Each card = narrator · key Arabic phrase · meaning · lessons · the famous scholarly note. The first three hadith (intentions, Jibril, pillars) get the most detailed questions.
Depth, proofs and word-meanings behind each hadith card.
Hadith 1 — Intentions (niyyah), deeper
- "Innamā" = a particle of restriction (ḥaṣr): "actions are nothing but by intentions."
- Three kinds of ʿamal the niyyah governs: ʿamal al-jawāriḥ (limbs), ʿamal al-lisān (tongue), ʿamal al-qalb (heart).
- Niyyah's second function = tamyīz al-ʿamal (distinguishing acts — ʿAṣr vs nafl, farḍ vs sunnah), besides directing the deed to Allah.
- A sincere intention blocked by a valid excuse still earns full reward: Q4:100 (one who dies emigrating), the excused stay-behinds "كَانُوا مَعَكُمْ", and the tahajjud-sleeper "كُتِبَ لَهُ مَا نَوَى".
- Intending a sin but not acting on it is written as a good deed (the ledger of deeds is asymmetric in mercy).
- Two conditions for any accepted deed: (1) ikhlāṣ (sincerity — from this hadith) and (2) conformity to the Sunnah (from Hadith 5). Imam Aḥmad: "Islam is built on three hadiths" — 1, 5 and 6.
Hadith 2 — Jibrīl: islam, imān, iḥsān, deeper
- Iḥsān has two stations (maqāmān): mushāhadah ("as if you see Him" → khashyah) and murāqabah ("He sees you").
- Islam vs Imān rule: when paired in one text, Islam = outward acts and Imān = the inward; when each is used alone, each carries the whole religion.
- Imān has three components (Ahl as-Sunnah): taṣdīq bi-l-qalb + iqrār bi-l-lisān + ʿamal bi-l-jawāriḥ — heart-assent alone is not complete īmān.
- The stranger's posture: intense-white garments, jet-black hair, no trace of travel; he sat knee-to-knee, palms on his thighs — and astonishingly both asked and confirmed ("صَدَقْتَ").
- The punchline: "That was Jibrīl — he came to teach you your religion"; Nawawī: the hadith "gathers many kinds of knowledge."
Hadith 3 — Islam built on five, deeper
- Pillar word-glosses: iqāmu-ṣ-ṣalāh = establish it upright/in its time; ītāʾ az-zakāh = giving; ḥajj = qaṣd (purposeful heading); ṣawm = imsāk (abstaining).
- Zakāh's two meanings: ṭahārah (purification) and barakah (growth); 2.5% after the niṣāb — "خُذْ مِنْ أَمْوَالِهِمْ صَدَقَةً تُطَهِّرُهُمْ" (9:103).
- The image: Islam is a great building on five pillars — shake one and the structure shakes — yet Islam is more than five: a complete system for life.
Hadith 4 — Creation & qadar, deeper
- Ibn Masʿūd's emphatic title for the Prophet ﷺ: aṣ-Ṣādiq al-Maṣdūq — the truthful one whose truth is confirmed by revelation (he reserved it for this hadith).
- Qur'anic parallel for the stages: Q23:12–14 (sulālah → nuṭfah → ʿalaqah → muḍghah → ʿiẓām → laḥm) "فَتَبَارَكَ اللَّهُ أَحْسَنُ الْخَالِقِينَ".
- The differing Ḥudhayfah ibn Usayd hadith (angel sent after 42 nights, shaping hearing/sight/skin) is reconciled with this one by jamʿ; Bukhārī's wording is the soundest.
- Qadar precisely: Allah's knowledge and power are absolute; the writing records His foreknowledge — it does not compel the slave's choice. Duʿāʾ "يَا مُقَلِّبَ الْقُلُوبِ ثَبِّتْ قَلْبِي عَلَى دِينِكَ".
- "Deeds are by their endings" (al-aʿmāl bi-l-khawātīm): the wounded fighter who killed himself ended in the Fire — never write anyone off, and never feel secure.
Hadith 5 — Rejected innovation (bidʿah), deeper
- Why both wordings matter: "مَنْ أَحْدَثَ" catches the inventor; "مَنْ عَمِلَ" catches whoever merely practises a baseless act. ḥadīth itself shares the root of aḥdatha = "new".
- ash-Shāṭibī's definition of bidʿah (3 elements): an invented way in the religion, resembling the legislated, intended as exaggerated devotion.
- Bidʿah is in the religion only: worldly innovation (registers/dīwān in ʿUmar's time, agriculture, travel) is open and can be praiseworthy.
- Five reasons Islam is strict about bidʿah: it rivals the Lawgiver; the dīn is already perfected (Q5:3 "الْيَوْمَ أَكْمَلْتُ لَكُمْ دِينَكُمْ"); it burdens an easy religion; "each bidʿah kills a Sunnah"; and it corrupts ʿaqīdah.
Hadith 6 — Lawful, unlawful & doubtful, deeper
- mushtabih vs mutashābih — don't confuse them: mushtabih = genuinely doubtful (ḥalāl or ḥarām?); mutashābih = merely resembling in appearance (like the fruits of Paradise, alike to look at, different in taste).
- The default-ruling principle: in worldly things al-aṣl al-ibāḥah (permitted until proof forbids); in worship the default is restriction (nothing without proof) — tying H6 back to H5.
- Nawawī's five levels of waraʿ: leave the ḥarām · do the farḍ · leave the makrūh · do the mandūb · leave the doubtful.
- The Prophet's ﷺ own scruple: he ate a stray date, then feared it was from ṣadaqah (forbidden to him) and could not rest — living the caution he taught.
📋 Extra exam facts
| Point | Recall |
|---|
The shortcut grid — number → theme keyword → narrator. Drill this until you can recite it cold.
| # | Theme | Narrator |
|---|
15 questions. Score 80%+ on first try to mark this lesson done.