Behaviour of a Muslim
in His Environment
(Selections from the Sayings of the Prophet Muhammad)
1. “You are helped and are provided for only because of the weak and poor ones among you.” (Bukhari)
2. “I and the guardian of orphans (whether the orphan be of one’s near or distant relation or of strangers) will be in one place in Paradise, like my two fingers”, said the Prophet and his fingers were nearly touching each other at the time. (Muslim)
3. On one occasion a man complained to the Prophet of having a hard heart. The Prophet prescribed the following remedy: “Touch an orphan’s head and feed the poor”. (Ahmad)
4. Someone said: ‘O Prophet of God, teach me something.’ “Abuse no one,” replied the Prophet, “and despise not anything good and speak to your fellow-men with open countenance”. (Tirmidhi)
5. “God has no mercy for him who has no mercy for his fellows.” (Bukhari & Muslim)
6. “A man came to the Prophet and said, ‘How many times should I forgive a servant?’ The Prophet kept silent. The man repeated the question thrice.
“Forgive your servant seventy times every day,” said the Prophet. (Abu Dawud)
7. “He who does not behave kindly towards younger people and does not show due respect to older ones is not of us.” (Tirmidhi)
8. Someone asked: ‘What is Islam?’ The Prophet said: “Purity of speech and hospitality.” (Musnad Ahmad)
9. The Prophet said: ‘On the Day of Judgment God will question: ‘O Man, I was sick and you did not visit Me’. ‘My Lord’, the man will wonder, ‘How could I visit You when You are the Lord of the universe?’ God will remind: ‘My so and so servant was sick and you did not visit him. Had you visited him, you would have found Me there, with him.’ (Muslim).
10. “Visit the sick, feed the hungry, and help to relieve people’s misery.” (Bukhari)
11. ‘Muslims who live in the midst of society and bear with patience the afflictions that come to them are better than those who shun society and cannot bear any wrong done to them.’ (Abu Dawud)
12. “Every good deed is a charity, and it is a good deed that you meet your fellow-men with a cheerful countenance and you pour water from your bucket into the vessel of your fellow. Answering a questioner with mildness is charity. Removing that which is inconvenience to wayfarers, such as thorns and stones is charity.” (Tirmidhi)
13. “The leader of a people is truly their servant.” (As Suyuti)
14. “Faith (iman) is to restrain oneself against all violence, let no believer commit any violence.” (Abu Dawud)
15. “God has forbidden you disobedience of parents, miserliness, false claims, and the burying alive of female infants”. (Bukhari & Muslim)
16. ‘Give the worker his wages before his sweat dries’.
(Ibn Majah)
17. “The seller is under obligation to disclose any defect in the article offered for sale.” (Bukhari)
18. “No one should be subjected to chastisement by fire.” (Bukhari)
19. “Honest difference of opinion among my people should be accounted a blessing.” (As-Suyuti)
20. Someone asked the Prophet what fanaticism was? He replied: “That you help your people in wrongdoing.” (Abu Dawud)
21. “That one will not enter Paradise whose neighbour is not secure against his mischief.” (Muslim)
22. “He who believes in God and the Last Day must not put his neighbour to inconvenience.” (Bukhari & Muslim)
23. “He is not a believer who eats to his fill while his neighbour goes without food.” (Ibn ‘Abbas, Al-Baihiqi)
24. The Prophet said: ‘A person passing through a street carrying anything pointed or with a sharp edge should cover it up, so that nobody is exposed to the risk of injury due to his carelessness.’ (Muslim)
25. “To remove anything from the street that causes inconvenience is charity.” (Bukhari)
26. “God is Gentle and loves gentleness in all things.” (Bukhari & Muslim)
27. “Gentleness adorns everything and its absence leaves everything defective.” (Muslim)
28. ‘Honour your children (especially daughters) and make provisions for their proper up-bringing.’ (Ibn Majah)
29. One who brings up three daughters, teaches them good manners and morals, arranges their marriages and treats them with fairness, deserves to be ushered into Paradise. (Abu Dawud)
30. “Paradise lies at the feet of the mothers.” (As-Suyuti)
31. On one occasion the Prophet observed: “Most unfortunate is the person whose parents are aged and who fails to win Paradise through taking good care of them.” (Bukhari)
32. A man came seeking permission to participate in jihad (Holy War). The Prophet asked him: “Are your parents alive?” The man said: “Yes”. He sent him away saying: “Then go back and find your jihad in serving them.” (Muslim)
33. “He who wishes to enter Paradise through the best door must please his father and mother.”
