Few books earn the trust of centuries, but Imam al-Nawawi's forty-two hadith have become the first collection students of knowledge turn to, and often the one they return to for a lifetime. Compiled by the thirteenth-century Shafi'i scholar Imam Yahya ibn Sharaf al-Nawawi, who died in 676 AH, this small work carries an outsized weight — most of its hadiths drawn from Sahih Muslim and Sahih al-Bukhari, chosen for how completely they capture the essence of the religion.

What you'll find inside moves from the foundational to the far-reaching: intention and sincerity, the levels of Islam, Iman, and Ihsan, the pillars of the faith, the stages of human creation, warnings against blameworthy innovation and doubtful matters, the primacy of sincere counsel, the sanctity of a Muslim's blood and property, the lawful and the unlawful, good character, brotherhood, and reliance upon Allah. Read together, the hadiths form a holistic framework — as accessible to a beginner as it is rewarding for an advanced student, which is precisely how Imam al-Nawawi intended it.

This Ihya Publishing edition, translated by Khalid Williams and edited by Muhammad Isa Waley, runs 126 pages in paperback — a compact volume meant to be read closely and kept near at hand, the way generations of students before us have kept it.