Arba'un 35 — do not envy one another; be brothers

الأربعون 35 — لا تحاسدوا ولا تناجشوا وكونوا عباد الله إخواناً

The hadith of Abu Hurayra that the Messenger of God said 'do not envy one another, do not outbid one another, do not hate one another, do not turn your backs on one another, and let none of you sell upon his brother's sale — be servants of God, brothers: a Muslim is a Muslim's brother, he does not wrong him, fail him, lie to him or despise him', then pointing to his breast three times 'God-fearingness is here', and 'it is enough evil for a man to despise his Muslim brother; all of the Muslim is forbidden to the Muslim — his blood, his property and his honour' — the thirty-fifth of al-Nawawi's Forty and of Ibn Rajab's commentary, transmitted by Muslim (2564) through Abu Sa'id, the client of Abdullah ibn Amir ibn Kurayz, from Abu Hurayra — this Abu Sa'id's personal name is unknown though several narrated from him, Ibn Hibban listing him among the trustworthy while Ibn al-Madini called him unknown; Sufyan al-Thawri slipped narrating it 'from Sa'id ibn Yasar from Abu Hurayra' — it is rather Abu Sa'id the client of Ibn Kurayz, as Ahmad, Yahya and al-Daraqutni held; and al-Tirmidhi (1927) carries it through Abu Salih from Abu Hurayra in the wording 'a Muslim is a Muslim's brother, he does not betray him, lie to him or fail him; all of the Muslim is forbidden to the Muslim — his honour, his property and his blood; God-fearingness is here; it is enough evil for a man to despise his Muslim brother' (Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam pp. 710–730).

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Mentions: Abu Hurayra
Basis for: Muslim brotherhood· Envy (hasad)· The sanctity of a Muslim's blood· Taqwa (God-consciousness)

People and things also explored

Husn al-khuluq (good character)· Arba'un 36 — whoever relieves a believer's distress· The sanctity of a Muslim's blood· Muslim brotherhood· Concealing a Muslim's fault (satr)· The shahada· Wara' (scrupulosity)· The Conquest of Khaybar

Sources

Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam — Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali

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islam.museum contributors. “Arba'un 35 — do not envy one another; be brothers”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/passage/arbaun-35/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Accessed 2026-10-13.

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Husn al-khuluq (good character)

Treating people with what pleases them in word and deed while withholding harm — the third clause of 'fear God wherever you are': 'and keep company with people in good character' — which together with taqwa combines God's rights and His servants' rights, a combination Ibn Rajab calls rare, sustained only by the most complete of prophets and the truthful; its summit, as God describes the muttaqun, is giving freely and bearing hurt — 'who spend in ease and hardship, who restrain their anger and pardon people' — and revelation reports 'the most complete of believers in faith are the best of them in character', that it is the heaviest thing laid in the scales, raising its owner to the rank of the one fasting and praying, the best gift given a Muslim and what makes them most beloved to God and nearest to the Prophet in station; among its definitions: Ahmad's 'that you not become angry or fierce' and, in another report, 'that you bear what comes from people', Ishaq ibn Rahuya's 'a cheerful face and not becoming angry', and some scholars' 'restraining anger for God, showing openness and cheer except to the innovator and the flagrant, pardoning the erring except for discipline or establishing a hadd, and withholding harm from every Muslim and covenanted person except to change an evil or take what is due for the wronged without transgression'.