nawawiDay.arabicText

nawawiDay.englishTranslation

— Anas (RA) (Bukhari & Muslim)

nawawiDay.commentary

Genuine faith requires fellow-feeling. Includes wishing them the good of dunyā and ākhirah.

nawawiDay.extendedExplanation

‘None of you truly believes…’ — the negation here is not of the foundation of belief, but of its completion. As Ibn Rajab clarifies: a person without this quality is not a kāfir, but their imān is incomplete.

Loving for your brother what you love for yourself includes: wishing him guidance, wishing him provision, wishing him family, wishing him success, wishing him Jannah. It excludes: envy of his blessings, schadenfreude at his misfortune, withholding good from him out of stinginess.

Ibn Rajab cites the Salaf: ‘The companions used to say — if a man visited his brother and his brother offered him food without him eating, the brother would feel that something was wrong.’ This is fellow-feeling lived out.

nawawiDay.fromScholars

"What is meant by ‘brother’ here is the brother in faith — including all believers. So loving for them what you love for yourself is loving Islam, guidance, mercy, and every good for the entire Ummah."

— Ibn Rajab · Jāmi‘ al-‘Ulūm wa al-Ḥikam

"The negation in ‘does not believe’ negates the perfection of imān, not its origin. A person without this trait still has imān — but it is deficient."

— Ibn ‘Uthaymīn

nawawiDay.fiqhRulings

  • •Envy (ḥasad) — wishing the removal of a blessing from another — is forbidden and contradicts this hadith.
  • •Ghibṭah — wishing for similar blessings without wanting them removed from the other — is permitted and even praised.
  • •Loving guidance for non-Muslims is also encompassed; we wish them what we wish for ourselves: Islam.
  • •This hadith is the foundation of the prophetic principle of treating others as you wish to be treated.

nawawiDay.quranCrossRefs

59:9‘They prefer others over themselves, even though they themselves are in need.’ — describing the Anṣār.
49:10‘The believers are but brothers, so make peace between your brothers…’

nawawiDay.keyVocab

لا يُؤْمِنُlā yu'min

does not (truly) believe — i.e. complete imān

يُحِبَّyuḥibb

loves

لِأَخِيهِli-akhīhi

for his brother (in faith)

nawawiDay.todaysReflection

Do you wish guidance for those you currently dislike?

nawawiDay.keyBenefits

  • 1Faith is communal as well as individual.
  • 2Selfishness contradicts complete imān.

nawawiDay.warnings

  • ⚠Loving for your brother does not mean approving of his sins — it means wishing him repentance and guidance.
  • ⚠‘Loving for your brother what you love for yourself’ does not require giving away what you need; it requires the heart's good will.

nawawiDay.relatedHadiths

Bukhari — The believers in their mutual mercy are like one body

Nawawi 35 — Do not envy one another, do not hate one another…

nawawiDay.memorisation