مِنْ حُسْنِ إسْلَامِ الْمَرْءِ تَرْكُهُ مَا لَا يَعْنِيهِ Part of the perfection of one’s Islam is his leaving that which does not concern him. — Messenger of Allah ﷺ

Included in ‘Forty Hadith of al-Nawawi‘.

Abu Muhammad ibn Abu Zaid stated that all the good manners are alluded to in four hadith: “Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day should speak well or remain silent.“ “Part of the perfection of the one’s Islam is his leaving that which does not concern him.“ The hadith in which the Prophet (peace be upon him) told the one seeking his advice, “Do not get angry.“ “A believer loves for his brother what he loves for himself.“



“Part of the perfection of one’s Islam”

The one who tries to perfect his Islam attains great reward. Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

He who among you is good of faith, all his good acts are multiplied from ten to seven hundred times (and are recorded in his name) and all the evils that he commits are recorded as such (i, e. without increase) till he meets Allah.

Hence, the purer the intention, the more is the reward.

“His leaving that which is of no concern to him”

The standard concerning what is or is not “of concern” is the Shar’iah and not an individual’s wants or desires. This is why this hadith talks about this aspect in the context of perfecting and completing one’s Islam. Otherwise, there are a lot of things that an individual may claim are of no concern to him while, from the Shar’iah point of view, they must be of concern to him. Such as rights of Muslims that are appointed by Islam. For example: advising fellow Muslims and forbidding others from evil, etc.

What is of No Concern to a True Believer?

This includes both the speech and actions which do not benefit a Muslim in this life or the next. This means, he tries his best to avoids the forbidden acts (haram), the doubtful acts, the disliked acts (makruh) and over-indulgence in the permissible matters of which he is not in need.

The most emphasized is useless speech. Prophet ﷺ warned about useless speech and Umar ibn Abdul Azeez once said,

“The one who reckons his words as part of his actions speaks very little – only about those things that are of concern to him.

Summary

Islam protects society as a whole from any kind of harm. Much of the harm that inflicts society is when people spend their time involved in matters that are of no concern to them. This includes meddling into the affairs of others when it is neither one’s responsibility nor one’s right. In this one short sentence, the Prophet ﷺ recommended a way to avoid all these kinds of societal problems.

Summarized from Jamaal al-Din M. Zarabozo’s Commentary on the Forty Hadith of al-Nawawi (1999), pg. 479-492. Al-Basheer Publications & Translations.