The Messenger of Allah ﷺ never struck anything with his hand—neither a slave, nor a woman, nor a servant—except when he was fighting in the path of Allah. Nor did he ever take revenge for any personal injury; he would only retaliate when one of Allah’s sacred limits was violated, and then his retribution was for Allah alone. (1)

Imām Aḥmad (2) said: ʿAbd al-Razzāq narrated to us, Maʿmar informed us, from al-Zuhrī, from ʿUrwah, from ʿĀʾishah, who said: “The Messenger of Allah never struck a servant of his with his hand, nor a woman. He never struck anything with his hand except while striving in the cause of Allah. Whenever he was given a choice between two matters, he chose the easier of the two so long as it involved no sin; but if it involved sin, he was the farthest of people from it. He never sought vengeance for himself over anything done to him until the sanctities of Allah were violated—then he would retaliate for Allah’s sake.”

Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī (3) said: Shuʿbah narrated to us, from Abū Isḥāq: I heard Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Jadalī say: I heard ʿĀʾishah, and I asked her about the character of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. She replied, “He was neither obscene nor vulgar, nor did he raise his voice in the market-places. He did not repay evil with evil; rather, he forgave and overlooked”—or she said, “he forgave and pardoned” (Abū Dāwūd was unsure of the exact wording). Al-Tirmidhī (4) related this ḥadīth through Shuʿbah and declared it ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ.

Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān said: Ādam and ʿĀṣim ibn ʿAlī narrated to us; they said: Ibn Abī Dhiʾb narrated to us; Ṣāliḥ, the freedman of al-Tawʾamah, narrated to us: Abū Hurayrah used to describe the Messenger of Allah, saying, “He would turn to you wholly and depart from you wholly—may my father and mother be ransomed for him. He was neither obscene nor vulgar, nor did he shout in the market-places.” Ādam added: “I have never seen anyone like him before him, and I have never seen anyone like him after him.” (5)

Al-Bukhārī (6) said: ʿAbdān narrated to us, from Abū Ḥamzah, from al-Aʿmash, from Abū Wāʾil, from Masrūq, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, who said: “The Prophet ﷺ was neither obscene nor vulgar, and he used to say: ‘The best of you are those who are best in character.’” Muslim (7) also transmitted it through al-Aʿmash.

Al-Bukhārī (8) likewise recorded—through Faliḥ ibn Sulaymān, from Hilāl ibn ʿAlī, from ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yasār, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr—that he said: “The Messenger of Allah is described in the Torah with the very qualities with which he is described in the Qur’an …”