Nawawi Hadith 35: Brothers, Not Rivals

Part One: A List of Diseases and the One Cure

Brothers,

Today’s khutbah is based on the 35th hadith in Imam Nawawi’s 40 Hadith:

On the authority of Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: 'Do not envy one another. Do not inflate prices for one another. Do not hate one another. Do not turn away from one another. And do not undercut one another in trade. But be, O servants of Allah, brothers. A Muslim is the brother of a Muslim: he does not wrong him, he does not abandon him, he does not lie to him, and he does not hold him in contempt. Taqwa is here,' and he pointed to his chest three times. 'It is enough evil for a man to hold his brother Muslim in contempt. The entirety of a Muslim is inviolable to another Muslim: his blood, his property, and his honor. Allah does not look at your bodies nor at your appearances, but He looks at your hearts and your deeds.' (Muslim)

This hadith is recorded by Imam Muslim, and it reads almost like a doctor’s list of the diseases that destroy a community, followed immediately by the cure. Five sicknesses named one after another, and then a single command that heals them all: be brothers.

Part 1: The First Disease, Envy

Envy, hasad, is wanting what someone else has, wishing it were gone from them, resenting their good fortune as though your loss depends on their gain.

And do not covet that by which Allah has favored some of you over others. For men is a share of what they have earned, and for women is a share of what they have earned. Ask Allah for His bounty. Indeed, Allah is ever, of all things, Knowing. (An-Nisaa, 4:32)

Allah distributes His favor deliberately, not carelessly. Your brother’s blessing was never meant to be yours. Coveting it does not bring it to you. It only poisons the heart that carries it.

Part 2: The Second and Fourth Diseases, Hatred and Estrangement

Between hatred and estrangement lies a familiar pattern: a disagreement grows into resentment, and resentment grows into silence, until two believers who once prayed shoulder to shoulder will not look at each other. The Prophet ﷺ set a firm limit on how long this is allowed to continue.

It is not lawful for a Muslim to forsake his brother for more than three days, such that they meet and this one turns away and that one turns away. The better of the two is the one who initiates the greeting of peace. (Bukhari & Muslim)

Three days. Not three months, not a grudge carried to the grave. And the Prophet ﷺ made clear that reconciling first is not weakness, it is the sign of the better man.

Part 3: The Trading Diseases, Inflating Prices and Undercutting

Najash is to falsely inflate a price to deceive a buyer into paying more than something is worth. Undercutting is the opposite manipulation, to deliberately sabotage a fellow believer’s fair deal out of rivalry rather than honest competition. Both are forms of the same disease: treating your brother’s gain as your enemy rather than your concern.

Woe to the defrauders. Those who, when they take a measure from people, take in full. But if they give by measure or by weight to them, they cause loss. (Al-Mutaffifin, 83:1-3)

Whether in a marketplace or in any exchange between two believers, Allah watches whether you deal with others as generously as you deal with yourself.

Part 4: The Cure, Brotherhood

Against these five diseases, the Prophet ﷺ places one word: brothers.

The believers are but brothers, so make peace between your brothers. And fear Allah that you may receive mercy. (Al-Hujuraat, 49:10)

Notice the order in this verse. First the fact, they are brothers. Then the responsibility that follows from the fact, make peace between them. Brotherhood is not simply a feeling. It obligates you to act when there is division between others, not only your own.

Part 5: The Four Rights of a Brother

The hadith does not stop at naming the diseases to avoid. It names what brotherhood actually requires in practice: “he does not wrong him, he does not abandon him, he does not lie to him, and he does not hold him in contempt.” Four separate obligations, each closing off a different way believers fail one another.

Not wronging him means his rights over you, whatever they are, financial, physical, or verbal, remain protected even when no one is watching. Not abandoning him means when he needs you, in hardship, in sickness, in a moment of weakness, you do not disappear because helping him costs you something. Not lying to him means the trust between two believers is not something you spend for convenience or advantage. And not holding him in contempt returns us to the same warning repeated at the end of the hadith, because contempt is often the quiet root beneath the other three failures.

