Musnad of Abdullah bin Mas'ud

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Indeed, Allah Almighty feels protective jealousy (ghayrah) for His believing servant, so a person should also have protective jealousy for himself."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The (perfect) believer is not one who taunts, nor one who curses much, nor one who speaks obscenely, nor is he foul-tongued."

Al-Suddi (may Allah have mercy on him) relates: I asked Murrah al-Hamdani (may Allah have mercy on him) about this saying of Allah Almighty: "There is none of you except that he will come to it," and he told me that Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated to them that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "People will come to the Bridge (al-Sirat) and will pass over it according to their deeds. The first group of them will pass like the swift wind, then like the galloping of a horse, then at the pace of a rider on his saddle, then like a man running, and then at the pace of his ordinary walking."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever dies while setting up a partner or equal to Allah, Allah will enter him into the Fire." And Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) said (adding a point of his own): "And the other thing, which I said, is: Whoever dies while not setting up any partner with Allah, Allah Almighty will enter him into Paradise. Moreover, these true (obligatory) prayers are an expiation for the sins committed in the times between them, as long as the destructive sin is avoided." Imam Abu Bakr (may Allah have mercy on him) clarified that "al-maqtal" here means the major sins.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) that a man was mentioned in the presence of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and it was said: O Messenger of Allah! So-and-so slept all night until morning (and did not wake up). the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Satan urinated in his ear."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Taking evil omens is shirk (associating partners with Allah), and there is none of us (but that some ill notion comes into his heart at some time), but Allah Almighty removes it through reliance (tawakkul) upon Him."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "It is as if I am looking at Musa bin Imran (peace be upon him) in this valley in the state of ihram, wrapped in two white Qatawani sheets, that is, cloaks with short pile."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Among those before you, the Children of Israel, when someone committed a sin, the one who forbade him would forbid him merely as a formality, just to discharge the duty. Then the next day he would sit with that sinner and share his food and drink as though he had not seen him sinning the day before. So when Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, saw this conduct of theirs, He made their hearts like one another (and set them against each other), and He cursed them on the tongue of His prophets, Sayyiduna Dawud and Sayyiduna Isa bin Maryam (peace be upon them both): That was because they disobeyed and used to transgress. By the One in whose hand is my soul! You must enjoin what is good and forbid what is evil, and you must firmly compel the wrongdoer to come to the truth; otherwise Allah Almighty will make your hearts like one another as well, and will curse you just as He cursed them."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) that some people came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said: "A companion of ours is ill; shall we cauterise him (as treatment)?" He (peace and blessings be upon him) remained silent for a while, then said: "If you wish, cauterise him, and if you wish, apply heated stones to him as a compress."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said: "I was grazing the goats of the family of Abu Mu'ayt when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) came to me, and with him (peace and blessings be upon him) was Sayyiduna Abu Bakr bin Abi Quhafah (may Allah be pleased with him). The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) asked: 'O boy! Do you have any milk that you can give us to drink?' I said: Yes! But I am entrusted (with them). He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: 'Do you have a young ewe that no male has yet mounted?' I said: Yes! Then I brought him (peace and blessings be upon him) such a young ewe, whose udder had not even appeared yet. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) passed his blessed hand over the place of the udder, though there was no trace of an udder there, and suddenly that place swelled up, full of milk. I brought him (peace and blessings be upon him) a deep, bowl-like stone, and he (peace and blessings be upon him) milked into it, then gave Sayyiduna Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) to drink, gave me to drink, and then drank himself. After that he (peace and blessings be upon him) said to the udder: 'Shrink!' and it returned to its original state. Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) says: I saw this miracle of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) with my own eyes. Then I said: O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)! Teach me (something) too. He (peace and blessings be upon him) passed his blessed hand over my head and said: 'May Allah Almighty bless you,' 'Indeed, you are a well-taught boy.' So I accepted Islam." Then I came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and once, while we were with him (peace and blessings be upon him) on (Mount) Hira, Surah al-Mursalat was revealed to him (peace and blessings be upon him). I learnt it (hearing it from him (peace and blessings be upon him)) while his blessed mouth was still moist with its recitation. I do not remember with which of these two verses the surah ended: "And when it is said to them, 'Bow down,' they do not bow down" [Al-Mursalat: 48], or "Then in what statement after it will they believe?" [Al-Mursalat: 50]. I took seventy surahs from the blessed mouth of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and I took the rest of the Qur'an from his Companions. He says: Once we were sleeping on Hira, and nothing woke us except these words of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): "The One who kept it from you kept you safe from it." We said: "O Messenger of Allah! What was it?" He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "It was a snake that came out from the side of the mountain."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) that Musaylimah the Liar sent two men as envoys, one of whom was Ibn Uthal bin Hajar. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) asked them: "Do you two bear witness that Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) is the Messenger of Allah?" They both replied: We bear witness that Musaylimah is the messenger of Allah. At this the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "I believe in Allah and His messengers. If I were one to kill envoys of delegations, I would (certainly) have killed you both." Then (some time later), when Sayyiduna Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) was in Kufah, the man who had been with Ibn Uthal (as an envoy) was brought before him, and he was a relative of his. He ordered that he be killed, and said to the people: "Do you know why I have had him killed?" The people said: "We do not know." He said: "Musaylimah sent him with Ibn Uthal bin Hajar, and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said (to the two of them): 'Do you two bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah?' They said: 'We bear witness that Musaylimah is the messenger of Allah.' So the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: 'I believe in Allah and His messengers. If I were one to kill envoys, I would have killed you both.' That is why I have had him killed." Abu Wa'il (may Allah have mercy on him) said: "That man was (still) a disbeliever at that time."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was asked which sin is the greatest in the sight of Allah Almighty. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "That you set up a rival and partner to Allah, while it is He who created you." He asked: Then which sin is greatest after that? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Then that you commit adultery with your neighbour's wife." Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) says that Allah Almighty revealed this noble verse confirming those words: "And those who do not invoke another god along with Allah, nor kill the soul which Allah has forbidden except by right, nor commit adultery" [Al-Furqan: 68].

