not appear to be like other people, he is different. The differences are what make him a stranger.  True believers are strangers and it is appropriate that we are not like those who do not believe.  In a world where following the teachings of Islam is looked upon as something strange, sometimes even among Muslims, it is easy to relate to the idea that Islam will return to being something strange.  Therefore, embrace your strangeness and be grateful for the glad tidings that come with it.