The Prophet's ﷺ three-word answer for a lifetime.
Narrated by Abū Hurayrah (أبو هريرة)
لاَ تَغْضَبْ، فَرَدَّدَ مِرَارًا، قَالَ: لاَ تَغْضَبْ
"A man said to the Prophet ﷺ: Counsel me. He said: "Do not be angry." The man asked several times, and each time the Prophet said: "Do not be angry.""
The scholars treated this hadith as the shortest curriculum in the prophetic pedagogy. Anger, they said, is the single easiest way to lose everything built up by patience, prayer, and fasting in one moment. The Prophet ﷺ elsewhere said: "The strong one is not the one who wrestles, but the one who controls himself when he is angry."
Passages that draw on this hadith
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"this restraint. Fourth, one should contemplate the ugliness of one's appearance when angry by recalling the appearance of others in a state of anger, and consider the hideousness of anger itself, likening an angry person to a fierce dog or a savage beast. The calm"
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"is needed, rather than anger, if someone has a goat, for instance, and it dies, he does not become angry with anyone, though he experiences dislike. Not every dislike necessitates anger. A person feels pain from surgical incisions or cupping, but does not become angry with"
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"anger for the sake of Allah Almighty. One may become angry at a wrong committed by someone else upon seeing or hearing it, expressing this anger by mentioning the name. However, they should demonstrate their anger by enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong, without expressing"
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"When they unleash envy against peers or critics, they do not see it as envy but as anger for the truth. They fail to consider if their anger would be the same if another scholar were criticized. If their anger is truly for God, they would not be pleased if any scholar is disparaged."
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"this pleasure. The sign of natural disposition spreading and the souls leaning towards Satan is anger when contradicted in front of people. If he denies his anger, Satan quickly suggests to him that this anger is for God's sake, because if the seekers lose their good opinion of him,"
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"overwhelms them to the point where they cannot control their private part, or they can control it but not their eyes, or they can control their eyes but not their heart and soul, which continues to suggest desires to them, distracting them from constant remembrance, contemplation,"
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"one who is devoted to my righteous servants as a child is devoted to its nursing mother, and the one who becomes angry when my sacred limits are violated as a tiger becomes angry for itself. For when the tiger becomes angry for itself, it does not care whether the people are few"
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"to do more. He said to Jesus I told you that you should not be a servant indeed your anger is not the anger of a servant. You have seen what I have suffered from you when you were angry but I invite you to a matter of greatness. I will command the devils to obey you and when"
More on character
- Even slaughter has its ethics — because iḥsān is owed everywhere."Allah has written iḥsān — excellence — upon everything. So when you kill, kill well; and when you slaughter, slaughter well. Sharpen your blade and bring ease to the animal."
- Two honourable choices for the tongue."Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day, let him speak good or remain silent."
- Worth is measured in akhlāq — manners, not titles."Truly, the best of you are the finest among you in character."