and cursing him with Allah’s curse; when he did not retreat at that, the Prophet stretched out his hand toward him.

In the two Sahīhs, Abū Hurayrah reported that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

“Satan appeared before me and rushed at me to interrupt my prayer. Allah gave me power over him, and I throttled him. I considered tying him to a pillar so that you could see him in the morning, but I remembered the words of my brother Solomon: ‘My Lord, forgive me and grant me a kingdom such as no one after me will have.’ So Allah drove him back, humiliated.”

This hadith agrees with the first and explains it. His words, “I throttled him,” mean “I choked him.” This makes clear that he stretched out his hand to choke him. This was a physical act of repelling his aggression—namely, choking him—and through it his aggression was repelled, so Allah drove him back, humiliated.

The further step of tying him to the pillar, however, would have been an exercise of royal authority, which he refrained from exercising out of regard for Solomon. Our Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, dealt with the jinn just as he dealt with human beings: as a servant-messenger, commanding them to worship and obey Allah. He did not exercise authority over them for a purpose of his own, which would constitute royal authority. He was a servant-messenger, whereas Solomon was a prophet-king. A servant-messenger is superior to a prophet-king, just as the foremost, those brought near to Allah, are superior to the general body of the righteous, the people of the right.

Al-Nasā’ī also narrated, with a chain meeting al-Bukhārī’s criteria, from ‘Ā’ishah that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, was praying when Satan came to him. He seized him, threw him to the ground, and choked him. The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

“Until I felt the coolness of his tongue against my hand. Were it not for