34. “The most perfect of believers in the matter of faith is he whose behaviour is best; and the best of you are those who behave best towards their wives.” (Tirmidhi)
35. “You will not enter Paradise until you have faith, and you will not complete your faith until you love one another.” (Bukhari & Muslim)
36. “He who eases the hardship of another, will have ease bestowed upon him by God in this world and the next ... God goes on helping a servant so long as he goes on helping his fellow-man.” (Muslim)
37. In his Farewell Address, the Prophet said: “You are all brothers and are all equal. None of you can claim any privilege or any superiority over any other. An Arab is not to be preferred to a non-Arab, nor is a non-Arab to be preferred to an Arab; nor is a white man to be preferred to a coloured one, or a coloured one to a white, except on the basis of righteousness.” (Musnad Ahmad)
38. The Prophet, during his night prayer, used to say: “O God, I bear witness that all human beings are brothers.” (An-Nasa ‘i)
39. Even with regard to servants, the Prophet said: “They are your brothers, and you must treat them as such. Provide them with the kind of clothes that you wear, and if you set them a hard task, join them in it to help them complete it.” (Abu Dawud)
40. The Prophet observed: “None of you can be a believer unless he should desire for his fellow-man what he desires for himself.” (Bukhari)
41. “He who defends the honour of his fellow-man, God will shield his face against the fire on the Day of Judgement.” (Tirmidhi)
42. “God is not merciful to him who is not merciful to mankind.”
43. “He who keeps away from his brother and fellow-man for a year is as if he had slain him.” (Abu Dawud)
44. The Prophet was very insistent upon kindness towards animals. On one occasion he noticed a dove flying around agitatedly and discovered that somebody had caught its young. He was very annoyed and asked the person to restore the young to the mother immediately. (Abu Dawud)
45. ‘A woman was tormented on account of a cat which she had shut up till it died. On that account she entered the Fire.’ (Muslim)
46. “Forgiveness was granted to an unchaste woman who, coming up on a dog panting and almost dead with thirst at the mouth of a well, took off her shoe, tied it with her head covering, and drew some water for it. On that account she was forgiven.” (Bukhari)
47. “The Prophet forbade beating or branding an animal on its face.” (Muslim)
48. “You will be rewarded by God for your acts of kindness towards all living creatures.”
49. “There is no man who kills a sparrow, or any other living creature (even it may be more despicable than a little sparrow) without its deserving it, but God will ask him about it.” (An-Nasa’i)
50. “For a Muslim it is an act of charity to plant a tree or till a land where birds or people or animals come and eat of its fruits.” (Al-Bazzar)
51. “If a Muslim lants a tree or sows a field and men and beasts and birds eat from it, all of it is charity on his part.” (Muslim)
52. “Even looking after plants and trees is an act of virtue.” (Ibn ‘Asakir)
53. “Whosoever gives a medicine, being not known in medicine, shall be held responsible for the consequence.” (Abu Dawud, Nasa’i)
54. “Let no one ask another to give up his seat to him; but make room and sit at ease.” (Muslim)
55. “When three persons are together, two of them must not whisper to each other without letting the third hear, because it would hurt him.”
56. “He who takes a hand’s breadth of land unjustly shall wear round his neck a garland composed of seven earths.” (Bukhari & Muslim)
57. “Save yourselves from envy. For envy eats up virtue as fire eats up wood.” (Abu Dawud)
58. “To earn through labour is the best way to earn, provided the work is done with sincerity.” (Ahmad)
59. “When a man tells you something in confidence, you must not betray his trust.” (Abu Dawud)
60. “Abdullah said that it was not proper to tell lies either in serious or in light vein. Neither was it proper to make promises to one’s children and then not fulfill them.” (Bukhari & Muslim)
