Note: This hadith appears in Amthāl al-Māwardī (103), in its entirety, alongside a hadith that begins: “There is no faith for one who has no trustworthiness, and no religion for one who does not honour his covenant. By Him in whose Hand my soul is, a man’s religion cannot be sound until …” and so on. He cited it through Ḥuṣayn ibn Madhʿūr, from Yūnus, from Ibn Masʿūd, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said it. This is an obscure chain of transmission: I did not recognize the two narrators below Ibn Masʿūd. Dr Fuʾād, as is his custom, made no comment on it, but stated in his annotation: “Authentic. It was recorded by Aḥmad (3/135 …), al-Bayhaqī in his Sunan (6/288), and Ibn Ḥibbān, from Anas. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmiʿ, 6: (the original: 3/123, hadith 7056).”

I say: This gives the impression that they recorded it with this complete wording, and that it likewise appears thus in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmiʿ. This is not so. Rather, all of them recorded only its opening portion, without the hadith under this heading.

2842 — “Those in your service are your brethren, whom Allah has placed under your authority. So whoever has his brother under his authority should feed him from what he eats and clothe him from what he wears. Do not burden them with what overwhelms them; and if you assign them a task that overwhelms them, then assist them.”

Al-Bukhārī recorded it in his Ṣaḥīḥ (3/123) and in al-Adab al-Mufrad (29), on the authority of Abū Dharr. It has also been narrated with the wording: “They are your brethren …” Its documentation was given in al-Irwāʾ (2176).

What is meant by “brethren” here is slaves. Ibn al-Athīr said in al-Nihāyah: “Khawal refers to a man’s household servants and retainers; its singular is khāʾil. It may also be used as a singular term, and it applies to both a male slave and a female slave. It is derived from takhwīl, meaning to confer ownership; and it has also been said that it is derived from care.”