Sunan Abi Dawud

the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) was one of the best of men in character. One day he sent me to do something, and I said: I swore by Allah that I would not go. But in my heart I felt that I should go to do what the Prophet of Allah (ﷺ) had commanded me; so I went out and came upon some boys who were playing in the street. All of a sudden the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) who had come up behind caught me by the back of the neck, and when I looked at him he was laughing. He said: Go where I ordered you, little Anas. I replied: Yes, I am going, Apostle of Allah! Anas said: I swear by Allah, I served him for seven or nine years, and he never said to me about a thing which I had done: Why did you do such and such? Nor about a thing which I left: why did not do such and such?

I served the Prophet (ﷺ) at Medina for ten years. I was a boy. Every work that I did was not according to the desire of my master, but he never said to me: Fie, nor did he say to me: Why did you do this? or Why did you not do this?

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) used to sit with us in meetings and talk to us. When he stood up we also used to stand up and see him entering the house of one of his wives. One day he talked to us and we stood up as he stood up and we saw that an Arabi (a nomadic Arab) caught hold of him and gave his cloak a violent tug making his neck red. AbuHurayrah said: The cloak was coarse. He turned to him and the Arabi said to him: Load these two camels of mine, for you do not give me anything from your property or from your father's property. The Prophet (ﷺ) said to him: No, I ask Allah's forgiveness; no, I ask Allah's forgiveness; no, I ask Allah's forgiveness. I shall not give you the camel-load until you make amends for the way in which you tugged at me. Each time the Arabi said to him: I swear by Allah, I shall not do so. He then mentioned the rest of the tradition. He (the Prophet), then called a man and said to him: Load these two camels of his: one camel with barley and the other with dates. He then turned to us and said: Go on your way with the blessing of Allah.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: Good way, dignified good bearing and moderation are the twenty-fifth part of Prophecy.

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: If anyone suppresses anger when he is in a position to give vent to it, Allah, the Exalted, will call him on the Day of Resurrection over the heads of all creatures, and ask him to choose any of the bright and large eyed maidens he wishes. Abu Dawud said: The name of the transmitter Abu Marhum is 'Abd al-Rahman b. Maimun

He then mentioned a similar tradition described above. This version has: Allah will fill his heart with security and faith. He did not mention the words "Allah will call him". This version further adds: He who gives up wearing beautiful garments when he is able to do so (out of humility, as Bishr's version has) will be clothed by Allah with the robe of honour, and he who marries for Allah's sake will be crowned by Allah with the crown of Kingdom.

Whom do you consider a wrestler among you? The people replied: (the man) whom the men cannot defeat in wrestling. He said: No, it is he who controls himself when he is angry.

Two men reviled each other in the presence of the Prophet (ﷺ) and one of them became excessively angry so much so that I thought that his nose will break up on account of excess of anger. The Prophet (ﷺ) said: I know a phrase which, if he repeated, he could get rid of this angry feeling. They asked: What is it, Messenger of Allah? He replied: He should say: I seek refuge in Thee from the accursed devil. Mu'adh then began to ask him to do so, but he refused and persisted in quarrelling, and began to enhance his anger.

Two men reviled each other in the presence of the Prophet (ﷺ). Then the eyes of one of them became red and his jugular veins swelled. The Apostle of Allah (ﷺ) said: I know a phrase by repeating which the man could get rid of the angry feelings: I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed devil. The man said: Do you see insanity in me.

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said to us: When one of you becomes angry while standing, he should sit down. If the anger leaves him, well and good; otherwise he should lie down.

The Prophet (ﷺ) sent Mu`adh for some of his work. He then transmitted the rest of the tradition mentioned above. Abu Dawud said: This tradition is sounder of the two traditions.

