2 of 5 · Madinah · c. 2–10 AH · Madinah
'Abdullah ibn 'Umar رضي الله عنه
"A Fine Man, If Only He Prayed at Night"
'Abdullah was a young unmarried man who slept in the mosque. He once saw in a dream that two angels took him to Hell, and he cried out for refuge in Allah from it. A third angel met them and told him not to be afraid.
His sister Hafsah, the Prophet's wife, told the Prophet ﷺ of the dream. He said, "What a fine man 'Abdullah is, if only he prayed at night." Salim, his son, reported that from then on 'Abdullah hardly slept at night except a little (Sahih al-Bukhari; Sahih Muslim 2479).
A single gentle remark shaped the rest of his life. He stood in prayer at night until the day he died, and he became known for it.
A word of encouragement, taken to heart, can change a whole life's habits.
What small habit would you commit to if you took one gentle piece of advice seriously?
- Sahih al-Bukhari, Kitab al-Tahajjud (hadith of Ibn 'Umar's dream)Sahih · in the two Sahihs
- Sahih Muslim 2479Sahih · in the two Sahihs
What the hadith grades mean
- Sahih (authentic): an unbroken chain of trustworthy, precise narrators, free of hidden flaws or contradiction. It is acted upon.
- Hasan (good): like sahih, but a narrator's precision is slightly lighter. It is also accepted and acted upon. "Hasan sahih" means it reaches sahih by its routes.
- Da'if (weak): a break in the chain or a narrator who is not reliable enough. It is not used to establish beliefs or rulings.
- Very weak (munkar, matruk): a seriously flawed chain or a narrator accused of lying. It is not relied on at all.
- Mawdu' (fabricated): falsely attributed to the Prophet ﷺ. It may not be narrated as his words except to warn against it.
- The two Sahihs: every hadith with a full chain in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim is accepted as sahih by the scholars of hadith.
- Historical report: biographies and histories (Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabari) record events with chains that are often incomplete. They are used for the story, not for rulings.
- Hadith scholars grade a narration; the four madhhabs do not. Where a hadith carries a ruling, the page shows which schools act on it.
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