Chapter on Cursing the Disbeliever, the Hadith of Abu Hurayrah: (I was not sent as a curser, but I was sent as a mercy).

The Shaykh : Today we studied the chapter forty-nine after the hundred, which is: Chapter on Cursing the Disbeliever. As for the previous chapter, it contained a weak hadith; therefore, we passed over it. As for this chapter, it cites one authentic hadith with its chain of narration from Abu Hurayrah, who said: It was said: O Messenger of Allah, call upon Allah against the polytheists. He said: .
The author (may Allah have mercy on him) titled this hadith with a title that does not specify the ruling on cursing the disbeliever; because he said: Chapter on Cursing the Disbeliever, he did not say: Chapter on the Permissibility of Cursing the Disbeliever, or Chapter on the Impermissibility of Cursing the Disbeliever. This is because, first, the issue is one of scholarly disagreement, and second, because the principle, as mentioned in a previous lesson, is that a Muslim should not habituate his tongue to cursing others, even if they are ... .
In my opinion, this hadith was among the effects of the Lord of the Worlds disciplining His noble Prophet. It is reported in "al-Sahihayn" from the hadith of Anas and others that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) once sent a secret mission containing a select group of the best of the Companions. When they reached a tribe, they offered them safety, but the tribe betrayed them and killed seventy Companions from the best of the Messenger's (peace be upon him) companions, including their reciters and memorizers of the Noble Qur'an. When the news of them reached the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), he was deeply grieved; until Anas ibn Malik said: I never saw the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) be more distressed about anything—meaning: grieve about anything—than about those Companions. And the Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him) grief over those Companions was for two reasons:
The first reason: They were, as we mentioned, among the worshippers of the Companions, and among their reciters.
And the second reason: They were killed by treachery; they were not killed while facing the enemy face to face, but rather those disbelievers betrayed them. Therefore, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was distressed and grieved deeply over them, so he would supplicate against them and curse them in every prayer of the five daily prayers, until the word of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) came down in the Noble Qur'an. The verse has slipped from my mind, but the point is that those whom you are calling upon are not your responsibility to guide, but Allah (Mighty and Majestic) may guide them. This is the meaning of the verse, and perhaps I will mention it later.
Then the wisdom of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) decreed that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), after he had recited the qunut for those people for a full month, and that verse was revealed to him, the people returned as Muslims. So the secret in the revelation of the verse to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) became apparent, as if He did not want him (may the prayers and peace of Allah be upon him) to continue supplicating against them and cursing them. So the result was that those people whom the Messenger (peace be upon him) was cursing returned as Muslims. Here, the secret lies in the fact that it is not permissible, or at least not recommended, for a Muslim to curse a specific disbeliever; because of the possibility that he may return as a Muslim, and another possibility is that his Islam may be better than the Muslim who inherited his Islam from his fathers and grandfathers. So it appears—and Allah knows best—that this hadith was after Allah (Mighty and Majestic) disciplined His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) with that discipline; where He forbade him to continue and persist in cursing those disbelievers. So when he was asked (peace be upon him) to curse the disbelievers, his answer in this hadith was: . So he (peace and blessings be upon him) in this hadith wants to combine the word with the deed, and the deed with the word. Just as his call (peace and blessings be upon him) is a mercy, as He (Mighty and Majestic) said: ; meaning: with his call to His Shari'ah, so he wants to be merciful with people even in his speech. So he does not curse even the polytheists who oppose Allah and the Messenger; he does not curse them because:
First: Because cursing does not have much benefit. And second: For what we mentioned previously, that it is possible that these disbelievers may return as Muslims. And we all know that all the Companions who believed in the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) were disbelievers, they were polytheists. And among them was one who opposed him (peace and blessings be upon him) with the greatest opposition, such as 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, for example. Yet he later became one of the greatest and strongest of people in faith after Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him). So if the Messenger (peace be upon him) had directed himself and made his habit cursing the disbelievers and cursing the polytheists who opposed him, the contradiction would have appeared in the end: these are the ones he curses, and then they become Muslim believers.
So the reason is the good conduct of the Messenger (peace be upon him) with people, that he did not use the word of cursing even with those who deserve cursing from the disbelievers. And here we say, as the Lord of the Worlds said: ; because if the Messenger (peace be upon him) legislates for us in this hadith not to curse disbelievers and polytheists, then it is even more so that we should not curse a Muslim, even if he is a sinner. And this is, as we said in the past lesson, means establishing a rule and conduct for the Muslim to follow and walk upon. But sometimes, as we mentioned, a person may get angry, and a word like cursing or similar may slip from his tongue; so this is not one who is ... from it. But the perfect man, as he (peace be upon him) said in ... his saying (peace be upon him): . So if one of the people falls into such a slip by cursing one who does not deserve cursing, as you heard in the previous lesson from the story of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him), where he cursed a slave boy of his, so the result of that was that he freed a slave of his or some of his slaves. So then it is obligatory for us to habituate ourselves not to speak except with good, as he (peace be upon him) said: .