AbuWa'il al-Qass said: We entered upon Urwah ibn Muhammad ibn as-Sa'di. A man spoke to him and made him angry. So he stood and performed ablution; he then returned and performed ablution, and said: My father told me on the authority of my grandfather Atiyyah who reported the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) as saying: Anger comes from the devil, the devil was created of fire, and fire is extinguished only with water; so when one of you becomes angry, he should perform ablution.

the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) was never given his choice between two things without taking the easier(or lesser) of them provided it involved no sin, for if it did, no one kept farther away from it than he. And the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) never took revenge on his own behalf for anything unless something Allah had forbidden has been transgressed, in which event he took revenge for it for Allah’s sake.

the Messenger of Allah (saws ) never struck a servant or a woman.

The Prophet of Allah (ﷺ) was commanded to hold to forgiveness from the conduct of the people.

When the Prophet (ﷺ) was informed of anything of a certain man, he would not say: What is the matter with so and so that he says? But he would say: What is the matter with the people that they say such and such?

A man who had the mark of yellowness on him came to the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ). The apostle of Allah (ﷺ) rarely mentioned anything of a man which he disliked before him. When he went out, he said: Would that you asked him to wash it from him. Abu Dawud said: Salam is not 'Alawi (from the descendants of 'Ali). He used to foretell events by stars. He bore witness before 'Abi b. Arafat to the visibility of moon, but he did not accept his witness.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: The believer is simple and generous, but the profligate is deceitful and ignoble.

A man asked permission to see the Prophet (ﷺ), and he said: He is a bad son of the tribe, or: He is a bad member of the tribe. He then said : Give him permission. Then when he entered, he spoke to him leniently. `A’isha asked : Apostle of Allah! You spoke to him leniently while you said about him what you said! He replied: The one who will have the worst position in Allah’s estimation on the Day of Resurrection will be the one whom people left alone for fear of his ribaldry.

A man asked permission to see the Prophet (ﷺ), and the Prophet (ﷺ) said: He is a bad member of the tribe. When he entered, the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) treated in a frank and friendly way and spoke to him. When he departed , I said: Messenger of Allah! When he asked permission, you said: He is a bad member of the tribe, but when he entered, you treated him in a frank and friendly way. The Messenger of Allah replied: Aisha! Allah does not like the one who is unseemly and lewd in his language.

the Prophet (ﷺ) said: `A’isha! There are some bad people who are respected for fear of their tongues.

I never said that when any man brought his mouth to the ear of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) and he withdrew his head until the man himself withdrew his head, and I never saw that when any man took him by his hand and he withdrew his hand, until the man himself withdrew his hand.

The Prophet (ﷺ) passed by a man of the Ansar when he was giving his brother a warning against modesty. The Apostle of Allah (ﷺ) said : Leave him alone, for modesty is a part of faith.

We were sitting with `Imran b. Hussain and Bushair b. Ka`b was also there. `Imran b. Hussain reported the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) as saying: Modesty is good altogether, or he said: Modesty is altogether good. Bushair b. Ka`b said : We find in some books that there is a modesty which produces peace and dignified bearing, and there is a modesty which produces weakness. `Imran b. Hussain repeated the same words. So `Imran became angry so much so that his eyes became red, and he said : Don’t you see that I am transmitting a tradition from the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) and you are mentioning something from your books? He (Qatadah) said : We said : Abu Nujaid, it is sufficient.

One of the things people have learnt from the words of the earliest prophecy is : If you have no shame, do what you like.

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: By his good character a believer will attain the degree of one who prays during the night and fasts during the day.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: There is nothing heavier than good character put in the scale of a believer on the Day of Resurrection. Abu al-Walid said: I heard 'Ata al-Kaikharani say: Abu Dawud said: His name is 'Ata b. Ya'qub. He is the maternal uncle of Ibrahim b. Nafi'. He is called Kaikharani or Kukharani.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: I guarantee a house in the surroundings of Paradise for a man who avoids quarrelling even if he were in the right, a house in the middle of Paradise for a man who avoids lying even if he were joking, and a house in the upper part of Paradise for a man who made his character good.

neither the Jawwaz nor the Jazari will enter paradise. He said that the Jawwaz is the one who is coarse and uncivil.

