40 HADITH | Fancam

My ongoing curation of documented stories re: the mortal messenger Muhammadﷺ

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Although no narration is as elevated as Quranic revelation, hadiths are regularly weaponised to cause religious trauma in generations of Muslims. So I am now learning to befriend the messenger too. This collection is a personal reclamation project curated based on the Quranic principle that the prophetic mission was meant as Rahma to all beings (21:107). For me this means: to find spiritual healing within so many documented narrations of varying quality, I must value learning only from the messengerﷺ's most Rahma-fied most Rahma-tised actions. I hope to eventually do my take on a classic Muslim tradition— compiling my own fancam of 40 hadith here, if the Beloved wants it too. As always, A!!ahﷻ knows best what the man truly said/meant.

40 lessons from 40 hadith (in progress):

🍉 Notes after Muhammadﷺ's last speech

Believing is easy

Believing is easy. Overburdening your religious practice is extremist and unsustainable. Abu Hurayra narrated:

The Messengerﷺ said: Religion is easy, and anyone who overburdens himself in his religion will not be able to continue in that way. So do not be extremists, but try to be near to perfection and receive the good tidings that you will be rewarded. Gain strength by worshipping in the mornings and afternoons and during the last hours of the night. (al-Bukhari 39)

Blessed are the strangers and the weirdos

Blessed are the ghurabaa, the dispossessed, the refugees and migrants, the precarious, neurodivergents, the disabled, the queer, the homesick and the abandoned. Blessed are the weirdos. Abu Hurayra reported the Messenger of A!!ahﷺ said:

“Islam began as something strange and it will return to being strange, so blessed are the strangers.” (Muslim 145)

Actions are valued by intention

The value of one's actions are in their intention. The validity and reward of deeds are based on the intention behind them. 'Umar al-Khattab narrated:

The Messengerﷺ said: "The reward of deeds depends on the intention, and every person will get the reward according to what they have intended." (al-Bukhari 01 and 54, Muslim 1907a).

Making choices

When given an option, choose the easier one— unless it is unjust. No convenience is worth an injustice.

Aisha narrated: "Whenever the Prophetﷺ was given an option between two things, he used to select the easier of the two as long as it was not sinful; but if it was sinful, he would remain far from it." (Muslim 2327d, al-Bukhari 6786)

Love is belief

Being a good person isn't easy. We can get everything right and still fail if we are selfish and envious of others. Anas narrated:

The Messengerﷺ said: None amongst you believes (truly) until he loves for his brother or for his neighbour that which he loves for himself. (Muslim 45a, Bukhari 13)

Help oppressors too

You can help oppressors by preventing them from oppressing others. To do is an act of care. Anas narrated:

A!!ah's Messengerﷺ said, "Help your brother, whether he is an oppressor or he is an oppressed one." People asked, "O A!!ah's Messenger! It is all right to help him if he is oppressed, but how should we help him if he is an oppressor?" The Prophetﷺ said, "By preventing him from oppressing others." (al-Bukhari 2444, also in 6592 and Jami' at-Tirdmidhi 2255)

The best struggle

The highest form of struggle is to speak justice against the oppressive ruler. Abu Sa'id al-Khudri narrated:

The Prophetﷺ said: The best fighting (jihad) in the path of A!!ah is (to speak) a word of justice to an oppressive ruler. (Abu Dawud 4344)

None can prevent

The prayers of the oppressed are powerful and directly connected to the Most Powerful. Ibn 'Abbas narrated:

The Messenger of A!!ah sent Mu'adh [bin Jabal] to Yemen, and said: Beware of the supplication of the oppressed; for indeed there is no barrier between it and A!!ah. (Jami' at-Tirmidhi 2014 also al-Bukhari 2448)

Children are an oppressed group

Children are also an oppressed class and group of people. Ibn 'Abbas narrated the Messengerﷺ said:

"My mother and I were among the weak and oppressed. I from among the children, and my mother from among the women." (al-Bukhari 1357, also 4587)

Do not normalise surveillance, exclusion

We were warned not to normalise what feasts on our suspicion and lack of trust in each other: surveillance, competition, inflation, grudges, cancel culture. To search for the faults of the people is to try to corrupt them. Abu Hurayra reported that A!!ah's Messengerﷺ said:

Beware of suspicion, for suspicion is the worst of false tales, do not look for the others' faults. Do not spy, and do not be jealous of one another. Do not abandon one another, and do not hate one another. (al-Bukhari 6064, Muslim 2563a)

Do not completely abandon each other, nurse malice and aversion against each other, do not spy/eavesdrop, do not enter transactions others have already entered, do not outbid each other to raise prices. Do not sever relations of kinship, do not feel envy of each other. Live as fellow-siblings as A!!ah has commanded.
— (paraphrase of Muslim 2563b, 2563c, 2563d, 2563e)

Greed multiplies destruction

Greed corrupts soul and society by multiplying domination, injustice and oppression.

