if a person reviles the Prophet ﷺ and then repents, his repentance is accepted—yet he is still put to death. By contrast, if someone reviles Allah and then repents, his repentance is accepted and he is not executed. This ruling does not imply that insulting the Messenger ﷺ is more serious than insulting Allah; the latter is unquestionably graver. However, Allah has informed us that He forgives His own right whenever a servant sincerely repents from violating it. Since the man in question has repented, we know that Allah, Exalted be He, has pardoned him.
As for the Messenger ﷺ, he has passed away, and whoever insults him has violated his personal right. If such a person then repents, Allah accepts his repentance and pardons the disbelief that resulted from insulting the Prophet, but the Prophet’s personal right remains, and therefore the offender is executed.

Imam al-Nawawi then cites the hadith of Abu Hurayrah in which the Prophet ﷺ said: “The strong man is not the one who wrestles people down; the truly strong man is the one who masters himself when anger overtakes him.” Wrestling is a known and permissible prophetic sport, for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ once wrestled Rukānah ibn Yazīd—a man whom no one else had ever thrown—and the Prophet ﷺ defeated him.

Thus the ṣarʿa (the wrestler who can fell others) is not, in reality, the strong one. The genuinely strong person is the one who wrestles his own anger and prevails over it. Hence the Prophet ﷺ declared, “Rather, the strong man is the one who controls himself when he is angry.” Anger is a live coal that Satan casts into the heart of the son of Adam, causing his blood to boil. If he is strong, he masters himself; if he is weak, anger overpowers him, and he may utter words or commit deeds he will later regret. For this reason a man once said to the Prophet ﷺ, “Give me counsel.” He replied, “Do not become angry.” The man asked again, and each time the Prophet repeated, “Do not become angry,” reiterating it several times.