Imām Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Ayyūb, known as Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah ؒ (d. 751 AH/1350 CE), wrote:
Al-Ḥasan ibn ʿArafah ؒ said: Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAyyāsh narrated to us, from ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Ḥusayn, from Shahr ibn Ḥawshab, from Muʿādh ibn Jabal ؓ, who said: The Messenger of Allah said:
مفتاح الجنة شهادة أن لا إله إلا الله
“The key to Paradise is the testimony that none has the right to be worshipped except Allah.” [Ad-Duʿāʾ, vol. 3, p. 1479; Al-Kāmil, vol. 4, pp. 38–39.]
¹
It was also narrated by Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal (d. 241 AH/855 CE) in his Musnad with the wording:
مفتاح الجنة شهادة أن لا إله إلا الله
“The key to Paradise is the testimony that none has the right to be worshipped except Allah.” (Musnad Aḥmad, vol. 5, p. 242).
²
Al-Bukhārī (d. 256 AH/870 CE) recorded in his Ṣaḥīḥ, on the authority of Wahb ibn Munabbih (d. 114 AH/732 CE), that it was said to him:
أليس مفتاح الجنة لا إله إلا الله؟
“Is not the key to Paradise lā ilāha illā Allah?” [Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Kitāb al-Janāʾiz, as cited in note 4.]
³ He replied:
بلى ولكن ليس من مفتاح إلا وله أسنان فإن جئت بمفتاح له أسنان فتح لك وإلا لم يفتح
“Yes, but no key exists except that it has teeth. If you come with a key that has teeth, it will open for you; otherwise it will not open.” [Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Kitāb al-Janāʾiz, as cited in note 4.]
⁴
Abū Nuʿaym (d. 430 AH/1038 CE) narrated from the ḥadīth of Abān, from Anas, who said: A Bedouin said:
يا رسول الله ما مفتاح الجنة؟
“O Messenger of Allah , what are the keys to Paradise?” (Ṣifat al-Jannah, no. 190).
He said:
لا إله إلا الله
“Lā ilāha illā Allah.” (Ṣifat al-Jannah, no. 190).
⁵
Al-Aʿmash (d. 148 AH/765 CE) narrated from Mujāhid (d. 104 AH/722 CE), from Yazīd ibn Sakhīrah, who said:
إن السيوف مفاتيح الجنة
“The swords are the keys to Paradise.” (Ṣifat al-Jannah, no. 192).
⁶
And in the Musnad, from the ḥadīth of Muʿādh ibn Jabal, the Prophet said:
ألا أدلك على باب من أبواب الجنة؟
“Shall I not guide you to a gate from the gates of Paradise?” (Musnad Aḥmad, vol. 5, p. 228).
I said:
بلى
“Yes.” (Musnad Aḥmad, vol. 5, p. 228).
He said:
لا حول ولا قوة إلا بالله
“(Saying:) Lā ḥawla wa lā quwwata illā billāh.” (Musnad Aḥmad, vol. 5, p. 228).
⁷
The Keys to Every Desirable Affair
Allah has made for every desirable affair a key by which it is opened.
He made purification the key to prayer, as the Prophet said:
مفتاح الصلاة الطهارة
“The key to prayer is purification.” (Sunan at-Tirmidhī, no. 3; Sunan Abī Dāwūd, no. 61; Sunan Ibn Mājah, no. 275).
⁸ He made iḥrām the key to ḥajj; truthfulness the key to righteousness; tawḥīd the key to Paradise; sound questioning and attentive listening the key to knowledge; patience the key to victory and triumph; gratitude the key to increase; love and remembrance the key to closeness to Allah ; taqwā the key to success; hope and fear the keys to divine bestowal; supplication the key to response; abstinence from the dunyā the key to desire for the ākhirah; reflection upon that which Allah has commanded His servants to contemplate the key to īmān; and the heart’s submission and sincerity to Allah in love, hatred, action, and abstention the key to entering upon Allah . Likewise, reflection upon the Qurʾān, supplication in the last part of the night, and the abandonment of sins are the key to the life of the heart and excellence in worship of the Creator .
He made striving to benefit His servants the key to mercy; striving alongside seeking forgiveness and taqwā the key to provision; obedience to Allah and His Messenger the key to honour; shortening one’s hopes the key to preparation for the ākhirah; desire for Allah and the hereafter the key to every good; and love of the dunyā and deep longing for it the key to every evil.
A Tremendous Chapter of Knowledge
This is a tremendous chapter, among the most beneficial of all doors of knowledge: knowing the keys to good and evil. None is granted success in understanding and observing it except one who has been given a great share of divine guidance and success from Allah .
For Allah has made for every good and every evil a key and a door through which one enters it. Just as He made shirk, arrogance, turning away from what He sent His Messenger with, heedlessness of His remembrance, and neglect of His right, keys to the Fire; He made intoxicants the key to every sin, music a key to fornication, allowing the gaze to wander freely a key to desire and ruinous passionate attachment, laziness and the pursuit of comfort a key to failure and deprivation, sins a key to disbelief, lying a key to hypocrisy, miserliness and greed keys to stinginess, severing of ties of kinship, and the unlawful acquisition of wealth; and turning away from what the Messenger came with a key to every innovation and misguidance.
