2 of 2 · c. 10 AH / 631 CE · Madinah to Yemen
Mu'adh ibn Jabal رضي الله عنه
Sent to Teach Yemen
When Islam reached Yemen, the Prophet ﷺ sent Mu'adh as a teacher and representative. Ibn 'Abbas reports the instructions he gave him: "You are going to a people of the Book. Let the first thing you call them to be the testimony that there is no god but Allah and that I am the Messenger of Allah. If they accept that, tell them that Allah has made five prayers obligatory on them each day and night; and if they accept that, that Allah has made charity obligatory, taken from their rich and given to their poor" (Sahih al-Bukhari 1496; Sahih Muslim 19).
He added a warning that every governor should keep before him: "Beware the supplication of the wronged, for there is no veil between it and Allah." The order of the teaching, gently and in stages, and the fear of injustice, were Mu'adh's first lessons in leadership.
A well-known report says the Prophet ﷺ asked him how he would judge. Mu'adh said he would judge by the Book of Allah, then by the Sunnah of His Messenger, then by his own reasoned effort, and the Prophet ﷺ was pleased and praised Allah. This is often cited as the root of ijtihad.
Teach the foundations first, be gentle in stages, and never forget that the one you wrong has a direct line to Allah.
Where do you hold some authority, even small, and how can you use it with the fear of the wronged person's prayer?
- Sahih al-Bukhari 1496 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
- Sahih Muslim 19 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
- Sunan Abi Dawud 3592Graded by Al-Albani: Daif · Zubair Ali Zai: DaifDa'if
- Jami' al-Tirmidhi 3790 ("the most knowledgeable of halal and haram")Grade not recorded here
- Jami' al-Tirmidhi 1327Graded by Ahmad Muhammad Shakir: Daif · Al-Albani: Daif · Zubair Ali Zai: DaifDa'if
- Ibn al-Qayyim, I'lam al-Muwaqqi'inHistorical report
What the hadith grades mean
- Sahih (authentic): an unbroken chain of trustworthy, precise narrators, free of hidden flaws or contradiction. It is acted upon.
- Hasan (good): like sahih, but a narrator's precision is slightly lighter. It is also accepted and acted upon. "Hasan sahih" means it reaches sahih by its routes.
- Da'if (weak): a break in the chain or a narrator who is not reliable enough. It is not used to establish beliefs or rulings.
- Very weak (munkar, matruk): a seriously flawed chain or a narrator accused of lying. It is not relied on at all.
- Mawdu' (fabricated): falsely attributed to the Prophet ﷺ. It may not be narrated as his words except to warn against it.
- The two Sahihs: every hadith with a full chain in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim is accepted as sahih by the scholars of hadith.
- Historical report: biographies and histories (Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabari) record events with chains that are often incomplete. They are used for the story, not for rulings.
- Hadith scholars grade a narration; the four madhhabs do not. Where a hadith carries a ruling, the page shows which schools act on it.
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