Sunan Abi Dawud

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: He who is two-faced in this world will have two tongues of fire on the Day of Resurrection.

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) was asked: Messenger of Allah! What is back-biting? He replied: It is saying something about your brother which he would dislike. He was asked again: Tell me how the matter stands if what I say about my brother is true? He replied: If what you say of him is true, you have slandered him, and if what you say of him is not true, you have reviled him.

I said to the Prophet (ﷺ): It is enough for you in Safiyyah that she is such and such (the other version than Musaddad's has:) meaning that she was short-statured. He replied; You have said a word which would change the sea if it were mixed in it. She said: I imitated a man before him (out of disgrace). He said: I do not like that I imitate anyone even if I should get such and such.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: The most prevalent kind of usury is going to lengths in talking unjustly against a Muslim's honour.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: The gravest sin is going to lengths in talking unjustly against a Muslim's honour, and it is a major sin to abuse twice for abusing once.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: When I was taken up to heaven I passed by people who had nails of copper and were scratching their faces and their breasts. I said: Who are these people, Gabriel? He replied: They are those who were given to back biting and who aspersed people's honour. Abu Dawud said: Yahya b. 'Uthman has also transmitted it from Baqiyyah, there is no mention of Anas in it.

This tradition has also been transmitted by ‘Isa b. Abi ‘Isa al-sailahini from Abu al-Mughirah, as Ibn al-musaffa said.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: O community of people, who believed by their tongue, and belief did not enter their hearts, do not back-bite Muslims, and do not search for their faults, for if anyone searches for their faults, Allah will search for his fault, and if Allah searches for the fault of anyone, He disgraces him in his house.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: If anyone eats once at the cost of a Muslim's honour, Allah will give him a like amount of Jahannam to eat; if anyone clothes himself with a garment at the cost of a Muslim's honour, Allah will clothe him with like amount of Jahannam; and if anyone puts himself in a position of reputation and show Allah will disgrace him with a place of reputation and show on the Day of Resurrection.

Everything of a Muslim is sacred to a Muslim : his property, honour and blood. It is enough evil for any man to despise his brother Muslim.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: If anyone guards a believer from a hypocrite, Allah will send an angel who will guard his flesh on the Day of Resurrection from the fire of Jahannam; but if anyone attacks a Muslim saying something by which he wishes to disgrace him, he will be restrained by Allah on the bridge over Jahannam till he is acquitted of what he said.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: No (Muslim) man will desert a man who is a Muslim in a place where his respect may be violated and his honour aspersed without Allah deserting him in a place here he wishes his help; and no (Muslim) man who will help a Muslim in a place where his honour may be aspersed and his respect violated without Allah helping him in a place where he wishes his help. Yahya said: 'Ubaid Allah b. 'Abd Allah b. 'Umar and 'Uqbah b. Shaddad transmitted it to me. Abu Dawud said: This yahya b. Sulaim is the son of Zaid, the freed slave of the Prophet (ﷺ), and Isma'il b. Bashir is the freed slave of Banu Maghalah. Sometimes the name of 'Utbah b. Shaddad is mentioned instead of 'Uqbah.

A desert Arab came and making his camel kneel and tethering it, entered the mosque and prayed behind the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ). When The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) had given the salutation, he went to his riding beast and, after untethering and riding it, he called out: O Allah, show mercy to me and to Muhammad and associate no one else in Thy mercy to us. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) then said: Do you think that he or his camel is farther astray? Did you not listen to what he said? They replied: Certainly.

Is one of you helpless to be like AbuDaygham or Damdam (Ibn Ubayd is doubtful) who would say when morning came: O Allah, I gave my honour as alms to Thy servants?

Is one of you unable to be like Abu Damdam? The people asked: who is Abu Damdam? He replied : A man of old before you. He then mentioned the rest of tradition to the tradition to the same effect. This version has : who would say (in the morning) : My honors is for the one who reviles me. Abu Dawud said: This tradition has also been transmitted by Hashim bin al-Qasim from Muhammad b. 'Adb Allah al-'Ammi from Thabit on the authority of Anas from Prophet (ﷺ) to the same effect. Abu Dawud said: The tradition of Hammad (i.e. 'Abd al-Rahman's version) is sounder.

I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say: If you search for the faults of the people, you will corrupt them, or will nearly corrupt them. AbudDarda' said: These are the words which Mu'awiyah himself from the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), and Allah benefited him by them.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: When a ruler seeks to make imputations against the people, he corrupts them.

Zayd ibn Wahb said: A man was brought to Ibn Mas'ud. He was told: This is so and so, and wine was dropping from his beard. Abdullah thereupon said: We have been prohibited to seek out (faults). If anything becomes manifest to us, we shall seize it.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: He who sees something which should be kept hidden and conceals it will be like one who has brought to life a girl buried alive.

