3 of 4 · Governorship of Marwan · c. 50 AH · Madinah
Sa'id ibn Zayd رضي الله عنه
The Land of Arwa
A woman named Arwa bint Uways accused Sa'id of taking part of her land and brought the case to Marwan ibn al-Hakam, who was governing Madinah. Sa'id replied, "How could I take her land when I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: whoever takes a hand's span of land unjustly will have it hung around his neck down to the seven earths?" (Sahih al-Bukhari 3198; Sahih Muslim 1610).
Marwan asked him for no further proof. Sa'id then prayed, "O Allah, if she is lying, blind her, and make her grave in her land." The report says that she lost her sight, and that she later fell into a well in that same land and died.
Whatever one makes of the end of the story, the core is the Prophet's ﷺ warning: even a small piece of land taken unjustly is a heavy burden on the Day of Judgment.
Another person's right, even a handspan of ground, is not ours to take.
Is there something small that belongs to someone else that you are still holding?
- Sahih al-Bukhari 3198 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
- Sahih Muslim 1610 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
- al-Nawawi, al-Minhaj Sharh Sahih MuslimHistorical report
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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