Explanation of the Hadith of Abu Hurayrah, Number (294): The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was asked: What is the thing that most frequently enters Paradise?

The Shaykh : ... And for this reason, it was among the good arrangement and ordering that the author (may Allah have mercy on him) followed the previous hadith with a subsequent hadith that explicitly mentions good character, and that it is one of the strong causes that will bring its owner into Paradise. So the author said, with his chain of narration: From Abu Hurayrah: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was asked: What is the thing that most frequently enters Paradise? He said: . This hadith came after that hadith because there is a strong connection between them. In the previous hadith, the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) clearly stated that if a wealthy, affluent Muslim man adorns himself with good character, which includes overlooking his customers who fall short with him, then Allah will overlook him. This hadith came to confirm what was in the previous hadith when the Messenger (peace be upon him) was asked about the thing that most frequently enters Paradise. He said: .
In this hadith, the content I referred to in my commentary on the previous hadith is made explicit. We said that in the previous hadith, a man said, so we said: It is necessary to assume that this man was a Muslim; that is, he was one who feared Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and was far from associating partners with Him. So this hadith made explicit what we said earlier in the previous hadith, where in the answer to the question about the thing that most frequently enters Paradise, he mentioned two things:
The first thing—and it is the most important—he (peace be upon him) said: . Fear of Allah is interpreted with two meanings; one is more specific than the other. The meaning that is more specific than the other means having less meaning, and the other has more and broader meaning. Fear of Allah in the lesser meaning is, after faith in Him (Blessed and Exalted is He), as came in the Book and the Sunnah, to act upon everything He commanded and to refrain from everything He prohibited and forbade. This is fear of Allah in its lesser meaning. But it sometimes comes with a very broad meaning, such that fear of Allah includes the realization and application of everything that came in the Shari'ah, whether it is from the obligatory or the recommended; so he does these things, or whether it is from the forbidden or the disliked; so he stays away from these things. This is the broader, more comprehensive meaning.
The first type of fear of Allah is obligatory upon every person of legal capacity; because its meaning is to do what Allah has made obligatory and to stay away from what Allah has forbidden. As came in the authentic hadith that a man came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said: O Messenger of Allah, do you think that if I pray the five prayers, fast Ramadan, make lawful what is lawful, and make forbidden what is forbidden; will I enter Paradise? He said: . If you pray the five prayers, fast Ramadan, make lawful what is lawful, and make forbidden what is forbidden; you will enter Paradise. That is: everyone who limits himself to doing what Allah has made obligatory and staying away from what Allah has forbidden, so he makes lawful what Allah has made lawful and makes forbidden what Allah has forbidden; he is in Paradise, on the level of that Bedouin who came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and it is possible that he is thisThe questioner : previous one. That Bedouin came to the Messenger (peace be upon him) asking him about what Allah has made obligatory upon him, so he said: . He said: Is there anything else upon me besides them? He said: No, except that you do voluntary . He asked him about fasting? He said: . He said: Is there anything else upon me besides it? He said: . And so he asked him about what Allah has made obligatory, and he clarified it for him, then he followed it with the question: Is there anything else upon me? ; meaning you do voluntary acts with what has not been made obligatory upon you. When he finished with that, he said: By Allah, O Messenger of Allah, I will not add to them nor subtract from them. He (peace be upon him) said: . That is: this one who pledged to the Messenger (peace be upon him) that he will do these obligations, not adding to them, not doing voluntary acts, and at the same time not subtracting from them, because if he subtracted from them, it would mean he disobeyed his Lord. So he said to him (peace be upon him), or he said regarding him to those around him: .
This fear of Allah is in its narrowest meanings, after which there is no fear of Allah, and it brings its owner into Paradise. But there is a fear of Allah that is broader than that; such that it includes, in terms of positive aspects, doing what Allah has legislated of the recommended and voluntary acts, and it includes staying away from what Allah has disliked of the disliked matters; even if they were not from the forbidden. This is a broader and more comprehensive fear of Allah than that. So with which of the two fears do we interpret the answer of the Messenger (peace be upon him) to that manThe questioner : about the thing that most frequently brings its owner into Paradise? He said: ?
The apparent is that the intended meaning of this fear of Allah is the first type; because if we interpreted it with the second type, which includes all good, even if it is recommended, then good character would naturally fall into that. So when he said: , he intended fear of Allah in its most specific and narrowest meaning; that is: doing what Allah has made obligatory and staying away from what Allah has forbidden. This is the thing that most frequently enters Paradise, in addition to good character.
And good character here is the broad meaning. The intended meaning of good character here is not only treating people with what is obligatory; meaning, for example, a person left a trust with you and you performed this trust; there is no doubt that this is from good character, but this good character is obligatory. If a person falls short in it, he will be reckoned on the Day of Reckoning and punished for it; because he contradicted the word of Allah (Mighty and Majestic): ""Perform"" , he contradicted a Prophetic command. But the intended meaning of good character here is more than the good character that is obligatory upon a person; that he treats people with gentleness, that he forgives those who wronged him, and that he overlooks—as you heard in the previous hadith—those who fell short in paying their debt to him, and so on of the good moral traits that no person can do all of them; because that is what Allah has specifically granted to humans among all humans; which is the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), whom Allah (Mighty and Majestic) described in the Qur'an by saying: .
But a person must accustom himself and adorn himself with good morals as much as he is able to do so. If he feels, for example, in himself that he is naturally stingy and miserly, he must make an effort to be generous and to be liberal, and to be bountiful, each according to his capacity. And if he is naturally inclined to some harshness and roughness, he tries to be soft and humble with people; and so on. For this reason, it came in the authentic hadith his saying (peace be upon him): . The reason for this is that the one who improves his character improves it while he is struggling against his self; therefore he (peace be upon him) said: .
And to confirm this meaning that we are going around; which is that the Muslim must soften himself and train himself in good character, he (peace be upon him) confirmed this meaning by the way of question and answer to his companions one day: . They said: The strong one is the one who wrestles people and throws them down, he overpowers them, he throws them down, he overpowers them. He said: . The one who tries to control himself when angry, making an effort for it even with difficulty, this is the one whose meaning is that he improves his character, and this is the one who applies the command of the Prophet (peace be upon him) when he said to Mu'adh: . So he said to them: Who is the strong one? ... The one who overpowers people and defeats them. He said to them: No, the strong one is the one who controls himself when angry.
And from here Ibn al-Wardi took his saying in his famous poem:
"It is not the one who cuts through paths who is strong, * * * Rather, the one who fears Allah is the strong."
In this manner of alerting people to the necessity of improving their character and training the soul in patience, he (peace be upon him) said to the women specifically one day: They said, or they said: "The barren woman among us is the one who does not give birth." He answered them that the barren woman is the one who gives birth and her son inherits from her, because if she gives birth and her child dies, and she is patient with his death, she will have a great reward with Allah (Mighty and Majestic); unlike the infertile woman who lives without a child, for she does not find the grief or the specific sensitivity within herself as if she had been granted a child and raised him with that upbringing, and then Allah (Mighty and Majestic) took him to Himself, and here the importance of patience and acceptance of divine decree and destiny becomes apparent.
In summary: This hadith shows us that most of the causes that lead their owner to Paradise are, first, the obligatory mindfulness of Allah, and then good character in its broadest sense.