the merits of Muʿāwiyah, because in reality it becomes a prayer for him.

Al-Dhahabī alluded to this second meaning, saying in Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ (9/171/2):
“I would suggest that this should be counted as a virtue of Muʿāwiyah, for the Prophet ﷺ said, ‘O Allah, if I have cursed or reviled anyone, then make that for him a purification and a mercy.’”

Know, furthermore, that the Prophet’s ﷺ words in these reports—“I am only a human being; I become pleased just as other human beings become pleased…”—are merely an elaboration of the divine statement:
“Say, ‘I am only a human being like you; revelation has been sent to me…’” (Q 18:110).

Some people driven by whim or uncontrolled emotion may hasten to reject a narration of this sort, claiming that they are honoring the Prophet ﷺ and exalting him above uttering such words. There is, however, no room for such denial. The ḥadith is authentic—in fact, for us it is mass-transmitted (mutawātir). Muslim recorded it from ʿĀʾishah and Umm Salamah, as already mentioned, and also from Abū Hurayrah and Jābir (radiyallāhu ʿanhum). It is likewise reported from Salmān, Anas, Samurah, Abū l-Ṭufayl, Abū Saʿīd, and others; see Kanz al-ʿUmmāl (2/124).

Legitimate veneration of the Prophet ﷺ consists in believing everything that has reached us from him with sound, established chains. Thus faith in him as a servant and a messenger is combined, without excess or neglect. He ﷺ is a human being, as borne witness by the Qur’an and the Sunnah, yet—according to rigorously authentic ḥadith—he is the leader and the best of all humankind, a truth attested as well by the record of his life. God endowed him with noble character and praiseworthy qualities that no other human being ever possessed in such perfection. How true are the words of the Almighty, who addressed him saying:
“And indeed, you are surely upon an exalted standard of character” (Q 68:4).