6/637 – Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) reports that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Make things easy and do not make them difficult; give glad tidings and do not drive people away.” Agreed upon.

[Explanation]
Imam al-Nawawī—may Allah have mercy on him—cites this ḥadīth in the chapter on forbearance, gentleness, and deliberation in his Riyāḍ al-Ṣāliḥīn. It comes on the authority of Anas b. Mālik (may Allah be pleased with him): the Prophet ﷺ declared, “Make things easy and do not make them difficult; give glad tidings and do not drive people away.”

These are four succinct directives. The first is “Make things easy,” meaning: follow whatever course is marked by ease and simplicity, whether that concerns your own acts or your dealings with others. For this reason, it was the Prophet’s habit ﷺ that whenever he was given a choice between two matters he would choose the easier of the two, provided it involved no sin; if it did involve sin, he was the farthest of people from it.

Choose therefore the easier option in every circumstance—in worship, in transactions, in all affairs—because ease is what Allah wants from and for us: “Allah intends ease for you and does not intend hardship for you” (al-Baqarah 2:185).

For instance, if two routes lead to the mosque—one rough, strewn with pebbles, stones, and thorns, and the other smooth—the better course is to take the smoother path. Likewise, in winter, if you have access to two sources of water, one painfully cold and the other pleasantly warm