The Chapter on Humility

Imam al-Nawawi's Riyadh al-Salihin carries a chapter titled Humility and Lowering One's Wing to the Believers, and this volume is Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salih al-Uthaymin's explanation of it, translated in full. Humility, al-Nawawi begins, is the opposite of self-exaltation: not raising oneself above others on account of knowledge, lineage, wealth, status or office. The Shaykh takes the chapter's verses and narrations in turn, among them the command to be kind and humble to the believers and to lower the wing to those who follow, and the report that the Prophet was humble enough that a young girl could take him by the hand and lead him where she wished until her need was met. A single chapter given a book of its own, listed by its publisher under Islamic moral conduct.