AbulHaytham quoted Dukhayn, the scribe of Uqbah ibn Amir, saying: We had some neighbours who used to drink wine. I forbade them, but they did not stop. I then said to Uqbah ibn Amir: These neighbours of ours drink wine, and I tried to prevent them but they did not stop, and I am going to call the police about them. He said: Leave them. I again came to Uqbah ibn Amir and said: Our neighbours have refused to refrain from drinking wine, and I am going to call the police for them. He said: Woe to thee! Leave them alone. I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say: he then mentioned the tradition to the same effect as recorded above on the authority of the narrator Muslim. Abu Dawud said: In this version Hashim b. al-Qasim said on the authority of Laith: Do not do it, but preach them and threaten them.

A Muslim is a Muslim’s brother: he does not wrong him or abandon him. If anyone cares for his brother’s need, Allah will care for his need ; if anyone removes a Muslim’s anxiety, Allah will remove from him, on account of it, one of the anxieties of the Day of resurrection ; and if anyone conceals a Muslim’s fault, Allah will conceal his fault on the Day of resurrection.

when two men abuse one another, what they say is laid to the charge of the one who began it, so long as the one who is wronged does not go over the score.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: Allah has revealed to me that you must be humble, so that no one oppresses another and boasts over another.

While the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) was sitting with some of his companions, a man reviled AbuBakr and insulted him. But AbuBakr remained silent. He insulted him twice, but AbuBakr controlled himself. He insulted him thrice and AbuBakr took revenge on him. Then the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) got up when AbuBakr took revenge. AbuBakr said: Were you angry with me, Messenger of Allah? The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) replied: An angel came down from Heaven and he was rejecting what he had said to you. When you took revenge, a devil came down. I was not going to sit when the devil came down.

A man was reviling Abu Bakr. He then mentioned the rest of the tradition in a similar manner. Abu Dawud said: Similarly, it has been transmitted by Safwan b. ‘Isa, from Ibn ‘Affan, as Sufyan said.

Ibn Awn said: I asked about the meaning of intisar (revenge) in the Qur'anic verse: "But indeed if any do help and defend themselves (intasara) after a wrong (done) to them, against them there is no cause of blame." Then Ali ibn Zayd ibn Jad'an told me on the authority of Umm Muhammad, the wife of his father. Ibn Awn said: It was believed that she used to go to the Mother of the Faithful (i.e. Aisha). She said: The Mother of the Faithful said: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) came upon me while Zaynab, daughter of Jahsh, was with us. He began to do something with his hand. I signalled to him until I made him understand about her. So he stopped. Zaynab came on and began to abuse Aisha. She tried to prevent her but she did not stop. So he (the Prophet) said to Aisha: Abuse her. So she abused her and dominated her. Zaynab then went to Ali and said: Aisha abused you and did (such and such). Then Fatimah came (to the Prophet) and he said to her: She is the favourite of your father, by the Lord of the Ka'bah! She then returned and said to them: I said to him such and such, and he said to me such and such. Then Ali came to the Prophet (ﷺ) and spoke to him about that.

When your companion dies, leave him and do not revile him.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: Make a mention of the virtues of your dead, and refrain from (mentioning) their evils.

I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say: There were two men among Banu Isra'il, who were striving for the same goal. One of them would commit sin and the other would strive to do his best in the world. The man who exerted himself in worship continued to see the other in sin. He would say: Refrain from it. One day he found him in sin and said to him: Refrain from it. He said: Leave me alone with my Lord. Have you been sent as a watchman over me? He said: I swear by Allah, Allah will not forgive you, nor will he admit you to Paradise. Then their souls were taken back (by Allah), and they met together with the Lord of the worlds. He (Allah) said to this man who had striven hard in worship; Had you knowledge about Me or had you power over that which I had in My hand? He said to the man who sinned: Go and enter Paradise by My mercy. He said about the other: Take him to Hell. AbuHurayrah said: By Him in Whose hand my soul is, he spoke a word by which this world and the next world of his were destroyed.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: There is no sin more fitted to have punishment meted out by Allah to its perpetrator in advance in this world along with what He stores up for him in the next world than oppression and severing ties of relationship.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: Avoid envy, for envy devours good deeds just as fire devours fuel or (he said) "grass."

