15. Cursing and Defamation

15. Cursing and Defamation

chapter 145. The believer is not a defamer

309. Salim ibn ‘Abdullah said, “I never heard ‘Abdullah ever curse anything.” Salim mentioned that ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Amr said, “It is not fitting for a believer to be a curser.”
Grade: Hasan (Sound) and Saheeh (Authentic)
Commentary: e phrase, laysa insaanan (but not a person) is clearer in another wording of the same hadeeth authentically collected by Ibn Abee Dunya which says, illaa insaanan waahidan (except a single person). In that single case, Ibn Umar (عنهام الله ريض (freed the slave whom he cursed. The hadeeth clearly disallows cursing, and the believer should only adorn himself with positive qualities.

310.Jabir ibn ‘Abdullah reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “Allah does not love the loud and coarse nor the one who shouts in the markets.”
Grade: Da’eef (Weak)

311.’A’isha reported that some Jews came to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and said, “Poison (‘sam‘ instead of ‘salam‘) be upon you.” ‘A’isha said, “And upon you and may the curse of Allah and the anger of Allah be upon you!” The Prophet said, “Easy, ‘A’isha, you must be gentle. Beware of harshness and coarseness.” She asked, “Didn’t you hear what they said?” He said, “Didn’t you hear what I said? I repeated it to them and what I said about them will be accepted and what they said about me will not be accepted.”
Grade: Saheeh (Authentic)
Commentary: It exhorts towards being gentle and eschewing harshness and coarseness; one should still be mannerly even while responding to an offensive from an adversary. The Prophetﷺ cautioned against being excessive in response to the non-Muslims in this hadeeth, not being excessive with respect to the Muslim is therefore, with a greater need. Basically, the eminent may not invest time and energy to counteract inconsequential statements and dispositions from the stupid.

312.’Abdullah reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “A believer is not a defamer nor a curser nor coarse nor obscene.”
Grade: Saheeh (Authentic)
Commentary: These traits are certainly blameworthy; when a Muslim engages in them it depicts his weak Eemaan (faith) and the weakness is to the extent of his engaging in it and other sins.

313. Abu Hurayra reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “A person who is two-faced cannot be trusted.”
Grade:Hasan (Sound) and Saheeh (Authentic)
Commentary: When he is with those whom he dislikes, he amends his words and actions to suit the situation, and when he returns to his true associates he is something else. So for him, words are ever changing depending on the situation. How can such be trustworthy?!

314.’Abdullah said, “The most blameworthy thing in a believer’s character is coarseness.”
Grade: Saheeh (Authentic)
Commentary: That is, being vulgar or obscene; unrefined.

315.’Ubayd al-Kindi al-Kufi reported that he heard ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib said, “The cursers are cursed.” The transmitter, Marwan ibn Mu’awiya, said that he means those who curse other people.
Grade: Da’eef (Weak)

chapter 146. Someone who curses

316. Abu’d-Darda’ reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “Those who curse will be neither witnesses nor intercessors on the Day of Rising.”
Grade: Saheeh (Authentic)
Commentary: They will not be witnesses for the earlier Prophets – alayhim as-Salam – on the Day of Ressurrection against their nations who will deny that their Prophets did not invite them. It is also considered that they will not be witnesses means that their witnessing should not be accepted in the courts or that they will not be granted martyrdom in the path of Allah. Also, they will not be intercessors of the Day of Ressurrection, for intercession involves asking that sins are pardoned and asking for Allah’s mercy. This contradicts the action of the curser who is in the habit of asking that Allah’s mercy is put away from His servants.

317. Abu Hurayra reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “The true person must not be a curser.”
Grade: Saheeh (Authentic)
Commentary: The siddeeq is one who is ever truthful and whose actions follow his words. If such is in the habit of cursing people, his words will belie his actions and vice versa. However, if it happens for any reason that he curses once or thereabout, it does not remove or contradict the status of the siddeeq.

318. Hudhayfa said, “People do not cure one another without that curse coming true.”
Grade: Saheeh (Authentic)
Commentary: So, the harm for which they supplicated against one another falls upon them – and the refuge is with Allah.

chapter 147. The person who curses his slave and then frees him

319. ‘A’isha reported that Abu Bakr cursed one of his slaves and the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “Abu Bakr! The cursers and the true! No, by the Lord of the Ka’ba,” and he repeated that two or three times. That very same day Abu Bakr freed one of his slaves. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, came and said, “Do not do that again (i.e. curse someone).”
Grade: Saheeh (Authentic)
Commentary: That is, have you seen a siddeeq being a curser? These are two clearly different and incompatible traits! So, Abu Bakr as-Siddeeq freed a slave in atonement and also vowed never to curse anyone again. The hadeeth shows the virtue of Abu Bakr ; that he is siddeeq, quick to turn in penitence to Allah the Mighty and Exalted. “Truly, Allah loves those who turn unto Him in repentance.” (Q 2 : 222)

chapter 148. Cursing one another with the curse of Allah, with the anger of Allah, and with the Fire

320. Samura reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “Do not curse one another with the cure of Allah, not the anger of Allah nor with the Fire.”
Grade: Da’eef (Weak)

chapter 149. Cursing an unbeliever

321. Abu Hurayra said, “The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was asked, “Messenger of Allah, invoke a curse for us against the idolaters.’ He replied, ‘I was not sent as a curser. I was sent as a mercy.'”
Grade: Saheeh (Authentic)
Commentary: The Prophetﷺ is a mercy to all; for the Muslims due to obvious reasons, and for the non-Muslims, because while he is with them, their punishment is postponed until the Day of Ressurrection.

chapter 150. Slander

322. Himam said, “We were with Hudhayfa when he was told, ‘A man has a hadith going back to ‘Uthman.’ Hudhayfa said, ‘I heard the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say, “A mischief-maker will not enter the Garden.”‘”
Grade: Saheeh (Authentic)
Commentary: This is explained in two ways: firstly, that it is regarding the one who considers slandering legitimate without any explanation despite knowing that it is prohibited. Secondly, that the slanderer will be delayed from entering the Garden. However, if doing so involves certain pressing overall benefit, it is permissible; such as informing a man about a secret plan to execute him or his family or take away his wealth or to report an individual who spreads harm in the community to the apprioprate Authority.

