‘May Allah curse him! How often he is brought before the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace!’ The Prophet, may Allah Most High bless him and grant him peace, said, ‘Do not curse him, for he loves Allah and His Messenger.’”
I said: Here was a man who frequently drank wine. Yet because his beliefs were sound and he loved Allah and His Messenger, the Prophet, may Allah Most High bless him and grant him peace, testified to this and forbade cursing him.
As for the religious innovator, consider the report recorded by al-Bukhārī and Muslim in their two Sahīhs, from ‘Alī ibn Abī Tālib, Abū Sa‘īd al-Khudrī, and others—with portions of their narrations combined:
“The Prophet, may Allah Most High bless him and grant him peace, was distributing some goods when a man approached him with a prominent brow, a thick beard, a shaved head, and a mark of prostration between his eyes. He said what he said, whereupon the Prophet, may Allah Most High bless him and grant him peace, declared: ‘From this man’s stock will emerge people whose prayer will make any of you consider his own prayer insignificant, whose fasting will make him consider his own fasting insignificant, and whose recitation will make him consider his own recitation insignificant. They recite the Quran, but it does not pass beyond their throats. They pass out of Islam as an arrow passes through its quarry. If I encounter them, I will certainly kill them as ‘Ād were killed.’”
Another version states:
“If those who fight them knew what Muhammad has promised them, they would cease doing deeds.”
Another version states:
“They are the worst of those slain beneath the sky, while the best of those slain are those whom they kill.”
I said: Despite their abundant prayer, fasting, and recitation, and their devotion to worship and asceticism, the Prophet, may Allah Most High bless him and grant him peace, commanded that they be killed. ‘Alī ibn Abī Tālib and those with him from among the Companions of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, killed them