Al-Arbaʿīn al-Nawawiyyah

Forty-two hadith chosen because scholars considered each a "pivot" of the religion, together covering intention, worship, ethics, and eschatology in a single compact collection. Its brevity combined with the depth of each narration has made it the standard first hadith text memorized by students globally for over seven centuries.

Imam Yahya ibn Sharaf al-Nawawi (1233-1277 CE) was born in the Syrian town of Nawa and educated in Damascus, where he devoted his entire short life to scholarship, worship, and asceticism. A leading Shafii jurist and hadith master, he produced an extraordinary body of work in under forty-five years, including Riyad al-Salihin, Sharh Sahih Muslim, and the encyclopaedic al-Majmuu in Shafii fiqh. He never married, owned no property, and reportedly slept only when sleep overtook him while reading.

• Actions are judged by intentions the hadith of Umar ibn al-Khattab
• Islam, Iman, and Ihsan defined the hadith of Jibril
• What is halal, haram, and doubtful the hadith of al-Numan ibn Bashir
• The inviolability of Muslim blood, property, and honour
• Love of good for others as a condition of faith
• Removing harm from the path as a branch of faith
• The importance of silence and leaving what does not concern one
• Patience, gratitude, and reliance on Allah (tawakkul)
• The gates of goodness: fasting, charity, prayer at night, commanding good
• Every deed requires both valid outward form and sincere inner intention