Sahl ibn AbuUmamah said that he and his father (AbuUmamah) visited Anas ibn Malik at Medina during the time (rule) of Umar ibn AbdulAziz when he (Anas ibn Malik) was the governor of Medina. He was praying a very short prayer as if it were the prayer of a traveller or near it. When he gave a greeting, my father said: May Allah have mercy on you! Tell me about this prayer: Is it obligatory or supererogatory? He said: It is obligatory; it is the prayer performed by the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ). I did not make a mistake except in one thing that I forgot. He said: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) used to say: Do not impose austerities on yourselves so that austerities will be imposed on you, for people have imposed austerities on themselves and Allah imposed austerities on them. Their survivors are to be found in cells and monasteries. (Then he quoted:) "Monasticism, they invented it; we did not prescribe it for them." Next day he went out in the morning and said: will you not go out for a ride, so that you may see something and take a lesson from it? He said: Yes. Then all of them rode away and reached a land whose inhabitants had perished, passed away and died. The roofs of the town had fallen in. He asked: Do you know this land? I said: Who acquainted me with it and its inhabitants? (Anas said:) This is the land of the people whom oppression and envy destroyed. Envy extinguishes the light of good deeds, and oppression confirms or falsifies it. The eye commits fornication, and the palm of the hand, the foot, body, tongue and private part of the body confirm it or deny it.

when a man cures anything, the curse goes up to heaven and the gates of heaven are locked against it. Then it comes down to the earth and its gates are locked against it. Then it goes right and left, and if it finds no place of entrance it returns to the thing which was cursed, and if it finds no place of entrance it returns to the thing which was cursed, and if it deserves what was said (it enters it), otherwise it returns to the one who uttered it. Abu Dawud said : Marwan b. Muhammad said: He is Rabah b. al-Walid who heard from him (nimran). He (Marwan b. Muhammad) said: Yahya b. Hussain was confused in it.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: Do not invoke Allah's curse, Allah's anger, or Hell.

I heard the Messenger of Allah (May peace be upon him) say: Men given to cursing will not be witnesses or intercessors.

A man cursed the wind. The narrator Muslim's version has: The wind snatched away a man's cloak during the time of the Prophet (ﷺ) and he cursed it. The Prophet (ﷺ) said: Do not curse it, for it is under command, and if anyone curses a thing undeservedly, the curse returns upon him.

Something of her was stolen, and she began to curse him (i.e. the thief). The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said to her: Do not lessen his sin.

Do not hate each other; do not envy each other; do not desert each other; and be the servants of Allah as brethren. It is not allowed for a Muslim to keep apart from his brother for more than three days.

it is not allowable for a Muslim to keep apart from his brother for more than three days. When they meet, this turns away from him, and that turns away from him. The better of the two is the one who initiates in salutation.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: It is not allowable for a believer to keep from a believer for more than three days. If three days pass, he should meet him and give him a salutation, and if he replies to it they will both have shared in the reward; but if he does not reply he will bear his sin (according to Ahmad's version) and the one who gives the salutation will have come forth from the sin of keeping apart.

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: It is not right for a Muslim to keep apart from another Muslim for more than three days. Then when he meets him and gives three salutations, receiving during that time no response, the other bears his sin.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: It is not allowable for a Muslim to keep apart from his brother for more than three days, for one who does so and dies will enter Hell.

AbuKhirash heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say: If one keeps apart from his brother for a year, it is like shedding his blood.

The gates of Paradise are opened on Mondays and Thursdays, and forgiveness is granted to every man who does not associate anything with Allah, except for a man between whom and his brother there is rancor. Command will be given that they should be given respite till they conciliate. Abu Dawud said: The Prophet (ﷺ) kept apart from some of his wives for forty days, and Ibn 'Umar kept apart from his son till he died. Abu Dawud said: If keeping apart is meant for the sake of Allah, then it has no concern with it. 'Umar bin 'Abd al-'Aziz covered his face from a man.

Avoid suspicion for suspicion is the most lying form of talk. Do not be inquisitive about one another, or spy on one another.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: The believer is the believer's mirror, and the believer is the believer's brother who guards him against loss and protects him when he is absent.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: Shall I not inform you of something more excellent in degree than fasting, prayer and almsgiving (sadaqah)? The people replied: Yes, Prophet of Allah! He said: It is putting things right between people, spoiling them is the shaver (destructive).

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: He who forged in order to put things right between two persons did not lie. The version by Ahmad ibn Muhammad and Musaddad has: The liar is not the one who puts things right between people, saying what is good and increasing good.

I did not hear the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) making a concession for anything people say falsely except in three matters. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) would say: I do not count as a liar a man who puts things right between people, saying a word by which he intends only putting things right, and a man who says something in war, and a man who says something to his wife, or a wife who says something to her husband.

The Messenger of Allah (May peace be upon him) came and visited me in the morning when I had been conducted to my husband, and sat on my bedding as you are sitting beside me. Some little girls of ours began to play the tambourine and eulogise those of my ancestors who were killed in the battle of Badr, and then one of them said: And among us is a Prophet who knows what will happen tomorrow. He said : Stop this and say what you were saying.