Explanation of the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): “May Allah curse the one who shelters an innovator.”

Question:
A questioner asks: About the meaning of the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family): “May Allah curse the one who shelters an innovator.”

Answer:
Answer: “May Allah curse” — the curse is: expulsion and distance from the mercy of Allah, and this includes invoking the curse upon this action: “the one who shelters an innovator.” This means the one who stands in the way of the limits of Allah when they become obligatory upon a person, preventing their implementation against him, either by protecting him so that no one can reach him, or by interceding on his behalf. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “When the limits reach the ruler, may Allah curse the intercessor and the one who is interceded for.” This is the bad intercession (and whoever intercedes with a bad intercession will have a share of it). When he (peace and blessings be upon him) intended to cut off the hand of a woman who used to borrow goods and deny it, he ordered her hand to be cut off. They asked Usamah ibn Zayd, the beloved of the Messenger of Allah and the son of his beloved one (may Allah be pleased with them both), to intercede with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) that her hand not be cut off. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said to him: “Do you intercede in a limit from the limits of Allah? By Allah, if Fatimah, the daughter of Muhammad, had stolen, I would have cut off her hand.” So there is no compromise in these matters. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “The only reason the people before you perished was that when a noble person among them stole, they left him alone, and when a weak person among them stole, they established the limit against him.”