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"Abdullah ibn Salam said: When the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, came to Medina, the people rushed towards him and it was said, “The Messenger of Allah has come!” I came along with the people to see him, and when I looked at the face of the Messenger of Allah, I realized that his face was not the face of a liar. The first thing he said was:

O people, spread peace, feed the hungry, and pray at night when people are sleeping and you will enter Paradise in peace."

This hadith doesn't mention things like respecting parents and performing hajj. If people read this hadith, they might take these 2 things for granted. They will think if they spread peace, feed the hungry and pray at night, they will go to Jannah in peace regardless of whether they respected parents and performed hajj or not. Does that mean that this hadith is no longer valid?

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  • Note that some have interpreted it as salam/greetings instead of peace the hadith is sahih sunnah.com/urn/726680
    – Medi1Saif ♦
    Jun 15, 2016 at 13:14
  • Why shouldn't it be valid if it is sahih?
    – Sassir
    Jun 16, 2016 at 7:42
  • I think the question about "valid" in this case is whether it is applicable or not.
    – Amir Syafrudin
    Jun 16, 2016 at 22:31
  • For what it's worth, there's a hadith that says that a time will come that a man who prays only some of the obligatory prayers will have a higher rank than a man of the salaf who fought jihad (I think that was the comparison, not sure). Some scholars say that time has come.
    – G. Bach
    Aug 16, 2016 at 23:26
  • @G.Bach are you thinking about this hadith? or is it another?
    – Kilise
    Jun 6, 2017 at 13:19

2 Answers 2

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First of all note that at the time the Prophet (Peace be upon him) came to Medina, only the prayer has been made obligatory for Muslims, some scholars say also zakat has been known but not yet regulated (the rules came 2 a.H.), fasting Ramadan (2 a.H.) and Hajj (9 a.h.H) came later.

So on that basis if you re-read the hadith then you may understand that it only quotes the -at the time- actual known acts of worship.

On the other hand there's a hadith saying if we only do the obligatory acts of worship and leave the bad and do good deeds we may enter Jannah. So the quoted hadith adds some good deeds which may be a reason for us to enter Jannah. And therefore it is valid as long as we have the historical background in mind.

On the other hand there's a version of this hadith in Sunan ibn Majah with the addition

"... uphold the ties of kinship..."

which is an other good deed.

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I agree, this kind of hadith might make people who took it literally think that going to Jannah simply requires spreading peace (or salam), feeding the poor, and praying at night. Even though the hadith is shahih, the problem itself does not lies in its validity, but instead it lies in the perception of the people. One should not consider a hadith as a singleton as it reflects only a small part of the Sunnah. If one does that, he's simply doing it wrong. This is a much bigger problem than knowing the validity of the hadith itself.

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