The Prophet is quoted as saying: ‘An adulterer is not a believer when he commits adultery; a thief is not a believer when he steals; a drunkard is not a believer when he drinks intoxicants’. In another version: ‘None of you is a believer when he unlawfully appropriates something’. And yet in another: ‘Yet repentance is available to all’. Scholars differ as to the meaning of this hadith. The correct view stated by scrupulous scholars is that a person who commits any such sinful action does not do so when he is in a state of complete faith. Thus it is a case of negating the existence of something when the intention is to negate its full, complete or perfect meaning. It is like saying: ‘Nothing is knowledge except what is useful’, or ‘Nothing is property except camels’, or ‘There is no life except the life hereafter’. We interpret it in this way because of the hadith narrated by Abu Dharr and others, quoting the Prophet: ‘Whoever says, “There is no deity other than God” will be admitted into Heaven, even if he commits adultery and steals’. Moreover, [Ubadah ibn al-Samit reported an oft-narrated hadith stating the Ansar’s pledge, whereby they committed themselves not to ‘steal, commit adultery or indulge in disobedience of God …’. The Prophet said to them: ‘Whoever of you honours his pledges, God will give him his reward, and whoever commits any such thing and is punished for it in this present life, he has atoned for it, but anyone who commits something but is not punished, his case is determined by God: He may pardon him if He so wills, or He may punish him if He so wills’. These two hadiths and similar ones in authentic anthologies, and God’s own statement: ‘For a certainty, God does not forgive that partners are associated with Him. He forgives any lesser sin to whomever He wills’, (4: 48) are the basis of this view. Indeed, the people of the truth, i.e. Islam, are unanimous that adulterers, thieves, murderers, and those who commit grave sins, other than associating partners with God, are not considered unbelievers as a result of their sins. They are believers but their faith is deficient. If they repent and desist, their punishment is waived, but if they die persisting in their grave sins, they are left to God to determine their fate: He may wish to admit them to Heaven directly or He may punish them first then admit them into Heaven.
All this evidence makes it necessary to interpret this hadith and similar ones as we have done. Moreover, such interpretation is perfectly admissible from a linguistic point of view, and is frequently used. When two hadiths appear to be at variance, we must reconcile them, and this is a case where reconciliation is necessary; this is what we have actually done. Some scholars interpret this hadith as referring to a person who does any of these sins considering it lawful, despite the fact that he is aware that Islam forbids it. Al-Hasan and Abu Ja[far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari said: ‘The hadith means that such a person is deprived of the good name which applies to God’s devout servants, the believers, and given instead a bad name, such as “thief”, “adulterer”, “transgressor”, etc.’. Ibn [Abbas is reported to have said that the hadith means that God removes from him the light of faith; another hadith also mentions this. Al-Muhallab said: ‘Such a person is deprived of insight into obeying God’. Al-Zuhri, on the other hand, said that ‘this hadith and similar ones should be accepted fully and taken as they are, without trying to fathom their meaning. We certainly do not know their meaning’. He is also quoted as saying: ‘Take them as they were taken by your predecessors’.
Other views are expressed on the meaning of this hadith, but some of them are clearly wrong. Therefore, I have left them out. What I have mentioned of scholarly views are all possible, but the correct view is the one I mentioned first, but God knows best.
The Prophet describes what is robbed as ‘something of value’, meaning that it is clearly valuable and that people look at it with appreciation or admiration. The Prophet also clearly warns against unlawfully appropriating something to which one has no claim.
However, the Prophet makes clear that repentance is available to all. All scholars agree that repentance is accepted as long as it is offered before one is in the throes of death, as is clearly stated by the Prophet. To be accepted, repentance must meet three essential conditions: to quit the sin one is repenting, to regret having committed it, and to resolve not to do it again. If one genuinely repents a sin but nevertheless repeats it, his first repentance is not invalidated. If a person repents one sin while he is involved in another, his repentance is valid. This is the view of the people of the truth, but the Mu[tazilah disagree on both points, and God knows best.
