Summary of Riyadh as-Salihin

Author's name: Dr. Samir Al-Omran

Praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds, and prayers and peace be upon the most honorable of prophets and messengers, our Prophet Muhammad, and upon all his family and companions.

And then:

God Almighty said in the Holy Qur’an: “And say, ‘My Lord, increase me in knowledge.’” [Ta-Ha: 114], so God did not command His Prophet and the nation following him to ask Him for more in any worldly matter.

The Hereafter is nothing but knowledge, and the best knowledge to seek is revelation (the Qur’an and the Sunnah).

The book “Riyadh as-Salihin from the Words of the Master of Messengers” by its author Imam Yahya bin Sharaf al-Nawawi al-Dimashqi, who died in the year 676 AH, is one of the books that has spread, by the grace of God, among Muslims in their homes and mosques since the year of its composition until now, as Imam al-Nawawi, may God be pleased with him, collected in it nearly two thousand hadiths from the words and actions of the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, and in a few cases he transmits some of the sayings and actions of the Companions, following the example of the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace.

Given the large size of the book and the repetition of some hadiths in wording and meaning, I decided to shorten this book to make it easier for people to read it in mosques after prayer, in family gatherings, and at social gatherings. It would also be suitable hadith material for Islamic education and upbringing curricula for Muslims in Muslim countries and abroad, and a shortened curriculum for teaching new Muslims the matters of their religion, the virtues of deeds, and some of its characteristics and Sunnah.

I followed the following methodology in my abridgement of Riyad as-Salihin:

1 - Selecting hadiths that include the intended meanings in each chapter and deleting duplicates.

2- Merging some similar chapters in each book, renaming some chapters, and dividing the summary into chapters instead of books and chapters.

3 - Judging hadiths that are not in the two Sahihs or in one of them by conveying the opinion of later hadith scholars regarding the authenticity of the hadith. I have relied on the opinion of Sheikh Al-Albani in the event of a difference in the opinion of hadith scholars, and this appears in bold between brackets.

4 - Completing the verses mentioned in the introduction to the chapters and shortening the repeated ones.

5- Explaining the strange words of the hadith that are not understood by ordinary people through language dictionaries. This appears in bold after the hadith has been authenticated.

6 - Abbreviating the name of the companion who narrated the hadith by using only the name or nickname he is known by.

I ask God Almighty to benefit from it and to make it sincere for His noble sake.

He is the Guardian of that and is Able to do it. Praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds.