Sunan Abi Dawud

Whom do you consider a wrestler among you? The people replied: (the man) whom the men cannot defeat in wrestling. He said: No, it is he who controls himself when he is angry.

Two men reviled each other in the presence of the Prophet (ﷺ) and one of them became excessively angry so much so that I thought that his nose will break up on account of excess of anger. The Prophet (ﷺ) said: I know a phrase which, if he repeated, he could get rid of this angry feeling. They asked: What is it, Messenger of Allah? He replied: He should say: I seek refuge in Thee from the accursed devil. Mu'adh then began to ask him to do so, but he refused and persisted in quarrelling, and began to enhance his anger.

Two men reviled each other in the presence of the Prophet (ﷺ). Then the eyes of one of them became red and his jugular veins swelled. The Apostle of Allah (ﷺ) said: I know a phrase by repeating which the man could get rid of the angry feelings: I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed devil. The man said: Do you see insanity in me.

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said to us: When one of you becomes angry while standing, he should sit down. If the anger leaves him, well and good; otherwise he should lie down.

The Prophet (ﷺ) sent Mu`adh for some of his work. He then transmitted the rest of the tradition mentioned above. Abu Dawud said: This tradition is sounder of the two traditions.

AbuWa'il al-Qass said: We entered upon Urwah ibn Muhammad ibn as-Sa'di. A man spoke to him and made him angry. So he stood and performed ablution; he then returned and performed ablution, and said: My father told me on the authority of my grandfather Atiyyah who reported the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) as saying: Anger comes from the devil, the devil was created of fire, and fire is extinguished only with water; so when one of you becomes angry, he should perform ablution.

the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) was never given his choice between two things without taking the easier(or lesser) of them provided it involved no sin, for if it did, no one kept farther away from it than he. And the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) never took revenge on his own behalf for anything unless something Allah had forbidden has been transgressed, in which event he took revenge for it for Allah’s sake.

the Messenger of Allah (saws ) never struck a servant or a woman.

The Prophet of Allah (ﷺ) was commanded to hold to forgiveness from the conduct of the people.

When the Prophet (ﷺ) was informed of anything of a certain man, he would not say: What is the matter with so and so that he says? But he would say: What is the matter with the people that they say such and such?

A man who had the mark of yellowness on him came to the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ). The apostle of Allah (ﷺ) rarely mentioned anything of a man which he disliked before him. When he went out, he said: Would that you asked him to wash it from him. Abu Dawud said: Salam is not 'Alawi (from the descendants of 'Ali). He used to foretell events by stars. He bore witness before 'Abi b. Arafat to the visibility of moon, but he did not accept his witness.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: The believer is simple and generous, but the profligate is deceitful and ignoble.

A man asked permission to see the Prophet (ﷺ), and he said: He is a bad son of the tribe, or: He is a bad member of the tribe. He then said : Give him permission. Then when he entered, he spoke to him leniently. `A’isha asked : Apostle of Allah! You spoke to him leniently while you said about him what you said! He replied: The one who will have the worst position in Allah’s estimation on the Day of Resurrection will be the one whom people left alone for fear of his ribaldry.

A man asked permission to see the Prophet (ﷺ), and the Prophet (ﷺ) said: He is a bad member of the tribe. When he entered, the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) treated in a frank and friendly way and spoke to him. When he departed , I said: Messenger of Allah! When he asked permission, you said: He is a bad member of the tribe, but when he entered, you treated him in a frank and friendly way. The Messenger of Allah replied: Aisha! Allah does not like the one who is unseemly and lewd in his language.

the Prophet (ﷺ) said: `A’isha! There are some bad people who are respected for fear of their tongues.

I never said that when any man brought his mouth to the ear of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) and he withdrew his head until the man himself withdrew his head, and I never saw that when any man took him by his hand and he withdrew his hand, until the man himself withdrew his hand.

The Prophet (ﷺ) passed by a man of the Ansar when he was giving his brother a warning against modesty. The Apostle of Allah (ﷺ) said : Leave him alone, for modesty is a part of faith.

We were sitting with `Imran b. Hussain and Bushair b. Ka`b was also there. `Imran b. Hussain reported the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) as saying: Modesty is good altogether, or he said: Modesty is altogether good. Bushair b. Ka`b said : We find in some books that there is a modesty which produces peace and dignified bearing, and there is a modesty which produces weakness. `Imran b. Hussain repeated the same words. So `Imran became angry so much so that his eyes became red, and he said : Don’t you see that I am transmitting a tradition from the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) and you are mentioning something from your books? He (Qatadah) said : We said : Abu Nujaid, it is sufficient.

One of the things people have learnt from the words of the earliest prophecy is : If you have no shame, do what you like.

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: By his good character a believer will attain the degree of one who prays during the night and fasts during the day.