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The first matter to be judged between people on the Day of Resurrection will be concerning (unlawfully shed) blood."

Al-Harith bin Suwayd (may Allah have mercy on him) relates that Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated two hadiths to us, one of them from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and the other his own saying. He said: "The believer perceives his sins as if he were sitting beneath a mountain, fearing that it might fall upon him, whereas the wicked sinner regards his sins as trivial, like a fly that passed by his nose and he waved it away with his hand like this." And he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Allah Almighty rejoices more at the repentance of His servant than a man who halted in a deadly desert, having with him his mount carrying his food and water. He laid down his head and slept, and when he awoke, his mount had gone, along with his food and water. He set out searching for it until severe thirst or hunger overcame him (the narrator Abu Shihab (may Allah have mercy on him) was unsure which). Then he said: I will go back to my place and die there. So he returned to his place and laid down his head, and when he awoke, behold, his mount was right there beside him, with his food and water on it."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him): "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) used to say the takbir (during the prayer) every time he bent down, rose, stood up and sat, and this was also the practice of Sayyiduna Abu Bakr and Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both)."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) used to give the salam to his right and to his left, saying: "As-salamu 'alaykum wa rahmatullah, as-salamu 'alaykum wa rahmatullah" (Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah, peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah), until the whiteness of his blessed cheek could be seen.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The best people of my Ummah are those of my generation, then those who come after them, then those who come after them. Then there will come people whose testimony will precede their oath, and whose oath will precede their testimony." Ibrahim al-Nakha'i (may Allah have mercy on him) said: "We used to be forbidden from swearing oaths by covenant and by testimonies."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Indeed, some poetry is wisdom."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him): "There was a very wealthy man. When his death approached, he said to his family: If you do what I command you, I will leave you a great deal of wealth as inheritance. They said: Yes. He said: When I die, burn me, then grind (my bones), and when a strong wind blows, climb to the top of a mountain and scatter me (my ashes), for if Allah gets hold of me, He will not forgive me. So that was done with him. Then he was gathered together in the hands of Allah, and Allah Almighty asked: What made you do what you did? He said: 'O my Lord, fear of You.' Allah Almighty said: Go, for I have certainly forgiven you."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) that a man came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said that so-and-so had slept through the (Fajr) prayer last night. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Satan has urinated in his ear, or (the narrator is unsure whether he (peace and blessings be upon him) said) in both his ears."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Indeed, the people who will receive the severest punishment on the Day of Resurrection are the image-makers."

