Chapter on Adab (Refined Manners)

The term adab—with a short a on the initial hamza and the dāl—is the verbal noun of aduba (with the dāl pronounced either kasrah or ḍammah), meaning “to become cultivated in character or learning.”

Ibn Ḥajar states in Fatḥ al-Bārī: “Adab is to employ whatever is praiseworthy in word and deed; it is the adoption of noble traits. It is the guidance by which Allah perfected His Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ when He said, ‘And indeed you stand upon an exalted standard of character’ (4) [Sūrat al-Qalam]. ʿĀʾishah—may Allah be pleased with her—described him in these words: ‘His character was the Qur’an’ [Muslim (746)].”

Adab is likewise the path that people of awakened hearts, scholars of spiritual wayfaring, and those journeying toward Allah strive to follow.

Al-Saffārīnī, in his Commentary on the Manẓūmah al-Ādāb, writes: “The adab of the people of religion, together with knowledge, is to discipline the soul, train the limbs, refine natural dispositions, safeguard the limits, abandon base desires, avoid doubtful matters, guard the hearts, and make the inner state consonant with the outward.”

Al-Ghazālī says: “Good character is the distinctive quality of the Master of the Messengers, whereas evil traits are lethal poisons and disgraceful scandals. Good character is a man’s inner form, and the soul is purified only through strenuous effort. One whom idleness dominates finds such striving, training, and engagement in self-purification burdensome, and claims that character cannot possibly be changed.”

We reply: Had character truly been unchangeable, counsels and exhortations would be futile, and the Prophet ﷺ would not have said to Muʿādh ibn Jabal, “O Muʿādh, perfect your character.”

Acts of obedience polish and heal the hearts; sins are their grime and disease. The balance of one’s character is the health of the soul, whereas deviation from that balance is sickness and infirmity.