(may Allah have mercy on him) - : "The Chapter on the Two Who Abuse Each Other: Whatever They Say, It Falls on the First One": He narrated beneath it with his authentic chain of narration

The Shaykh : The author (may Allah have mercy on him) said: "The Chapter on the Two Who Abuse Each Other: Whatever They Say, It Falls on the First One": He narrated beneath it with his authentic chain of narration: From Abu Hurayrah from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) who said: : In this hadith, it is explained that if a man begins by abusing his Muslim brother, and then the Muslim responds with the same abuse, the consequences of both abuses—the first one initiated by the first person and the second one which was the response of the second person to the first—are recorded against the initiator. This is because it falls under the category of establishing a bad practice. However, this doubled sin is the sin of the first person who initiated the abuse and the second person who responded to him. So, this second person has no sin upon him; rather, it is an abuse, which is a disgrace and a blame. The sin of it is recorded against the initiator in addition to his own specific sin. But this is not absolute; rather, he (peace be upon him) qualified it with his saying: : So, if the wronged person increases in the abuse—for example, if one said to the other, "You are a donkey," and the other responded in kind, "You are a donkey"—then here there are two sins: the sin of the initiator and the sin of the responder. Both sins return to the initiator. But if the one who was wronged said, instead of "You are a donkey," "You are a donkey" (implying a different or more severe term, or simply repeating it as a counter-attack), this is called aggression. This is a method and style of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) teaching the Muslim how he can retaliate against one who has wronged him and abuse one who has abused him without any sin being recorded against him. This is done by returning the abuse with the abuse and not increasing upon it. In this manner, he is safe from sin, and as the common people say here: "He will be in a state of good character" (or "he will be fine"). Because a person is not a deaf stone; he has feelings and emotions. So, if he is abused, it is permissible for him to respond to the abuse with its like and not increase upon it. Therefore, for the one who is wronged, this is the explicit text of the Qur'an: , so this equivalence: the aggression of the first person and the response of the second person to the aggression with its like—both sins are recorded against the initiator because he was the cause. If the wronged person does not increase in the response with its like, then he becomes his partner in the sin because he engaged with him. This is the meaning of the hadith: : meaning, the two who abuse each other, whatever they say of abuse and insults and the like, it falls on the initiator. All of that, its sin and its evil, returns to the initiator, on the condition: : if he does not increase in the response with its like, then everything that comes from him and from the one who was wronged is recorded against the aggressor. But if he increases, then he has shared in the sin.
This is an etiquette from the etiquettes of the Prophetic Sunnah. The Messenger (peace be upon him) teaches us how we respond to people with the like if they aggress upon us. There is no harm in responding in kind, even though: "And if you pardon and forgive, it is better for you" is a general principle that is also well known. However, this has its place and is not applied to any person. That is, pardon and forgiveness are better, but with a person in whom it is hoped that pardon and forgiveness will have an effect, not one who will exploit it and consider it a weakness of the one who pardoned and forgave. In this case, it should be responded to with the like so that the forgiveness is not exploited as weakness or as what he claims to be weakness. The hadith that follows is the same hadith as the one before it, except that its narrator from the Companions is different: The first one was narrated by him with his chain from Abu Hurayrah from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) with the previous wording.