—peaceable, never obscene in word or deed or in any other respect, precisely because he is a believer.

Likewise, consider the ḥadith about cursing: When a person hurls a curse at someone—or at anything at all—the curse rises up to heaven and the gate of the lowest heaven is barred against it. It then descends to earth, where the gates of the earth are shut before it. It wanders to the right and to the left and finally returns to the one who was cursed. If that person deserves the curse, it settles on him; otherwise, it rebounds upon the one who uttered it. This is a stern warning to anyone who curses someone not worthy of such condemnation, for the curse roams through heaven and earth, to the right and to the left, only to end up back with its speaker when the target is undeserving.

The author then cites the ḥadith of ʿImrān ibn Ḥuṣayn: A woman was riding her camel when it annoyed and exhausted her, so she cursed it, saying, “May Allah curse you.” The Prophet ﷺ heard this and ordered that the saddle and baggage be removed from the camel and that it be left to roam free—stripped of all equipment. ʿImrān said, “I later saw it moving among the people, and no one would touch it, because the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had ordered that it be set loose.”

This was a form of taʿzīr (disciplinary punishment) for the woman who had cursed an animal that did not merit a curse. For that reason the Prophet ﷺ said, “A cursed mount is not to accompany us,” because once she had invoked a curse upon it, the animal was deemed unfit for use. Thus he forbade employing it and left it alone, thereby disciplining the woman who had cursed an innocent creature. Allah is the One who grants success.