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﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

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How to reconcile the hadiths regarding cursing; between the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) refraining from cursing, and the establishment of absolute cursing

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The questioner : It is established that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) refrained from cursing, and absolute cursing is also established. However, there is a hadith about a Companion who was being harmed by his neighbor, and people were cursing him; how do we reconcile this; between his refraining from specific cursing, and his command to the Companion to take his belongings out to the street so that people would curse him, so that people would curse his neighbor?

The Shaykh : First: We do not have a text stating that the Messenger (peace be upon him) refrained from cursing specific individuals by name. Rather, this is a legal ruling held by many jurists; they say that it is not permissible to curse a specific person. This is a ruling they believe to be correct, whether they are right or wrong, and although the latter is closer to the truth in my view, there is no hadith informing us that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) did not curse specific individuals by name. Especially since in "the two Sahihs":
O Allah, curse Ra'il and Dawkhan. اللهم العَنْ رعلًا وذكوان
Sahih Ibn Hibban 10:271
and other tribes are mentioned; this is a more significant cursing than cursing a person; where he curses an entire tribe!
Then there is another hadith from which the opposite of what some jurists held is understood, which is his saying (peace be upon him):
O Allah, I am only a human being who becomes angry as humans become angry; so whichever man I have cursed or reviled who is not deserving of it, make it for him a purification and a mercy اللهم إنما أنا بشرٌ أغضب كما يغضب البشر ؛ فأيُّما رجل لَعَنْتُه أو سَبَبْتُه وليس لها أهلًا ؛ فاجعلها عليه زكاةً ورحمة
or as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said.
In this hadith, there is an explicit statement that the Messenger (peace be upon him) may curse a specific individual by his own self, and that this cursing may be in its proper place, or it may be a mistake. If it is in its proper place, this is evidence refuting the questioner's claim that the Messenger (peace be upon him) did not curse a specific person by name.
And if this cursing issued from the Messenger (peace be upon him) was a mistake, he asks Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), and this is a correction on his part for what should not have occurred from him, making it a mercy; that Allah make this cursing and reviling that occurred in an improper place a mercy for the one cursed and reviled.
So, in this hadith, there is evidence contrary to what the questioner held. And if we know this, there is no wonder after that in the Messenger's (peace be upon him) approval of the Companions' cursing of that man who wronged his neighbor, who forced him to complain of his matter to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him); so he (peace be upon him) commanded him to take his belongings out to the side of the road, and people would pass by him, asking him about the reason, and he would say: My neighbor wronged me, and they would say: May Allah kill him, may Allah curse him. The Messenger's (peace be upon him) approval of this cursing is clear for what it contains of educating this wrongdoer who encroached on his neighbor, and it was so; the man hastened, merely upon hearing people pass by him cursing him, to repent and said: O Messenger of Allah, command my neighbor to return his belongings to his house; meaning: I have repented.
So, there is no contradiction between the hadiths in this matter.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.
Where is it found?

The Shaykh : In "Al-Adab al-Mufrad" by al-Bukhari and the well-known "Sunan Abu Dawud".
Source www.al-albany.com

The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.

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