Nawawi Hadith 13: The Mirror of Faith

Part One: A Standard You Cannot Fake

Brothers,

Today’s khutbah is based on the 13th hadith in Imam Nawawi’s 40 Hadith:

On the authority of Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him), the servant of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, that the Prophet ﷺ said: 'None of you truly believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.' (Bukhari & Muslim)

Anas ibn Malik served the Prophet ﷺ for ten years and narrated this hadith from direct, daily observation of what the Prophet’s own character looked like in practice. It is recorded in both Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, the two most rigorously verified collections in the entire hadith tradition. Few statements in Islam are shorter or heavier than this one.

Imam an-Nawawi himself, in his commentary on this collection, calls this hadith one of the great foundations of the religion, on par with the hadiths on intentions and on the sanctity of the Muslim that follow it. He notes that it applies to every good a person could wish for another: religious good, worldly good, and protection from every form of harm.

Part 1: “None of You Truly Believes”

The Prophet ﷺ does not say this trait is recommended or praiseworthy. He says faith itself is incomplete without it. That is a serious claim. It means a man can pray, fast, and give charity, and still fall short of complete iman if his heart holds ill will toward his brother’s good fortune.

The believers are but brothers, so make peace between your brothers. And be mindful of Allah so you may be shown mercy. (Al-Hujuraat, 49:10)

Brotherhood here is not described as an option among many relationships. It is described as the defining bond of the ummah, on which peace and mercy depend.

Part 2: The Test Is What Happens Inside You

The hadith does not measure your actions toward your brother alone. It measures your heart’s honest reaction the instant you learn of his good news. Does relief for his relief rise in you naturally, or does a flicker of resentment arrive first?

The believers, in their mutual mercy, love, and compassion, are like one body. When one part complains, the whole body responds with sleeplessness and fever. (Muslim)

A healthy body does not feel jealousy toward its own healed limb. It feels relief. That is the picture the Prophet ﷺ gives us of what brotherhood is supposed to feel like from the inside.

Part 3: Envy, the Disease That Blocks This Standard

The main obstacle between a man and this level of faith is hasad, envy: wanting to see another person lose what they have, or resenting that they have it at all.

And from the evil of the envier when he envies. (Al-Falaq, 113:5)

Allah commands us to seek refuge from the envier’s evil, because envy is corrosive to both the one who carries it and the target of it.

Beware of envy, for envy consumes good deeds just as fire consumes wood. (Abu Dawud)

Every act of worship a man builds can be quietly eaten away by an untreated habit of resenting others’ blessings. This is why the Prophet ﷺ tied it directly to the completeness of faith rather than leaving it as a side note about manners.

Part 4: What Loving for Your Brother Actually Requires

It requires wanting for him what you want for yourself in every category: forgiveness and Paradise in the akhirah, and success, health, and relief in this world. It requires covering his faults the way you would want yours covered. It requires including him by name in your private du’a, not only in general terms.

The supplication of a Muslim for his brother in his absence is answered. An angel is appointed at his head who says, 'Ameen, and may you have the same.' (Muslim)

This is a direct incentive from the Prophet ﷺ. Every sincere du’a you make for another man returns to you through an angel’s own ameen. Few of us take advantage of how generous this offer is.

Part 5: The Standard Set by the Ansar

If we want to see this hadith fully embodied, we look to the people of Madinah when the Muhajireen arrived with nothing, having left behind their homes, their wealth, and their businesses in Makkah. The Ansar did not offer a portion of what they had. They offered to split everything in half.

And those who were settled in the city and ˹accepted˺ the faith before them, they love those who migrated to them, and find in their own hearts no need for what has been given to ˹the emigrants˺, and prefer them over themselves even though they are in need. And whoever is saved from the selfishness of their own soul, it is they who are ˹truly˺ successful. (Al-Hashr, 59:9)

Notice the phrase “even though they are in need.” This was not generosity from surplus. It was generosity that cost them something real, and Allah calls it success in the same breath. This is the ceiling this hadith points us toward: not merely tolerating your brother’s blessings, but preferring his relief over your own comfort when the moment calls for it.

Part Two: Practicing Brotherhood in Confinement

Brothers,

Part 6: Where This Hadith Is Tested Hardest

This hadith is easy to affirm and hard to practice, and nowhere is it tested more directly than in a place where men live shoulder to shoulder with very little of their own. When resources are limited, when everyone is waiting on the same slow system, when every man’s freedom feels like a scarce thing, envy finds fertile ground.

When a brother’s release date comes before yours, does joy for him come first, or does a bitter “why not me” arrive instead? When a brother gets good news from home, mail, a visit, a phone call, do you share it with him or does it sting that your own news hasn’t come? When a brother progresses in his deen faster than you, memorizing more, praying more consistently, does it push you to catch up with love, or does it curdle into resentment?

The men who master this hadith inside these walls become the backbone of a healthy Muslim community here. They are the ones who genuinely celebrate another man’s parole hearing instead of comparing it bitterly to their own. They are the ones who share what little commissary they have without being asked twice. They are the ones other men trust with private matters, because they have shown they carry no hidden envy.

Think of the newer brother who just arrived, unfamiliar with the routines, unsure who to trust, possibly newer to Islam itself. Loving for him what you love for yourself means treating his adjustment the way you would have wanted yours treated: patiently, without judgment, sharing what knowledge and comfort you can. It means teaching him what took you months to learn, in an afternoon, without making him feel foolish for not knowing it.

Part 7: Turning the Hadith Into Daily Habits

Start with your reaction in the first three seconds of hearing good news about someone. Force an honest “Alhamdulillah” before any other thought is allowed to form. Make specific du’a, not vague ones: name the brother, name what you are asking Allah to grant him, and mean it as much as you would for yourself.

When you feel envy rising toward a specific brother, treat it immediately. Make du’a that Allah gives him even more of what you are envying. This feels unnatural the first several times. It is meant to. That discomfort is the cure working.

To love for people what you love for yourself, to hate for them what you hate for yourself, and to keep your tongue moist with the remembrance of Allah. (Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak, Siyar A'lam al-Nubala)

This is a workable, daily definition of good character, not an abstract ideal. Measure yourself against it this week, brother by brother, situation by situation.

Part 8: The Sweetness This Hadith Produces

When a man genuinely reaches this level, he tastes something few people ever taste: a heart free of the low, gnawing weight of resentment toward others. He sleeps without the bitterness that comparison breeds. His du’as carry more weight because they come from a heart that wants good for everyone, not just himself. People sense this in him and trust him more, because a man without hidden envy has nothing to hide.

By the One in Whose Hand is my soul, you will not enter Paradise until you believe, and you will not believe until you love one another. (Bukhari)

This is where the hadith ultimately points: not toward a rule to be obeyed reluctantly, but toward a taste of Paradise available to us even now, in the love we choose to build with the men beside us. That taste is available to every man in this room, regardless of what walls surround him, the moment he decides his brother’s good is worth wanting as much as his own.

O Allah, remove every trace of envy from our hearts.

O Allah, let us love for our brothers what we love for ourselves.

O Allah, make our du’as for one another sincere and specific, and answer them.

O Allah, let us feel our brother’s joy as our own and his hardship as our own.

O Allah, protect the brotherhood we build here from resentment, comparison, and division.

O Allah, complete our faith through the love we hold for one another.

O Allah, make us a source of relief and good news for every brother we live among.

O Allah, let us taste the sweetness of a heart free from envy and resentment.

O Allah, grant us the character of the Ansar, who preferred others even in their own need.