323. Asma’ bint Yazid reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “Shall I tell you who is the best of you?” “Yes,,” they replied. He said, “Those who remind you of Allah when you see them.” He went on to say, “Shall I tell you who is the worst of you?” “Yes,” they replied. He said, “Those who go about slandering, causing mischief between friends in order to separate them, and desiring to lead the innocent into wrong action.”
Grade: Hasan (Sound)
Commentary: The hadeeth mentions serious dispraise for and some consequences of going about slandering: It causes separation between friends and leads the innocent into distress. So when a person says to you, so-and-so said such-and-such about you; do the following: 1. Do not accept it as true, for the slanderer is a sinful person whose witnesses should be rejected. 2. Forbid him from doing so and give him sincere advice. 3. Dislike him for Allah’s sake for he is disliked in the sight of Allah. 4. You should still have a good opinion of your brother about whom he told you. 5. What the narrator says should not make you begin to sniff out for information on the matter. Allah knows best.

chapter 151. Someone who hears about an indecency and then spreads it about

324. ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib said, “The person who says something indecent and the person who makes it known are equal as far as the wrong action is concerned.”
Grade: Hasan (Sound)
Commentary: This is because they have both cooperated in this evil; while one of them originated it, the other joined in its spread.

325. Shubayl ibn ‘Awf said, “It is said, ‘Whoever hears something indecent and then spreads it is like the one who originated it.'”
Grade: Saheeh (Authentic)
Commentary: That is, they are alike as far as the sin is concerned as contained in the preceding narration. The Prophetﷺ had shown dispraise for rumour mongering in an authentic narration, collected by Imam Muslim in the Preface of Saheeh Muslim that, “It is sufficient sin for a person when he narrates whatever he hears.”

326. ‘Ata thought that an exemplary punishment should be carried out on anyone who makes adultery known. He said, “He has made indecency known.”
Grade: Saheeh (Authentic)

chapter 152. The fault-finder

327. Hukaym ibn Sa’d heard ‘Ali say, “Do not be hasty, spreading and divulging secrets. Ahead of you lies a severe, distressing affliction and events which would take a long time explain namely oppressive conflicts.”
Grade: Saheeh (Authentic)

328. Ibn ‘Abbas said, “When you want to mention your companion’s faults, remember your own faults.”
Grade: Da’eef (Weak)

329. Ibn ‘Abbas spoke about the words of Allah Almighty, “Do not find fault with one another” (49:11) and he said that these words mean, “Do not attack one another.”
Grade: Da’eef (Weak)

330. Ad-Dahhak said, “It was about us (the Banu Salima) that these words were revealed, ‘Do not find fault with one another’ (49:11)” He went on to say, “The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, came to us and there was not a man among us who did not have two names. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, began to say, ‘O so-and-so!’ and they said, ‘Messenger of Allah! That will make him angry!'”
Grade: Saheeh (Authentic)
Commentary: ‘O so-and-so!’ that is, heﷺ would call a person among them by his nickname which he disliked. Hafidh Ibn Hajar al-Asqalaanee (رحمه الله (explains, “If a person likes a particular nickname and it does not contain excess praise which makes it become prohibited legally, it is permissible or even recommended. But if he dislikes it, then it is either prohibited or disliked except if he is popular with it and would not be differenciated from other than him until the nickname is mentioned.”

331.’Ikrima was heard to say, “I do not know which o f them, either Ibn ‘Abbas or Ibn ‘Umar, was giving his companions food, and a slavegirl was working in their presence. One of them said to her, ‘Harlot!’ He said, ‘Easy! If she does not exact the hadd punishment (i.e. for slander) from you in this world, she will take it from you in the Next World.’ The man said, ‘And what do you think if it (what I said) is the truth?’ He replied, ‘Allah does not love anyone who greatly exceeds the sounds in speaking of indecencies.”
Grade: Saheeh (Authentic)
Commentary: The narration shows the followings: 1. ‘Ikrimah (الله رحمه (was precise in his narration. 2. The dispraise for insulting somebody even though they may be our servants or subordinates. 3. The Day of Ressurrection is a day of recompense; “Whosoever does good equal to the weight of an atom shall see it. And whosoever does evil equal to the weight of an atom shall see it.” (99: 7-8). 4. We should regularly keep the company of the pious who will always guide us towards good and caution us when we err. 5. One must not commit nor spread indecency.

332. ‘Abdullah reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said. “The believer is neither a defamer nor a curser nor outrageous nor obscene.”
Grade: Saheeh (Authentic)
Commentary: These traits are certainly blameworthy; when a Muslim engages in them it depicts his weak Eemaan (faith) and the weakness is to the extent of his engaging in it and other sins.