The testimony of those given to tribal partisanship

Imam al-Shafi'i (may Allah have mercy on him) said: "Whoever displays tribalism ('asabiyyah) through his speech, gathers (people) on its basis and calls to it, his testimony is rejected, because he has committed a forbidden act about which, to my knowledge, there is no disagreement among the scholars of the Muslims."
And he cited as evidence the saying of Allah Almighty: "The believers are but brothers." [Surah al-Hujurat: 10]
And the saying of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him): "And be, O servants of Allah, brothers."

Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) said that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Beware of suspicion, for suspicion is false talk. Do not spy, do not pry, do not try to outdo one another, and do not envy, hate or cut off relations with one another; and, O servants of Allah, be brothers."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Do not cut off relations, bear enmity, hate or envy one another, and be brothers among the servants of Allah, as Allah has commanded you." [Sahih. Agreed upon]

Sayyiduna Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) said that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Do not hate, envy or cut off relations with one another; be brothers among yourselves. No Muslim should cut off his brother for more than three days, such that when the two meet, each turns away from the other; and the better of them is the one who begins with the greeting of peace."
Imam al-Shafi'i (may Allah have mercy on him) said: Allah has gathered people through Islam and ascribed them to it, so it is the noblest of their lineages; so if a man loves, let him love on that basis.

Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) said that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Allah has removed from you the tribal arrogance of the Jahiliyyah and boasting about forefathers. The believer is pious and the sinner is wretched. People are the children of Adam, and he was created from dust. People will give up boasting about their forefathers of the Jahiliyyah, or they will be more contemptible and lowly in the sight of Allah than the beetle that pushes filth away with its nose."

Sayyiduna Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) said that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "You will not find the sweetness of faith until you love a person only for the sake of Allah, until being thrown into the Fire is dearer to you than returning to disbelief after Allah has saved you from it, and until Allah and His Messenger are dearer to you than everything besides them."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "By Allah, you will not enter Paradise until you believe, and you will not be believers until you love one another. Shall I not tell you of something which, if you do it, you will love one another? Spread the greeting of peace among yourselves."

Sayyiduna al-Zubayr bin al-Awwam (may Allah be pleased with him) said that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The disease of the nations before you has crept into you: envy and hatred. They are destructive; they destroy the religion, not shave off the hair. By the One in Whose Hand is the soul of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him)! You will not be believers until you love one another. Shall I not tell you of something which, if you adopt it, you will love one another? Spread the greeting of peace among yourselves."

Likewise (through another chain).

Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) said that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "On the Day of Resurrection Allah Almighty will say: Where are those who loved one another for the sake of My Majesty? Today I will give them a place in My shade, on the day when there is no shade of anyone."

Abu Idris al-A'idhi said: I came to Sayyiduna Ubadah bin al-Samit (may Allah be pleased with him) and he said: I will narrate what I heard from the blessed tongue of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "My love is due to those who love one another for My sake; My love is due to those who maintain ties with one another for My sake; My love is due to those who sit together in rows (gather together) for My pleasure; and My love is due to those who spend on one another for My sake."

Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) said that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "O Abdullah! Which handhold of Islam is the firmest?" I said: Allah and His Messenger know best. He said: "Friendship for the sake of Allah, and love and hatred for the sake of Allah."
Imam al-Shafi'i (may Allah have mercy on him) said: If a man singles out his own people for love, as long as he does not impose on others what is not lawful for him, then this is maintaining ties of kinship, not tribalism; and rarely is there a person in whom there is not something lovable and something disliked.

Sayyiduna Amr bin al-As (may Allah be pleased with him) said that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) sent him with the army of Dhat al-Salasil.

Abu Uthman (may Allah have mercy on him) said that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) sent Amr bin al-As (may Allah be pleased with him) with the army of Dhat al-Salasil. He said: I came and asked: O Messenger of Allah! Who is the most beloved of people to you? In the hadith of Yahya: I said: O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)! Who is the most beloved of people to you? He said: "Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her)." I said: Among the men? He said: "Her father." I said: Then who? He said: "Umar (may Allah be pleased with him)." And he named several men.

Adi bin Thabit said: I heard Sayyiduna al-Bara' (may Allah be pleased with him) say: I saw the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) with Sayyiduna Hasan (may Allah be pleased with him) on his (peace and blessings be upon him) shoulders, and he was saying: "'Allahumma inni uhibbuhu fa-ahibbahu' (O Allah, I love him, so love him too)."

Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) said that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said about Sayyiduna Hasan (may Allah be pleased with him): 'Allahumma inni uhibbuhu fa-ahibbahu, wa ahbib man yuhibbuhu' (O Allah, I love him, so love him too, and love whoever loves him).

Sayyiduna Usamah bin Zayd (may Allah be pleased with them both) said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) would hold me and Hasan (may Allah be pleased with him) and say: "O Allah, I love them both, so love them both too."
Imam al-Shafi'i (may Allah have mercy on him) said: What is disliked in a man's love for those who belong to him is that he imposes on others what Allah has forbidden him: transgression, attacking lineage, and tribalism and hatred on the basis of lineage, not on account of disobedience to Allah nor any wrong done by the hated person to the one who hates him, but rather he says: I hate him because he is from Banu so-and-so. This is pure tribalism, for which testimony is rejected.

Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): "Whoever leaves obedience and separates from the jama'ah (the main body of Muslims), then dies, has died a death of Jahiliyyah. Whoever is killed under a blind banner, getting angry for tribalism, supporting tribalism and calling to tribalism, and is killed, his killing is a killing of Jahiliyyah. And whoever rebels against my Ummah, striking its righteous and its wicked, not sparing its believers and not fulfilling the covenant of those under its covenant, is not of my Ummah."

Sayyidah Fusaylah bint Wathilah bin al-Asqa' (may Allah be pleased with her) said: I heard my father (Sayyiduna Wathilah bin al-Asqa', may Allah be pleased with him) say: I asked: O Messenger of Allah! What is tribalism ('asabiyyah)? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Helping your people in wrongdoing."

Sayyiduna Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) said: A man came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said: O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)! If a man helps his people upon the truth, is that tribalism? He said: "No."

Abd al-Rahman bin Abdullah (may Allah have mercy on him) narrates from his father (may Allah be pleased with him): "A man helping his people unjustly is like trying to pull a camel that has fallen into a well out by its tail."

Abd al-Rahman bin Abdullah bin Mas'ud narrates from his father, Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: I came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) while he was in a leather tent, and he mentioned something similar.

Abd al-Rahman bin Abdullah bin Mas'ud narrates from his father, Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him), that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever helps in wrongdoing is like a camel that has fallen into a well and is then pulled out by its tail."

Ubaydullah bin Abi Yazid heard Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) saying: "Among the habits of the Jahiliyyah are attacking lineages and wailing (over the dead)." He forgot the third. Sufyan said: "Seeking rain through the stars."

Sayyiduna Abu Bakrah (may Allah be pleased with him) said that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Transgression and severing the ties of kinship are sins for which Allah gives punishment in this world as well as storing up (punishment) for the Hereafter."

Sayyiduna Iyad bin Himar (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) addressed us and narrated a hadith, in which he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Indeed, Allah Almighty has revealed to me that you should be humble, so that no one boasts over another."

Abu Ammar al-Husayn bin Hurayth al-Marwazi mentioned the hadith with his chain, that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said in his sermon: "Let no one transgress against another."
(b) Sayyiduna Iyad bin Himar (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Let no one act with transgression against another."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The strong one is not the one who quickly throws others down." A Companion asked: Then who is the strong one? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The one who keeps control of himself at the time of anger."

Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr bin al-As (may Allah be pleased with them both) says that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "A man's reviling his own parents is a major sin." The Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) said: O Messenger of Allah! Does anyone revile his own parents? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Yes; he reviles someone's father, so that person reviles his father; and he reviles someone's mother, so that person reviles his mother."

Sayyiduna Iyad bin Himar (may Allah be pleased with him) says: "O Messenger of Allah! A lowly man of my people reviles me." He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Two people who revile each other are two devils; they rail against each other and tell lies against each other, and the sin falls on the one who started it, as long as the wronged one does not transgress."

Sayyiduna Iyad bin Himar (may Allah be pleased with him) asked the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), saying: O Prophet of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)! What is your view of a man who reviles me while he is inferior to me in lineage? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Two people who revile each other are devils who rail and lie against each other."

Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) says that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The burden of what two people who revile each other say falls on the one who started it, as long as the wronged one does not transgress."
This is also narrated in the hadith of Sayyiduna Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him), and it contains evidence that retaliating is permissible without transgression and without displaying obscenity. The hadith of Sayyidah Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her) about the story of Sayyidah Zaynab bint Jahsh (may Allah be pleased with her) is evidence that retaliating is permitted, where she said: "Zaynab bint Jahsh had not yet left when I realised that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) did not dislike my retaliating." But pardoning and leaving retaliation is better.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Charity does not decrease wealth; through pardoning, Allah increases a person in honour; and whoever humbles himself for the sake of Allah, Allah raises him up."

Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) says that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Shall I tell you what the best character is in this world and the Hereafter?" Then he said: "Pardoning the one who wronged you, giving to the one who deprived you, and maintaining ties with the one who cut you off."

Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) says that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever has three qualities, Allah will make his reckoning easy and will admit him into Paradise by His mercy." They said: O Messenger of Allah! What are they? He said: "Giving to the one who deprives you, pardoning the one who wrongs you, and maintaining ties with the one who cuts you off." He said: If I do that, what will I get, O Messenger of Allah? He said: "Your reckoning will be easy, and Allah will admit you into Paradise by His mercy."

Sayyiduna Jabir bin Sulaym (may Allah be pleased with him) says: I saw a man (whose word people repeated and whose word they followed). I asked: Who is this? They said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). I said: "'Alayka al-salam (upon you be peace), O Messenger of Allah!" (twice). He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Do not say 'Alayka al-salam', for that is the greeting of the dead; say 'Al-salamu 'alayka'." The narrator says: I asked: Are you the Messenger of Allah? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "I am the Messenger of Allah, (the Messenger of) the One who, if some harm afflicts you and you call upon Him, removes your distress; and if a year of drought comes and you supplicate to Him, He makes (vegetation and grain) grow; and if your mount is lost in the wilderness and you call upon Him, He returns your mount to you." I said: Take a pledge from me. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Do not revile anyone." The narrator says: After that I did not revile any free man, slave, camel or goat. Then he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Do not regard any good deed as insignificant, and speak to your brother with a cheerful face, for that too is a good deed. Keep your lower garment raised to the middle of the shin, and if you refuse, then to the ankles. Beware of letting the garment hang down, for it is arrogance, and Allah Almighty dislikes arrogance. And if a man reviles you or shames you for (a fault) he knows about you, do not shame him; its evil consequence will fall on him alone."

Sayyiduna Salamah bin al-Akwa' (may Allah be pleased with him) says: I set out intending to go to the forest (al-Ghabah), and I heard a slave of Abd al-Rahman bin Awf (may Allah be pleased with him) saying that the she-camels of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) had been seized. He says: I said: Who seized them? He said: (The tribes of) Ghatafan and Fazarah. He says: I climbed onto a high place and called out: "Ya sabahah, ya sabahah" (Alarm, a morning raid! Alarm, a morning raid!). Then I set off on their tracks, until I snatched those she-camels back from them. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) came with a group of his Companions, and I said: O Messenger of Allah! The people are thirsty; we hurried them off before they could draw water to drink. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "O Ibn al-Akwa'! Allah has given you the upper hand, so act with forbearance, for those people are now being hosted among Ghatafan."

Sayyiduna Abu al-Darda' (may Allah be pleased with him) says: I was sitting with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) when Sayyiduna Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him) came, holding one end of his garment, and his knees were showing. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Some trouble has beset this companion of yours." Sayyiduna Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him) greeted and said: There was a dispute between me and Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him), and I acted hastily. Then he went away. I asked him to forgive me, but he refused and went into his house to avoid me, so I have come to you. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said three times: "May Allah forgive Abu Bakr." Then Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) felt regret, came to the house of Sayyiduna Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) and asked: Is Abu Bakr here? The household said: No. Then Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and the face of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) began to change, until Sayyiduna Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him) became afraid and knelt on his knees. He said twice: O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)! By Allah, it was I who was more at fault. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "O people! Allah sent me to you, and you said: 'You lie,' while Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) said: 'You have spoken the truth,' and he supported me with his wealth and his life. Will you not leave my companion alone?" He (peace and blessings be upon him) said this twice. After that he was never harmed.

Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) says: A man was reviling Sayyiduna Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) while the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was sitting there. He (peace and blessings be upon him) was showing amazement and smiling. When the man went on at length, Sayyiduna Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) answered him back, whereupon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) became displeased and stood up. Sayyiduna Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) went after (him (peace and blessings be upon him)) and said: O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)! He was reviling me and you (peace and blessings be upon him) remained seated, but when I answered him, you (peace and blessings be upon him) became displeased and stood up. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "There was with you one (an angel) who was answering him; when you answered him, Satan sat down, and I do not sit with Satan." Then he said: "O Abu Bakr! No servant is wronged and bears it for the pleasure of Allah, except that Allah helps him and grants him honour."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "The believer is a source of affection, and there is no good in one who neither shows affection nor is shown affection."