The Muslim is the one from whose tongue and hand the Muslims are safe, and the emigrant is the one who leaves what Allah has forbidden. (Bukhari & Muslim)

Safety, not merely absence of visible cruelty, is the standard. A brother should be able to relax around you, trusting that his rights, his reliance on you, your word to him, and your respect for him are all intact.

Part 6: Where Taqwa Actually Lives

Then comes the phrase that should stop every one of us: “Taqwa is here,” and the Prophet ﷺ pointed to his chest three times.

Not in your beard, not in your prayer posture, not in how loudly you recite, not in how many people think well of you. In the chest. In the heart. A man may appear devout on the outside while his heart carries envy, hatred, and contempt for his brothers. That man’s outward form has not earned him the taqwa this hadith is describing.

Their meat will not reach Allah, nor will their blood, but what reaches Him is piety from you. (Al-Hajj, 22:37)

Part Two: Guarding the Chest in Close Quarters

Brothers,

Part 7: Why This Hadith Was Written for This Room

Few places on earth compress these five diseases into daily life the way this environment does. You share space, food, time, and scarcity with the same men for months and years. Envy has endless fuel here: a lighter sentence, a better job assignment, more commissary, more visits, more mail, an earlier release date. Hatred grows fast in tight quarters where every irritation is repeated daily with no escape. Estrangement is easy when the same face is unavoidable for years, so silence becomes a strategy rather than an accident. And the small trades and exchanges that happen here, items, favors, information, carry the same temptation to gain at a brother’s expense.

This hadith was not written for a comfortable life. It was written for exactly this kind of pressure.

Part 8: The Man Whose Chest Is Clean

Brothers, here is the test this place gives you every single day: can you watch a brother’s early release date, his good news from home, his easier assignment, and feel genuine gladness for him, or does something twist in your chest? The Prophet ﷺ did not point to your face when he described taqwa. He pointed to that exact place where the twisting happens.

Contempt for a believer is a grave matter, for it may be that the one held in contempt is greater before Allah than the one holding him in contempt, though appearances suggest otherwise. (Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali, Jami' al-'Ulum wal-Hikam)

The man you are tempted to look down on here, whatever his past, whatever his mistakes, may stand higher before Allah than you do, because Allah does not weigh what your eyes can see. He weighs the chest.

Part 9: Practical Steps for This Room

When you feel envy rising over another man’s good news, force yourself to say a du’a for him before any other thought is allowed to form. This breaks the disease before it roots.

When silence has stretched past three days between you and a brother here, be the one who speaks first. The Prophet ﷺ already told you which of the two of you is better for doing it.

When you exchange anything with a brother, whether items, information, or favors, deal with him exactly as you would want dealt with, and refuse the small manipulations that feel harmless but corrode trust over time.

And when you are tempted to hold a brother in contempt for his past, his crime, his weakness, remember the words that follow that warning directly: his blood, his property, and his honor are inviolable to you. Contempt is not a small matter here. The hadith calls it evil, by name.

Finally, remember why this hadith closes with a mention of the body and the face. Everything the world here judges you by, your file, your charge, your sentence, your appearance, your reputation among other men, none of it is the measure Allah uses. That should free you from two things at once: the pressure to prove yourself to other people, and the temptation to judge a brother by what his file says about him. Two men can wear the same uniform and stand at entirely different ranks before Allah, and the only difference between them is something no one else in this room can see, something known fully only to the One who examines the chest.

O Allah, remove envy from our hearts toward our brothers.

O Allah, do not let hatred take root between us over what this place already makes difficult.

O Allah, make us the ones who initiate peace when silence has grown between brothers.

O Allah, protect us from gaining at a brother’s expense in any exchange.

O Allah, place taqwa firmly in our chests, not merely on our tongues or our faces.

O Allah, do not let us hold in contempt anyone You have not shown us the true worth of.

O Allah, protect the blood, property, and honor of every believer among us.

O Allah, judge us by our hearts, and purify what You find there.