These matters are only truly affirmed by one who possesses sound insight and intellect, by which he recognises what lies within himself and what exists in the world of good and evil. It is therefore incumbent upon every servant to devote the utmost care to knowing these keys and what they open.
And Allah is the One from Whom success is sought. To Him belongs the dominion, all praise, all blessing, and all virtue. He is not questioned about what He does, while they will be questioned.
Footnotes
¹ Reported by aṭ-Ṭabarānī in al-Duʿāʾ, vol. 3, p. 1479, and by Ibn ʿAdī in al-Kāmil, vol. 4, pp. 38–39, through the route of Ibrāhīm ibn al-ʿAlāʾ az-Zubaydī and Yaḥyā al-Ḥammānī, both from Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAyyāsh, with similar wording.
² In one manuscript the text reads mafātīḥ (keys), whilst the majority of copies read miftāḥ (key); the latter is the correct reading, as confirmed by the text of the Musnad. Reported by Aḥmad in his Musnad, vol. 5, p. 242; al-Bazzār in his Musnad, vol. 7, p. 104, no. 2660; and Abū Nuʿaym in Ṣifat al-Jannah, no. 189, through the route of Ibrāhīm ibn Mahdī, Muḥammad ibn Salām al-Baykandī, and Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAyyāsh, all from Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAyyāsh, with similar wording. This variance between miftāḥ and mafātīḥ is attributed to the inconsistency of Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAyyāsh, which itself relates to the weakness of his narrations from transmitters outside the people of ash-Shām; and this narration falls into that category, since ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān was Makkan. Al-Bazzār stated: “Shahr ibn Ḥawshab did not hear from Muʿādh ibn Jabal.” This chain was likewise considered defective due to disconnection by al-Haythamī and Ibn Rajab. See: al-Haythamī, Majmaʿ az-Zawāʾid, vol. 1, p. 16; Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī (d. 795 AH/1393 CE), Kalimat al-Ikhlāṣ, p. 16.
³ In an alternative narration, the wording specifies “the testimony lā ilāha illā Allah.”
⁴ Al-Bukhārī, aṣ-Ṣaḥīḥ, no. 1237, Kitāb al-Janāʾiz, with the wording: “And it was said to Wahb ibn Munabbih.” Connected by al-Bukhārī in al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr, vol. 1, p. 59, and by Abū Nuʿaym in Ṣifat al-Jannah, nos. 191 and following.
⁵ Reported by Abū Nuʿaym in Ṣifat al-Jannah, no. 190. In its chain is Abān ibn Abī ʿAyyāsh al-Baṣrī, who is matrūk al-ḥadīth. See: Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (d. 852 AH/1449 CE), Taqrīb at-Tahdhīb, no. 142. An alternative narration uses the singular form miftāḥ (key).
⁶ Reported by Abū Nuʿaym in Ṣifat al-Jannah, no. 192. This narration is mawqūf. There is disagreement regarding Yazīd ibn Shajarah’s status as a Companion; the correct position, as stated by Abū Zurʿah, Ibn Mandah, and others, is that he did not have ṣuḥbah. See: Ibn Abī Ḥātim al-Rāzī (d. 327 AH/938 CE), al-Jarḥ wa-l-Taʿdīl, vol. 9, p. 271; Ibn ʿAsākir (d. 571 AH/1176 CE), Tārīkh Dimashq, vol. 65, p. 226. This ḥadīth has also been narrated in marfūʿ form by Abū Bakr ash-Shāfiʿī in al-Ghīlāniyyāt, no. 637, and by Ibn ʿAsākir in his Tārīkh, vol. 65, p. 220; however, it is not established. In its chain is Muḥammad ibn Yūnus al-Kudaymī, who is accused of fabrication. See: al-Mizzī (d. 742 AH/1341 CE), Tahdhīb al-Kamāl, vol. 27, p. 66. Ibn Ḥajar remarked: “Al-Kudaymī is weak, and what is preserved from al-Aʿmash is mawqūf.” Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, al-Iṣābah fī Tamyīz aṣ-Ṣaḥābah, vol. 6, p. 343.
⁷ Reported by Aḥmad in his Musnad, vol. 5, p. 228; an-Nasāʾī (d. 303 AH/915 CE) in ʿAmal al-Yawm wa-l-Laylah, no. 357; and ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd in al-Musnad al-Muntakhab, no. 128, and others, through the route of Abū Razīn Masʿūd ibn Mālik al-Asadī from Muʿādh. However, Abū Razīn did not hear from Muʿādh. Shuʿbah denied that he heard anything from Ibn Masʿūd; Ibn Masʿūd died in 32 AH, whilst Muʿādh died in 18 AH. Additionally, this ḥadīth is from the narration of Ḥammād ibn Salamah, from ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib, and it has been noted that Ḥammād heard from ʿAṭāʾ both before and after his cognitive decline. See: al-Mizzī, Tahdhīb al-Kamāl, vol. 27, p. 947; al-Kawākib an-Nayyirāt, pp. 324–335.
⁸ Reported by at-Tirmidhī (d. 279 AH/892 CE), al-Sunan, no. 3; Abū Dāwūd (d. 275 AH/888 CE), al-Sunan, no. 61; Ibn Mājah (d. 273 AH/887 CE), al-Sunan, no. 275; and Aḥmad in his Musnad, vol. 1, p. 129, and others.
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