Explanation:
The author—may Allah have mercy on him—entitled this chapter “A Warning against Harming the Righteous, the Weak, the Poor, and the Like,” and then quoted Allah’s words: “Those who abuse believing men and believing women for something they have not done have surely borne the burden of slander and a manifest sin” (al-Ahzab 58).

Harm (adhā) is any attempt to inflict on a person what pains him—whether inwardly or outwardly—through insults, curses, fabricated accusations, envy, or any other act by which a Muslim is hurt. All such behavior is unlawful, for Allah, exalted is He, states that whoever harms believing men and women without right has shouldered slander and an obvious sin.

The verse also indicates that if a believer is harmed on account of what he himself has earned—such as enforcing a legal punishment on a criminal or making an oppressor pay compensation—there is no sin upon the one who inflicts that pain. Although the act causes suffering, it stems from the offender’s own deeds. Allah the Exalted says: “The adulteress and the adulterer—flog each of them one hundred lashes, and do not let compassion for them keep you from obeying Allah’s law, if you truly believe in Allah and the Last Day” (al-Nur 2). Hence, there is no blame in causing a person pain that directly results from his own wrongdoing.

The author then cited hadiths that warn against harming believers, including the report mentioned earlier from Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), in which Allah says: “Whoever shows enmity to a friend of Mine, I have declared war upon him.” Thus, whoever is hostile to one of Allah’s allies should realize that Allah the Exalted—