3 hadiths on work and honesty
Earning through your work, describing without deceiving and paying for work received: three hadiths on honesty in working life.
Honesty at work appears in what you produce, what you state and what you owe others. A result presented as finished while still incomplete, a deliberately hidden defect or work received without payment are not mere organisational details: someone bears the consequences.
These three hadiths address the fruits of effort, truth in an exchange and the right of an employed person.
Article contents
The value of what you earn through your work
The context of the narration
Al-Miqdam reports that the Prophet ﷺ praised food obtained through the work of one’s hands. He then cited the prophet Dawud, David, who ate from the proceeds of his own work:“No one has ever eaten better food than that earned by the work of his own hand. Allah’s prophet Dawud used to eat from the work of his own hand.”
Read the Arabic text
مَا أَكَلَ أَحَدٌ طَعَامًا قَطُّ خَيْرًا مِنْ أَنْ يَأْكُلَ مِنْ عَمَلِ يَدِهِ، وَإِنَّ نَبِيَّ اللَّهِ دَاوُدَ عَلَيْهِ السَّلاَمُ كَانَ يَأْكُلُ مِنْ عَمَلِ يَدِهِ
Understanding this hadith
Dawud’s example honours personal effort. The hadith does not reserve dignity for prestigious or visible tasks. Making, repairing, preparing and maintaining may be modest occupations in society’s eyes, but their usefulness does not depend on how observers view them.
This also invites respect for others’ work: do not treat the person who cleans, delivers or repairs with disdain, or suggest their time has no value. The saying praises earning through your own work; it does not allow people’s human worth to be ranked by their salary.
Someone looking for a job or temporarily dependent on help should therefore not read this text as a personal condemnation. Unemployment is not proof of refusing to work. You can honour effort through an accessible step: learning a professional skill, preparing an honest application or asking someone to check your documents.
Before accepting a task, explain what you can do and what will require training or a colleague’s help. The client or employer can then decide without assuming you already master something you are still learning.
Telling the truth and making defects clear
The context of the narration
Hakim ibn Hizam transmits a saying of the Prophet ﷺ concerning the seller and buyer. After mentioning their right to choose as long as they have not parted, he connects the blessing of a sale with truthfulness and disclosure:“If they tell the truth and make things clear, their sale is blessed. If they conceal and lie, the blessing of their sale is erased.”
Read the Arabic text
فَإِنْ صَدَقَا وَبَيَّنَا بُورِكَ لَهُمَا فِي بَيْعِهِمَا، وَإِنْ كَتَمَا وَكَذَبَا مُحِقَتْ بَرَكَةُ بَيْعِهِمَا
Understanding this hadith
Two actions are combined: not lying and explaining. Choosing a technically true sentence is therefore not enough if it leaves the other person in an error you know about. In a sale, describing a defect that becomes visible only after use allows the buyer to make an informed decision.
This requirement also illuminates how to present work: disclose that a check remains to be done, distinguish an estimate from a certain result and explain an important limitation.
Blessing cannot be reduced to the amount collected. A sale obtained through concealment may bring in more at the time; the text refuses to call it a success on that basis.
If you discover an error after delivering work, notify the person concerned, identify what is wrong and send the correction. They can then stop using the incorrect result.
Also read: making truthfulness a habit.
Paying for the work you receive
The context of the narration
Abu Hurayrah reports a hadith qudsi: the Prophet ﷺ transmits words of Allah. Three kinds of conduct are condemned: betraying a pledge made in His name, selling a free person and consuming the proceeds, and receiving an employee’s work without paying what is due. Here is the last case:“A man who hires a worker, receives all the work from him and does not give him his wages.”
Read the Arabic text
وَرَجُلٌ اسْتَأْجَرَ أَجِيرًا فَاسْتَوْفَى مِنْهُ وَلَمْ يُعْطِهِ أَجْرَهُ
Understanding this hadith
The full passage announces that Allah will be the adversary of these three people on the Day of Resurrection. Refusing to pay for work received is therefore presented with great seriousness. A person who employs someone cannot hire their time and then treat their pay as an optional favour.
In a small business as in an organisation, payment sometimes requires very ordinary actions: forwarding an approval, checking that payment details are correct or not leaving an invoice forgotten between two contacts. When you are responsible for these steps, following them through to payment protects the worker’s right.
Kindness in your exchanges does not replace that right. Thanking a service provider and wishing them the best does not settle payment owed. Similarly, asking for indefinite patience while you have the completed work places a burden on them that a compliment does not compensate for.
If you yourself have left a debt unpaid, begin by identifying the amount and the person concerned, then pay what you owe. Repentance here has a practical consequence: restoring a right belonging to another person.
Also read: restoring to another person the right that belongs to them.
In practice
- You need to present your workDistinguish what is finished, what still needs checking and the limitations to know before use.Reread the advice about transparency
- Work has been received and remains unpaidCheck where the payment has stalled and take the step that is your responsibility.Read the warning about wages
- You are learning a tradeChoose a skill to practise without claiming you have already mastered it.Reread the hadith about work
Sources
- Sahih al-Bukhari · 2072The value of what you earn through your work
- Sahih al-Bukhari · 2079Telling the truth and making defects clear
- Sahih al-Bukhari · 2270Paying for the work you receive