Jabir reported that A!!ah's Messengerﷺ said: "Be on your guard against committing oppression, for oppression is a darkness on the Day of Resurrection, and be on your guard against greed/selfishness/stinginess for it has destroyed those who were before you, as it incited them to shed blood and make lawful what was unlawful for them." (Muslim 2578)

Doomers are disconnected

To generalise one's pessimism as universal is an act that is self-destructive and disconnected from reality.

Abu Hurayra reported:

The Prophetﷺ said: When a man says, 'The people have gone to ruin,' he is the most ruined of all. (Muslim 2623)

The liberation camp is like one body

Believers of Reality who struggle for liberation from oppression are like one body in their mutual compassion and kindness. Nu'man bin Bashir narrated that the Messenger of A!!ahﷺ said:

"The believers in their mutual kindness, compassion and sympathy are just like one body. When one of the limbs suffers, the whole body responds to it with wakefulness and fever." (Riyad as-Salihin 224, Muslim 2586a)

Tie your camel too

Effort and faith go hand in hand. Take precautions so you do not neglect what you are responsible for.

Anas narrated that a man said: "O Messenger of A!!ah! Shall I tie [my camel] and rely upon A!!ah, or leave it loose and rely upon A!!ah?" He said: "Tie [your camel] and rely upon A!!ah." Other chains report similar narrations. (at-Tirmidhi 2517)

Defend the orphans

The Beloved favours those who care for and defend humankind's orphans.

Sahl ibn Sa'd reported that the Prophetﷺ said, "I and the guardian of the orphan will be in the Garden like that," indicating his forefinger and middle finger. (Bukhari 6005, Adab 135, at-Tirmidhi 1918, Abu Dawud 5150)

Do not let your neighbours hunger

Your abundance is hollow if you let your neighbours go hungry.

Ibn 'Abbas informed Ibn az-Zubayr: I heard the Prophetﷺ say, "He is not a believer whose stomach is filled while his neighbour goes hungry." (Adab 112)

Inform him

Encourage men to confess their love for each other.

Anas narrated: A man was with the Prophetﷺ and a man passed by him and said: "Messenger of A!!ah! I love this man." The Messenger of A!!ah then asked: "Have you informed him?" He replied: "No." He said: "Inform him." He then went to him and said: "I love you for A!!ah's sake." He replied: "May He for Whose sake you love me love you!" (Abu Dawud 5125)

Compassion for those who die by suicide

Show compassion for those who die by suicide, like the Messenger was said to have done for an anxious migrant.

Jabir narrated: Tufayl bin ‘Amr went to the Prophetﷺ and he said: “O Messenger of God, do you have a secure fortress?” The tribe of Daws had a fortress in the days of Jahiliyya. The Prophetﷺ refused that offer, as God had reserved it for the Ansar. When the Messenger of God performed the Hijra to Medina, Tufayl made the Hijra with a man from his tribe. They reached Medina and the man became sick, and felt anxiety. He took iron arrowheads and cut through his finger joints, and his hands gushed out until he died. Then Tufayl saw him in a dream. His condition was good, but his hands were bandaged. Tufayl asked him, “What did your Lord arrange with you?” He said, “He pardoned me with my Hijra to his prophet, God bless him and give him peace.” Tufayl asked him, “Why do I see your hands wrapped?” He said, “It was said to me, ‘We do not repair what you damaged.’” Tufayl told the story to the Messenger of God ﷺ, who said, "O God, forgive his hands too." (Adab 614)

Exploited animals complain about you

The animals you exploit complain about you to those who listen.

Abd Allah bin Ja’far narrated: One day, he entered the garden of a man from the Ansar when a camel came to him, dragging along, tears flowing from its eyes [Bahz and ‘Affan, transmitters of this hadith, said that when the camel saw the Prophet, he felt compassion as tears flowed from its eyes]. The Messenger of Godﷺ wiped its tears and head, and it became calm. He said, “Who is the master of this camel?” A youth from the Ansar came and said, “It is mine, O Messenger of God.” He said, “Do you not fear God with this animal, that God has given you? It complains to me that you starve it and wear it out.” (Abu Dawud 2549)

Every living being will testify

Every living being will testify to the way you interacted with them, so act lovingly and compassionately— to dogs, to animals, to all beings.

Abu Hurayra reported that the Messenger of A!!ahﷺ said, "One day a man became very thirsty while walking down the road. He came across a well, went down into it, and drank and then climbed out. In front of him he found a dog panting, eating the dust out of thirst. The man said, 'This dog is as thirsty as I was.' He went back down into the well and filled his shoe, putting it into his mouth (in order to climb back up) and then gave the dog water. Therefore A!!ah thanked him and forgave him." They said, "Messenger of A!!ah, will we have a reward on account of animals?" He said, "There is a reward on account of every living thing." (Adab 378, Bukhari 2466)

Compassion for all creatures

Killing animals for food is not something we should do uncritically. A hadith that is the basis of Muslim eco-activist perspectives and vegan diets.

Mu'awiya ibn Qurra reported that a companion said to the Prophet, “Ya Rasul A!!ahﷺ, I was about to slaughter a sheep but was overcome by rahma.” The Prophet replied, “Since you took rahma on the sheep, A!!ah will take rahma on you twicefold.” (Adab 373)

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