“Teach your children swimming, archery and horse riding”: who said it?

Not the Prophet ﷺ. The closest sound text is Umar ibn al-Khattab’s letter to Abu ’Ubaydah in al-Sham, before 639 CE: “Teach your boys swimming, and your fighting men archery” (Musnad Ahmad 323, hasan (Shu’ayb al-Arna’ut)). It has no riding, and al-Albani grades every version credited to the Prophet ﷺ weak or worse.

Where it really comes from

Abu Umamah ibn Sahl reports the letter, sent to Abu ’Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah in al-Sham (greater Syria). Abu ’Ubaydah died in the plague of ’Amwas in 18 AH (639 CE), so Umar wrote before then.

At the targets, a stray arrow killed a boy with no known lineage, in his maternal uncle’s care. Abu ’Ubaydah asked who should receive the blood money. Umar answered with a hadith naming the maternal uncle as heir.

Shu’ayb al-Arna’ut grades the chain hasan, Ahmad Shakir sahih. Al-Bayhaqi noted that two of its narrators are not used as proof in the Sahih collections.

Where riding appears

The closest text to the popular wording, with all three, is another report. Al-Qarrab (d. 429 AH) recorded, through Makhul al-Dimashqi, that Umar wrote to the people of al-Sham to teach their children swimming, archery and horsemanship. Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta quotes it with only swimming and horsemanship.

Makhul died between 112 and 118 AH, Umar in 23 AH. The hadith scholar Abu Mushir said Makhul met only one Companion, Anas ibn Malik, so the chain to Umar has a gap.

Versions credited to the Prophet ﷺ

There are four, and none mentions riding:

• Through Ibn ’Umar: al-Bayhaqi, Shu’ab al-Iman 8297, very weak (al-Albani).
• Through Bakr ibn ’Abd Allah: Abu Nu’aym, Ma’rifat al-Sahabah 1194, weak (al-Albani). Al-Dhahabi called it false. Al-Sakhawi called it weak but noted supporting reports, and al-Zurqani judged it hasan because of them.
• Through Abu Rafi’, adding writing: al-Bayhaqi, al-Sunan al-Kubra 19772, very weak (al-Albani).
• Through Jabir: al-Daylami, al-Firdaws 4008, fabricated (al-Albani).

A separate saying pairs two of them: “Shoot and ride, and your shooting is dearer to me than your riding” (our translation; Abu Dawud 2513, da’if (al-Albani); da’if (Shu’ayb al-Arna’ut); isnad hasan (Zubair Ali Zai)). It says nothing about children.

Ibn Baz thought the saying was Umar’s. Dar al-Ifta said it was not narrated in this wording (fatwa 4902, 15 November 2003).

What the Prophet ﷺ did say

Swimming

’Ata’ ibn Abi Rabah saw Jabir ibn ’Abd Allah and Jabir ibn ’Umayr at archery. When one sat down tired, the other asked, “Have you got lazy?” and quoted the Prophet ﷺ.

Everything without the remembrance of Allah is idle play, he said, except four: a man walking between two targets, schooling his horse, playing with his wife and learning to swim. Other versions, al-Bazzar’s among them, have “teaching swimming”.

It is in al-Nasa’i, al-Sunan al-Kubra 8889, sahih (al-Albani). Ibn Hazm attacked its chain.

Archery

In Salamah ibn al-Akwa’s report, the Prophet ﷺ came upon men of Aslam at an archery contest.

The other team stopped shooting. “How can we shoot when you are with them?” they asked. “Shoot,” he said, “and I am with all of you.”

As an old man, the Companion ’Uqbah ibn ’Amir still walked between the targets because of a saying about giving archery up (Muslim 1919, sahih (Muslim)).

Horses

He arranged horse races in Madinah, and Ibn ’Umar rode in one (Bukhari 2868, sahih (al-Bukhari)). Another hadith names camel racing, horse racing and archery as the contests for a prize or stake (Abu Dawud 2574, sahih (al-Albani)). Our page on sports competitions covers other sport.

What to share instead

If a friend posts the popular line, tell them its closest sound source is a letter from Umar, without riding, and share this instead.

Read next: Archery in the Sunnah, and how to find a club near you.

Sources

1. Dorar al-Saniyyah, hadith encyclopedia: grades for Umar’s letter (Shu’ayb al-Arna’ut; Ahmad Shakir; al-Bayhaqi, al-Khilafiyyat 3698). dorar.net
2. Wikipedia, “Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah”: death in the plague of ’Amwas, 639 (18 AH). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Ubayda_ibn_al-Jarrah
3. Al-Suyuti, al-Bahah fi al-Sibahah, ed. Ahmad ’Abd Allah Bajur (Cairo, 2005), items 1-7: the versions credited to the Prophet ﷺ, al-Bazzar’s wording of the four things, and the Makhul report (OpenITI text). raw.githubusercontent.com
4. Hadith Transmitters Encyclopedia, Makhul al-Dimashqi: death dates (112-118 AH), and Abu Mushir’s remark that Makhul met no Companion but Anas, quoted in Ibn Manzur, Mukhtasar Tarikh Dimashq. hadithtransmitters.hawramani.com
5. Dorar al-Saniyyah: grades for the Ibn ’Umar version (al-Bayhaqi, Shu’ab al-Iman 8297, numbered 8664 in another edition) and the Bakr ibn ’Abd Allah version. dorar.net
6. Dorar al-Saniyyah: grades for the Abu Rafi’ version. dorar.net
7. Dorar al-Saniyyah: the grade for the Jabir version in al-Daylami, and al-Sakhawi’s and al-Zurqani’s grades for the Bakr version (al-Maqasid al-Hasanah 343; Mukhtasar al-Maqasid 658). dorar.net
8. Dorar al-Saniyyah: Ibn Baz’s comment, from al-Fawa’id al-’Ilmiyyah min al-Durus al-Baziyyah 5/320. dorar.net
9. Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah, fatwa 4902, 15 November 2003 (Arabic): the question, the answer and the Makhul report as it quotes it. dar-alifta.org
10. Dorar al-Saniyyah: the four things that are not idle play, with grades: al-Nasa’i, al-Sunan al-Kubra 8889 (8891 or 8940 in other editions); al-Tabarani, al-Mu’jam al-Kabir 1785; al-Albani, al-Silsilah al-Sahihah 315; Ibn Hazm, al-Muhalla 9/56. dorar.net
11. HadithAnswers, “Teach your children swimming, archery and horse riding”, 7 March 2016. https://hadithanswers.com/teach-your-children-swimming-archery-and-horse-riding/

Hadith on this page

• Bukhari 2868, sahih (al-Bukhari)
• Bukhari 2899, sahih (al-Bukhari)
• Muslim 1919, sahih (Muslim)
• Abu Dawud 2513, da’if (al-Albani); da’if (Shu’ayb al-Arna’ut); isnad hasan (Zubair Ali Zai)
• Abu Dawud 2574, sahih (al-Albani)
• Musnad Ahmad 323, hasan (Shu’ayb al-Arna’ut)