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The hadith of the five afflictions

حديث الخصال الخمس

Words of the Prophet ﷺ to the Muhajirun transmitted by Abdullah ibn Umar in the account of Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf (may God be pleased with him)'s dispatch: five things he sought refuge from befalling them: open indecency bringing plague, short measure bringing famine and tyranny, withheld zakat bringing drought, broken covenants bringing an outside enemy, and rulers not judging by God's book bringing internal strife.

Depth

At a glance

Era
The Prophetic Era
Region
Arabia
Review
Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it

Zakat and sadaqaLaw and courtsHealth, body and death

Overview

A short saying of the Prophet to the emigrants, which Ibn Ishaq transmits in the context of the dispatch of Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf. It comes from Ata ibn Abi Rabah, from a man who heard Ibn Umar: "O company of emigrants, there are five traits which, if they befall you, and I seek God's protection lest you meet them..." 1

The five traits

The saying links each trait to its consequence: the open spread of immorality brings plague and sicknesses unknown to earlier generations; the cheating of measure and balance brings years of drought, hardship of livelihood and the oppression of rulers; withholding alms brings the withholding of rain, so that were it not for the animals, no rain would fall; breaking the covenant of God and His Messenger brings an enemy from outside them who takes some of what is in their hands; and when the leaders do not judge by the Book of God and act tyrannically in what God has sent down, God makes their might a source of conflict among them. 1

In the museum

A visitor reads here an early idea of what later writers call "social punishments": plague, famine, injustice, invasion and civil war are presented as consequences of general conduct, not of the sins of individuals. The text is given in sense here; its wording is read in the edition. 1

Notes on the transmission

  • The narrator from Ibn Umar is an unnamed man from Basra. Ibn Ishaq transmits it from Ata "from someone I do not suspect". 2
  • "They were tyrannical" is in two copies, and "they were bewildered" in one copy. 1

Connections

Explore the connections

Part of
Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf's detachment to Dumat al-Jandal

People and things also explored

Prophet's Mosque· The Prophetic Era· Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf· Abdullah ibn Umar ibn al-Khattab· Bilal ibn Rabah· Muhammad· Dumat al-Jandal· Financial expiations (kaffarat)

Sources

  1. al-Sira al-Nabawiyya — Ibn Hisham, al-Saqqa edition (1355/1936) , 4/280
  2. al-Sira al-Nabawiyya — Ibn Hisham, al-Saqqa edition (1355/1936) , 4/279
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “The hadith of the five afflictions”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/work/hadith-of-the-five-afflictions/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-16.

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Prophet's Mosque

The mosque the Prophet founded in Medina after the Hijra; his camel knelt at the spot and he said 'this is the lodging, God willing', and it was the date-drying yard (mirbad) of two orphans, Sahl and Suhayl ibn 'Amr, in the care of As'ad ibn Zurara — he refused it as a gift until he bought it, ten dinars paid by Abu Bakr in al-Waqidi's account. They built it of mudbrick on a stone foundation of about three cubits; its measure is reported as seventy by sixty cubits, or a hundred square, or less than a hundred; its qibla first faced Jerusalem, and when it was turned the rear door was sealed and its opposite opened; of its three doors Bab 'Atika — the Door of Mercy — and Bab Al 'Uthman are named; it stood unroofed until the heat drove them to shade it with palm trunks and fronds then clay, the Prophet saying 'no — a shelter like the shelter of Moses'.