1351 – Abu Saʿīd al-Khudri (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “The everlasting righteous deeds are: lā ilāha illā Allah (there is no deity but Allah), subḥān Allah (glory be to Allah), Allahu akbar (Allah is the Greatest), al-ḥamdu lillah (praise be to Allah), and lā ḥawla wa lā quwwata illā billah (there is no power nor strength except through Allah).” Recorded by al-Nasaʾi, and authenticated by Ibn Ḥibbān and al-Ḥākim (1).

Hadith grading
The hadith is hasan (sound). Ibn Ḥibbān and al-Ḥākim, in his al-Mustadrak, declared it ṣaḥīḥ, and al-Dhahabi and al-Suyuti concurred in al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaghīr. Although the chain contains Darrāj from Abū’l-Haytham, and Darrāj is weak, the narration has corroborating chains cited by al-Ṭabarī and mentioned by al-Suyuti in al-Durr al-Manthūr, raising it to the level of hasan; hence al-Haythamī stated, “Its isnad is hasan.”

Key vocabulary
• al-bāqiyāt al-ṣāliḥāt (“the everlasting righteous deeds”): good works whose reward endures for their doer for all eternity.
• lā ḥawla wa lā quwwata illā billah: Linguists explain that ḥawl denotes movement and stratagem. The phrase therefore means: “There is no movement, capacity, or stratagem except by Allah’s will; no power to repel harm and no strength to attain good exists except through Allah, Exalted is He.”