In the two Sahih collections, Ubāda reported that the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said:
“Pledge allegiance to me on the condition that you associate nothing with Allah, neither commit adultery nor steal, do not bring forth a slander of your own fabrication between your hands and feet, and do not disobey me (1) in anything right and proper. Whoever among you fulfills his pledge, his reward is with Allah. Whoever commits any of these things and is punished for it in this world, that punishment will be an expiation for him. Whoever commits anything [of that kind] (2) and Allah conceals it for him, his matter rests with Allah: if He wills, He will punish him, and if He wills, He will forgive him.” (3)
If heaven-sent afflictions (4) that occur through no human agency (5) are among the means by which Allah expiates sins, then the harm and injustices inflicted by people (6) do so all the more—such as the harm disbelievers inflict upon those who strive in Allah’s cause, the harm deniers inflict upon the prophets, and the harm a wrongdoer inflicts upon the person he has wronged.
(1) N and M read: “and do not disobey.”
(2) The words “of that kind” are an addition found only in B.
(3) This hadith, with some variation in wording, is narrated from Ubāda ibn al-Sāmit—may Allah be pleased with him—and is recorded in al-Bukhārī, 1/8–9 (*Kitāb al-Īmān* [Book of Faith], chapter beginning “Abū al-Yamān narrated to us”); 5/55 (*Kitāb Manāqib al-Ansār* [Book of the Merits of the Ansār], “The Ansār’s Delegation to the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—in Mecca and the Pledge of al-Aqaba”); and 8/159, 162 (*Kitāb al-Hudūd* [Book of Prescribed Punishments], “Prescribed Punishments Are Expiation” and “The Repentance of the Thief”); Muslim, 3/1333–1334 (*Kitāb al-Hudūd*, “Prescribed Punishments Are Expiations for Those Subjected to Them”); *Sunan al-Nasā'ī*, 7/144 (*Kitāb al-Bay'a* [Book of the Pledge of Allegiance], “The Reward of One Who Fulfills His Pledge”); and *Sunan al-Dārimī*, 2/220 (*Kitāb al-Siyar*, “Concerning the Pledge of Allegiance to the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him”).
(4) N and M read: *al-samā'iyya* (“heaven-sent”).
(5) H and R have a blank where the phrase “human agency” appears.
(6) N reads: *min adhā al-khalq al-zālim wa-al-kāfir* (“from the harm caused by people—the wrongdoer and the disbeliever”). R reads: *min adhā al-khalq kāfiran wa-al-zālim* (“from harm caused by people, a disbeliever, and the wrongdoer”), with a blank after *al-khalq* (“people”). The reading printed in the text is based on H and B, although H has a one-word blank after “people.”