1286 – Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Part of the excellence of a person’s Islam is that he leaves alone whatever does not concern him.” It was narrated by al-Tirmidhi, who graded it ḥasan (good). (1)

Rank of the ḥadith
The ḥadith is mursal (its chain skips the Companion). Imām al-Nawawī nevertheless ruled its marfūʿ (Prophetic) version ḥasan.

Ibn Rajab, in his commentary on the Forty Ḥadith, wrote: “Al-Tirmidhi and Ibn Mājah transmitted it through al-Awzāʿī, from Qurrah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from al-Zuhrī, from Abū Salamah, from Abu Hurayrah.”

Al-Tirmidhi remarked that it is gharīb (singular). Al-Nawawī deemed it ḥasan because the narrators in its isnād are trustworthy; as for Qurrah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ḥaywah, some scholars declared him reliable while others considered him weak.

Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr said: “This ḥadith is preserved from al-Zuhrī with this chain through trustworthy transmitters,” a judgment that accords with al-Nawawī’s grading—may Allah have mercy on him.

Most leading scholars, however, maintain that it is not preserved with this isnād. What is reliably preserved is the mursal version from al-Zuhrī, from ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn, from the Prophet ﷺ. Mālik recorded that mursal form in the Muwaṭṭaʾ, as did Yūnus and Maʿmar. Among those who held that it is sound only as mursal are Imām Aḥmad, Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn, al-Bukhārī, and al-Dāraqutnī. The stronger opinion is that it is indeed mursal.

Al-Zurqānī, in his commentary on the Muwaṭṭaʾ, stated: “The ḥadith is ḥasan; rather, it is ṣaḥīḥ.”