Hadith: Do not get angry

The Messenger of Allâh śallAllāhu álayhi wa sallam said repeatedly to the one who asked him for advice,

Do not get angry.

[al-Bukhârī, from Abu Hurayrah]

In his commentary on Imâm Mâlik’s Muwatta’, Imâm as-Suyūtī quotes Imâm Baji as saying,

The Messenger of Allâh śallAllāhu álayhi wa sallam gathered all good for this man in one short expression, because anger causes great harm to both religion and worldly life as a result of what one says or does when angry.

'Do not get angry' means: do not act in accordance with what your anger makes you incline towards, and restrain yourself. As for anger itself, a human can't prevent it; rather, what they can prevent is acting in according to what anger calls one to do... [Suyūtī, Tanwīr al-Hawâlik, 1.212]

Imâm ‘Ayni said in his commentary on Sahīh al-Bukhârī that,

The Messenger of Allâh śallAllāhu álayhi wa sallam said, ‘Do not get angry,’ because he had direct knowledge (kashf) of the states of people and would thus command them to do what was best in their state. It may well have been that this person was given to anger, so he śallAllāhu álayhi wa sallam counselled him to leave it.

Baydâwī said, 'It may well be because the Prophet śallAllāhu álayhi wa sallam saw that all harm that occurs to a human only occurs because of their passions and anger.... Thus, if one controls one's anger, one has overcome one's strongest enemy -- and this is why the Prophet śallAllāhu álayhi wa sallam counselled him to control it.'

Khattâbi said, ‘The meaning of ‘Do not get angry’ is: don't fall into those matters that cause anger and those matters that stir one's anger -- because anger itself is an intrinsic human trait and one can't get rid of it...’’ [‘Ayni, Umdat al-Qârī Sharh Sahīh al-Bukhârī, 22.164]