The she-camel of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) called al-Adba’ had not been outstripped by another, but an A`rabi (a nomadic Arab) came on a young riding camel of his and it outstripped it. That distressed the companions of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), but he said: It is Allah’s right that nothing should become exalted in the world but he lowers it.

It is Allah’s right that nothing should become exalted in the world but he lowers it.

A man came and praised ‘Uthman in his face, al-Miqdad b. Al-Aswad took dust and threw it on his face, saying : The Apostle of Allah (ﷺ) said : When you see those who are given to praising people, throw dust in their faces.

You have beheaded your friend (saying it three times). He then said : One who cannot help expressing praise of his companion, should say : I consider him such and such (as he intends to say), but I do not declare him pure with Allah.

I went with a deputation of Banu Amir to the apostle of Allah (ﷺ), and we said: You are our lord (sayyid). To this he replied: The lord is Allah, the Blessed and Exalted. Then we said: And the one of us most endowed with excellence and superiority. To this he replied: Say what you have to say, or part of what you have to say, and do not let the devil make you his agents.

Allah is gentle, likes gentleness, and gives for gentleness what he does not give for harshness.

Al-Miqdam ibn Shurayh, quoting his father, said: I asked Aisha about living in the desert. She said: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) used to go to the desert to these rivulets. Once he intended to go to the desert and he sent to me a she-camel from the camel of sadaqah which had not been used for riding so far. He said to me: Aisha! show gentleness, for if gentleness is found in anything, it beautifies it and when it is taken out from anything it damages it. Ibn al-Sabbah said in his version: Muharramah means a mount which has not been used for riding.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: He who is deprived of gentleness is deprived of good.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: There is hesitation in everything except in the actions of the next world.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: He who does not thank the people is not thankful to Allah.

The Immigrants (Muhajirun) said: Messenger of Allah! the Helpers (Ansar) got the entire reward. He said: no, so long as you pray to Allah for them and praise them.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: If someone is given something, he should give a return for it provided he can afford; if he cannot afford, he should praise him. He who praises him for it, thanks him, and he who conceals it is ungrateful to him. Abu Dawud said: It has been transmitted by Yahya b. Ayyub, from `Umarah b. Ghaziyyah, from Sharahbil on the authority of Jabir. Abu Dawud said: In the chain of this tradition `Umarah b. Ghaziyyah said: A man from my tribe said. The man referred by him is Sharahbil. It is likely that they disliked him and, therefore, they did not name him.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: If someone is donated something, and he mentions it, he thanks for it, and if he conceals it, he is ungrateful for it.

Avoid sitting in the roads. The people said: Apostle of Allah! We must have meeting places in which to converse. The apostle of Allah (ﷺ) said: If you insist on meeting, give the road its due. They asked: What is the due of roads, Apostle of Allah? He replied: Lowering the eyes, removing anything offensive, returning salutation, commanding what is reputable and forbidding what is disreputable.

And guiding the people on their way.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: the same occasion: Help the oppressed (sorrowful) and guide those who have lost their way.

A woman came to the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) and said: Messenger of Allah: I have some need with you. He said to her: Mother of so and so, sit in the corner of any street you wish and I shall sit with you. So she sat and the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) also sat with her till she fulfilled her need. The narrator Ibn 'Isa did not mention "till she fulfilled her need." And Kathir said: from Humaid on the authority of Anas.

A woman who had something (feebleness) in her mind.

I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) as saying: The best places to sit are those which provide most room. Abu Dawud said: The name of 'Abd al-Rahman b. Abi 'Amr is 'Abd al-Rahman b. 'Amr b. Abi 'Umrat al-Ansari.

AbulQasim (ﷺ) said: When one of you is in the sun (Shams)--Makhlad's version has "fay'"--and the shadow withdraws from him so that he is partly in sun and partly in shade, he should get up.

Qais quoted his father as saying that he (his father) came when the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) was addressing. He stood in the sun. He ordered him (to shift) and he shifted to the shade.