The 40 Hadiths of Imam An-Nawawi
Al-Arbaʿūn al-Nawawiyyah is one of the best-known and most studied works of the Sunni tradition. Composed in the 7th century AH by Imam Yaḥyā ibn Sharaf al-Nawawī (raḥimahullāh, d. 676 AH), it gathers a selection of short ḥadīths, each of which, according to the author, constitutes an « encompassing rule » (qāʿidah) or a major foundation of the religion. The aim: to give Muslims, beginners and advanced alike, a memorisable corpus that condenses the essential principles of the dīn. In his introduction, al-Nawawī explains that he initially intended to gather a « forty » in the ḥadīth sense of the term, in line with a practice common among scholars who composed arbaʿīniyyāt. The text transmitted under the name al-Arbaʿūn actually contains forty-two ḥadīths, the author having added two further narrations during writing. The Deen Coach app delivers the full set of 42 ḥadīths recognised as belonging to the extended collection, drawing in particular on the commentary of Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī (raḥimahullāh), Jāmiʿ al-ʿUlūm wa al-Ḥikam, which has served for centuries as the pedagogical reference for this series. The reading of the 42 ḥadīths is traditionally the first solid step of a learning journey in Islamic sciences: progressive memorisation, study of the meanings, then recourse to the commentaries of the ʿulamāʾ. Wa Allāhu aʿlam.
Imam An-Nawawi: biography and place in the tradition
Yaḥyā ibn Sharaf al-Nawawī (raḥimahullāh) was born in 631 AH in the village of Nawā, in Syria, from which he takes his nisbah. From a very young age, he devoted himself entirely to the religious sciences in Damascus, where he studied under the great masters of his time. Following the Shāfiʿī school in fiqh, he became one of its major figures and gained an authority recognised far beyond his teaching circles. His life was marked by ascetism (zuhd), night prayer and a relentless dedication to intellectual work admiringly described by his biographers. Dying young, at 45, in 676 AH, he left behind a vast body of work: Riyāḍ al-Ṣāliḥīn (collection of ḥadīths on ethics and spirituality), al-Adhkār (collection of prophetic invocations), al-Minhāj fī Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (reference commentary on Muslim's Ṣaḥīḥ), Rawḍat al-Ṭālibīn (summa of Shāfiʿī fiqh), and many others. Al-Arbaʿūn is one of his short works, written for a general readership, and it is undoubtedly the one that has known the widest circulation over the centuries.
Origin and methodology of the selection
The tradition of « forties » (arbaʿīniyyāt) was already well-established when al-Nawawī composed his own. Several scholars before him (Ibn al-Mubārak, al-Ājurrī, Ibn Mandah, al-Bayhaqī, and others) had composed works gathering forty ḥadīths on a theme: sincerity, jihad, zuhd, and so on. Al-Nawawī's specificity is threefold. First, he selects ḥadīths he considers to be jawāmiʿ al-kalim (concise sayings of universal reach) or qawāʿid (encompassing rules) of the dīn: each ḥadīth, taken in isolation, is presented as a pivot around which large areas of the religion are organised. Second, he favours the most solid sources: the majority of the ḥadīths are taken from the two Ṣaḥīḥ (al-Bukhārī and Muslim) or from one of them; the rest is drawn from the other canonical collections, notably Sunan Abī Dāwūd and Sunan al-Tirmidhī. Finally, he chooses a short, stripped-down format, with no commentary, to ease memorisation by the general public. It is important to understand that the phrase « 40 hadiths » is a traditional one: the matn in circulation actually contains 42 ḥadīths, Imam al-Nawawī having added two ḥadīths to his initial selection. This addition is documented and accepted by later commentators.
How to study the 40 Hadiths
The study of the 42 ḥadīths is traditionally built in three complementary stages.
Progressive memorisation
Learn one or two ḥadīths per week, in Arabic, with a clear understanding of the meaning in one's mother tongue. Regularity matters more than speed: one firmly memorised ḥadīth is worth more than ten superficially scanned ḥadīths.
Thematic study
The ḥadīths of the collection cover ʿaqīdah (pillars of faith, oneness, divine decree), ʿibādah (intention, prayer, fasting), muʿāmalāt (commerce, social relations), akhlāq (sincerity, patience, humility) and tazkiyat al-nafs (purification of the soul). Grouping them thematically reveals their structuring scope.
Recourse to commentaries
After memorisation and surface understanding, the student benefits from immersing themselves in the great commentaries (see the next section), which open each ḥadīth onto its jurisprudential, spiritual and historical implications. No commentary, however, replaces direct teaching from a qualified scholar, which remains recommended for difficult passages.
Main reference commentaries
Two commentaries stand out and constitute the most widely used references in traditional curricula.
Jāmiʿ al-ʿUlūm wa al-Ḥikam by Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī
Composed by Zayn al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Aḥmad ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī (raḥimahullāh, d. 795 AH), this commentary is regarded as the most complete and the deepest written on the collection. Ibn Rajab enlarges the corpus to 50 ḥadīths (including 8 added by himself to the 42 transmitted by al-Nawawī) and develops for each a detailed study of the chain of transmission, linguistic meaning, jurisprudential opinions and spiritual dimensions. His methodology is faithful to the way of the Salaf and his tone combines scientific rigour with spiritual depth (tazkiyat al-nafs).
Sharḥ al-Arbaʿīn al-Nawawiyyah by Ibn ʿUthaymīn
The commentary by shaykh Muḥammad ibn Ṣāliḥ al-ʿUthaymīn (raḥimahullāh, d. 1421 AH) is a major contemporary reference. Pedagogical, structured, accessible, it relies on the methodology of the Salaf and offers for each ḥadīth a clear explanation of the meaning, the « benefits » (fawāʾid) extracted by the shaykh, and practical applications for today's Muslim. It is particularly suited to beginner or intermediate students seeking a solid commentary without the length of the great classical treatises.
Read the 42 ḥadīths in Deen Coach
The Deen Coach app provides the full collection of the 42 ḥadīths of al-Arbaʿūn al-Nawawiyyah with, for each ḥadīth, the unaltered Arabic text, a translation of the meaning in French and English, the attribution to its source collection (Bukhārī, Muslim, Sunan), and a brief note highlighting the « encompassing principle » identified by al-Nawawī. The selection of sources and the wording of translations have been reviewed according to the rules of Ahl al-Sunnah, without the introduction of innovative gloss. To go further, the content refers to the great commentaries (Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī, Ibn ʿUthaymīn) and invites consultation of a qualified scholar for personal questions.
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