The Simple Path to Jannah: Hadith 22 of an-Nawawi

It is easy to think that Jannah is only for people who pray through the night and fast most days. Hadith 22 of Imam an-Nawawi’s collection gives a gentler picture. A man asked the Prophet ﷺ whether doing the obligations, keeping to what is halal and away from what is haram, and nothing more, would take him to Jannah. The answer was one word: yes. Here is this path to Jannah hadith, what the scholars say it means, and how to walk it.

The hadith

Jabir ibn ‘Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated that a man asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ:

The Prophet ﷺ answered with a single word, نَعَمْ, “yes”. Imam an-Nawawi gives this narration as Hadith 22 of his 40 Hadith. In another narration in Sahih Muslim (Sahih Muslim 15a), the man is named: an-Nu’man ibn Qawqal. That version mentions the obligatory prayers and the halal and haram, but not fasting.

What the path to Jannah hadith means

The Encyclopedia of Translated Prophetic Hadiths (HadeethEnc) explains that a person who does these four things will enter Paradise:

• The five obligatory prayers, even without the voluntary ones.
• Fasting Ramadan, even without voluntary fasts.
• Treating the halal as halal: regarding the lawful as lawful and acting on it.
• Treating the haram as haram: regarding the unlawful as unlawful and avoiding it.

Among the benefits HadeethEnc lists: a Muslim should be keen to perform the obligations and avoid what is prohibited, with Jannah as the goal, and fulfilling the obligations and avoiding the prohibitions is a means that leads to Paradise. For how to tell the two apart, see halal is clear and haram is clear.

Avoiding the major sins

The Quran gives a similar promise to those who keep away from the major sins:

Reflection: the man did not ask for a long list of extra deeds. He asked whether the basics were enough, and he was told they were. That is a mercy, and it is also a reminder of how much the basics matter: they are the path itself, not a warm-up before the real thing. The hadith does not mention zakah or Hajj, so I would not read it as a complete list. Islam is built on five pillars, as the hadith about the five pillars shows, and a qualified scholar can explain how the two fit together.

How to put it into practice

The hadith does not set a routine, so these are suggestions:

• Guard the five prayers first. If one is often late or missed, fix that one before adding anything else.
• Prepare for Ramadan early. Plan how you will keep the fast in full, and ask a qualified scholar about any days you need to make up.
• Know the halal and haram in your own life, such as your food, your income and your speech. When something is unclear, leave what makes you doubt.
• Then add what you can keep. Voluntary deeds come on top of the obligations; see say I believe in Allah, then be steadfast.

Key lessons

• Doing the obligations and avoiding the forbidden is a path to Jannah.
• The five prayers and the fast of Ramadan come first.
• Treating the halal as halal and the haram as haram is part of faith in practice.
• Voluntary deeds are extra reward on top of the obligations, not a replacement for them.

Questions people ask

One step for today: pray each of today’s obligatory prayers on time, and remember that this is already part of the path the hadith describes.

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