Qadi [Iyad said: ‘Some scholars suggest that this hadith refers to all types of sinful action and warns against them. The mention of adultery refers to all types of unlawful desires, while theft refers to wealth and taking things unlawfully. Drinking refers to all that turns people away from God and makes them neglectful of their duties towards Him. Robbing refers to treating people badly, disrespecting them and being unashamed of doing wrong, in addition to enriching oneself unlawfully, but God knows best.’
Transmissioni
This hadith raises a question of transmission as one version of it adds that Abu Hurayrah used to add to these: ‘A person is not a believer when he robs something of value, which people normally appreciate’. Reported in this way, it appears that the addition was Abu Hurayrah’s words. However, another version makes it clear that this was also the Prophet’s own wording. Shaykh Abu [Amr ibn al-Salah wrote something fine on this point. He said:
In his al-Musnad al-Mustakhraj [ala Sahih Muslim, Abu Nu[aym al-Asbahani relates this hadith as narrated by Hammam ibn Munabbih. This version includes: ‘By Him who holds my soul in His hand, none of you robs …’. This is clear in attributing this part of the hadith to the Prophet himself. Abu Nu[aym entered this hadith although he would not have needed it because al-Bukhari relates it as narrated by al-Layth with the same chain of transmission given by Muslim, stating the hadith in full including the robbing, but without describing what is robbed as being ‘something of value’. Abu Nu[aym did not feel this as sufficient proof that the reference to robbing was the Prophet’s own words. It might have been suggested that it was simply added by some transmitter, by way of explanation. Such a suggestion could be made on the basis of the fact that in some versions, the first statement is followed by the words: ‘Abu Hurayrah used to add to these’ before mentioning the case of robbing. What Abu Nu[aym relates leaves no room for making such a suggestion. This means that when Abu Bakr ibn [Abd al-Rahman said: ‘Abu Hurayrah used to add to these’, he meant that Abu Hurayrah’s addition was quoting the Prophet, not his own addition. It appears that Abu Bakr specified this because he learnt that some other reporters did not include it. This is evidenced by Muslim relating the hadith as narrated by Yunus and [Uqayl from Ibn Shihab, from Abu Salamah and Ibn al-Musayyib, from Abu Hurayrah without mentioning the robbing. Then [Uqayl’s report makes clear that Ibn Shihab reports the mention of the robbing as reported by Abu Bakr ibn [Abd al-Rahman himself, and by Yunus’s report from [Abd al-Malik ibn Abu Bakr from his father. This suggests that he heard the hadith from Abu Bakr’s son reporting from his father and he later heard the same from Abu Bakr himself.
i.Abu Salamah’s and Sa[id ibn al-Musayyib’s version is related by al-Bukhari, 5578, while Abu Bakr’s version is related by al-Bukhari, 2475 and 2776; Ibn Majah, 3936.
i.Related by al-Bukhari, 6425; al-Nasa’i, 4886.
i.The subsequent discussion occurs in the original in the middle of the explanation of the hadith, as it deals with a portion of the text. It has been delayed so as to give all that al-Nawawi says of the explanation of the text and to allow this portion to stand alone, as it highlights a very interesting point of transmission.
CHAPTER 26
A HYPOCRITE’S CHARACTERISTICS
[109–106]. (Dar al-Salam 0111) Abu Bakr ibn Abi Shaybah narrated:i [Abdullah ibn Numayr narrated [H]. Ibn Numayr narrated: my father narrated; al-A[mash narrated [H]. Also Zuhayr ibn Harb narrated to me: Waki[ narrated; Sufyan narrated; from al-A[mash; from [Abdullah ibn Murrah; from Masruq; from [Abdullah ibn [Amr: ‘God’s Messenger (peace be upon him) said: “Four qualities: whoever combines them is a total hypocrite, and whoever has one of them has a quality of hypocrisy unless he abandons it: when he speaks, he lies; when he gives a pledge, he is treacherous; when he promises, he reneges, and when he quarrels, he resorts to falsehood”.’