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What is the explanation of the Hadith: "Forty characteristics, the highest of which is the gift of a she-goat. There is no doer who performs any of these characteristics, hoping for its reward and believing in its promised outcome, except that Allah will admit him into Paradise through it"?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The aforementioned Hadith is narrated by Al-Bukhari under the title "Chapter on the Virtue of the Maniha (Gift of a Milking Animal)," and the text of the Hadith is: "(Forty virtues - the highest of which is the gift of a milking goat - there is no worker who performs any of these virtues hoping for its reward and believing in its promise, except that Allah will admit him into Paradise through it)." "Manihatul-'Anz" (gift of a milking goat) means the gift of sheep's milk. Scholars have clarified that the Hadith aims to explain the multitude of ways to do good and righteous deeds. Ibn Battal mentioned that the reason for not mentioning all forty virtues in the Hadith might be so that the designation is not limited to them, fearing that people might then become ascetic regarding other good deeds. He cited examples of good deeds such as: returning salutations, responding to someone who sneezes, removing harm from the road, feeding the hungry, and so on. Some scholars, like Al-Kirmani and Ibn Hajar, disputed Ibn Battal's identification of these virtues, emphasizing that the intention is to point to the abundance of doors to goodness without definitively specifying all of them.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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