It is narrated from Huzayl (may Allah have mercy on him) that Sayyiduna Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) and Sayyiduna Salman bin Rabi'ah (may Allah be pleased with him) were asked about the inheritance of a daughter, a son's daughter and a sister. They both said: "The sister gets half and the daughter gets half." Then when Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) was asked, he said: "(If I gave a ruling against the truth,) then I would have gone astray and would not be of the rightly guided. I will give the ruling that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) gave: The daughter gets half, the son's daughter gets a sixth to complete the two-thirds, and whatever remains goes to the sister."

It is narrated from Ata (may Allah have mercy on him) that Sayyiduna Abu al-Darda' (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) left us in such a state that there is not even a bird flying with its wings in the sky about which he (peace and blessings be upon him) did not give us some piece of knowledge (guidance)."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him): Alqamah (may Allah have mercy on him) relates that we came with Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) to Sayyiduna Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him), and Sayyiduna Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him) asked Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him): "Do you still have any need for women (any desire for marriage)?" Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "O Alqamah! Come closer." (Alqamah (may Allah have mercy on him) says: I was a young man at the time.) So I came closer, and he said (narrating the hadith) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) came out to some unmarried young men and said: "Whoever among you is able to marry should marry, for it is most effective in lowering the gaze and in guarding the private parts; and whoever is not able should fast, for fasting is a means of curbing desire for him."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Let those of you who possess intelligence and understanding stand close to me (in the rows of prayer), then those who are next to them (in rank). And do not differ among yourselves, lest your hearts become divided; and keep yourselves away from the uproar and clamour of the marketplaces."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "O assembly of women! Give charity, for on the Day of Resurrection you will be the majority of the people of Hell." At this a woman who was not of the noble class said: Why will we be the majority in Hell? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Because you curse a great deal and are ungrateful to your husbands." Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "I have not seen anyone, deficient in intellect and religion, who prevails over the affairs of wise and sensible men more than these women." He was asked: O Ibn Mas'ud! What is the deficiency in their intellect and religion? He said: "As for the deficiency in their intellect, the testimony of two women has been made equal to the testimony of one man; and as for the deficiency in their religion, there come upon a woman, as Allah wills, days and nights in which she does not prostrate a single prostration to Allah Almighty (because of her monthly period)."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) that a man came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said: "Will we be held accountable for the deeds we did in the time of Ignorance (Jahiliyyah)?" He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "If you conduct yourself well after accepting Islam, you will not be held accountable for that (period of Ignorance); but if you follow the way of evil even after entering Islam, you will be called to account for the first and the last (all your sins)."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Let no woman have (bare) bodily contact with another woman and then describe her to her husband, or to a man, as though he were looking at her. And when there are three people, let two not converse privately, leaving out their third companion, for that grieves him. And whoever swears a false oath in order to seize thereby the property of his brother, or the property of a Muslim man, will meet Allah while Allah is angry with him." The narrator says: Sayyiduna Ash'ath bin Qays (may Allah be pleased with him) heard Sayyiduna Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) narrating this hadith and said: "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said this concerning two men who disputed over a well."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) that a man from among the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), who was one of the People of the Suffah, passed away. He left behind two dinars (in his estate). When this was mentioned to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "These are two brands (of fire)."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever sends ahead (to Allah) three of his children who had not yet reached puberty, they will be a strong fortress for him against the Fire of Hell." At this Sayyiduna Abu Dharr (may Allah be pleased with him) said: O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)! I have sent ahead two of my children. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "And for two (who die) there is the same reward." Then the leader of the Qur'an reciters, Sayyiduna Ubayy bin Ka'b (may Allah be pleased with him), said: O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)! I have sent ahead one child. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "And for one as well (there is this virtue); but this reward is conditional on (patience and acceptance) at the first moment of the shock."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever performs the prayer beautifully (with its pillars and humility) where people can see him, but performs it badly (that is, carelessly) when he is alone, that is a contempt which he has shown towards his Lord, the Blessed and Exalted."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The poor person (miskin) is not the (beggar) who goes round to you and is turned away with a morsel or two, or a date or two." We said: O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)! Then who (in reality) is the poor person? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The one who does not have enough to make him free of need, who is too shy to ask people, and whose (need) no one notices so that charity might be given to him."
Imam Abu Ya'la (may Allah have mercy on him) said: "I think this narration is from Sayyiduna Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him)."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "A Muslim's abusing his (Muslim) brother is fisq (disobedience), fighting him is kufr (disbelief), and the sanctity of his wealth is like the sanctity of his blood."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him), with the same chain, that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "When the servant of one of you brings him his food, he should (first) give him a morsel or seat him with himself (to eat), for it was this servant who bore its heat and its smoke."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) asked: "Do you know which charity is the best?" The Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) said: "Allah and His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) know best." He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The minhah (giving someone a thing to benefit from for a time): that you give your brother dinars, or dirhams, or a cow, or a goat, or the back of a riding animal (for riding), or the milk of a goat, or the milk of a cow (as a gift)." And the narrator did not say "the cow and the goat" (together).

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Satan has despaired of idols being worshipped in the land of the Arabs, but besides that he will be content with you through the sins that you consider trivial, and these are the very sins that will prove destructive on the Day of Resurrection. Avoid wrongdoing and injustice as much as you can, for a servant will come on the Day of Resurrection with his good deeds, thinking that they will save him; but one servant after another will keep standing up and saying: 'Ya Rabbi, zalamani 'abduka mazlamah' (O my Lord, this servant of Yours wronged me), and Allah Almighty will say: 'Umhu min hasanatihi' (Erase (his due) from his good deeds), and this will continue until, because of (the recompense for) his sins, not a single good deed remains with him. The likeness of this is that of a group of travellers who camped in a wilderness and had no firewood with them. The people then dispersed to gather wood, and in a short while they had gathered so much that they lit a huge fire and cooked whatever they wished to cook. Such is the case with sins too (they accumulate and destroy a person)."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said: "No one has more ghayrah (protective jealousy) than Allah Almighty, and it is because of His ghayrah that He has forbidden all indecencies, whether open or hidden."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Indeed, on the Day of Resurrection Allah Almighty will command a caller (to announce): 'O Adam! Rise and send forth a party from your offspring to Hell.' Sayyiduna Adam (peace be upon him) will say: 'O my Lord! Out of every how many?' Allah Almighty will say: 'Out of every hundred, ninety-nine to Hell and one to Paradise.'" This weighed heavily upon those Companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) (may Allah be pleased with them) who heard it, and they said to him (peace and blessings be upon him): Who among us will be saved after this? The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Your situation is among two such groups of people, namely Gog and Magog, and they will swarm down from every height. And your position in the world (compared with the other groups) is only like a bright mark on the foreleg of an animal, or like a single hair on the side of a camel."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Hands are of three kinds: the Hand of Allah Almighty is the highest, after it is the hand of the giver, while the hand of the one who asks is the lowest hand until the Day of Resurrection. So refrain from begging and asking as much as you can. Then if you are given something, or he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: some good is granted to you, its effect should be visible on you. Begin your spending with those who are under your care, and give (others) something from your surplus wealth as well; and you will not be blamed for refraining from asking."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "May Allah keep radiant the person who heard a hadith from us, then preserved it (by memorising it) until he conveyed it to others."