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"Know that at the beginning of Islam the Prophet used to court people's friendship and he made their hearts incline to him. He made them love belief and adorned it in their hearts and he treated them gently to encourage them. He said to his Companions; 'You are sent to make things easy. You were not sent to scare people away.' He said, 'Make things easy and do not make them hard. Soothe and do not scare away.'"

 

 

We have already discussed killing the person who, with intent, curses the Prophet, belittles him or slights him in any way. The judgement in this case is clear.

The second case concerns when it is necessary to clarify what someone has said. This applies to someone who speaks about the Prophet without intending to curse or belittle him and not believing his words to be true, but who nonetheless speaks about the Prophet using words of disbelief which curse him, revile him or call him a liar or ascribe to him something that is not permitted or deny one of his necessary attributes, all of which constitutes disparagement in respect of him. For instance, he might ascribe a major wrong action to the Prophet, or say that he had failed to convey the message or had fallen short in a judgement between people or he might lower his rank, the honour of his lineage, the extent of his knowledge or his asceticism, or deny a famous matter reported from him which has come by many paths of transmission with the intention of refuting the report, or say something insolent and ugly or of a cursing nature in respect of him. However, the state of this individual indicates that he does not mean to censure the Prophet nor to curse him but that ignorance, discontent, drunkenness, carelessness, arrogance or hasty speech has led him to say what he has said.

The judgement in this case is the same judgement as that applied to the first individual. Such a person is killed without hesitation since no one is excused for disbelief by ignorance or by claiming a slip of the tongue or by any of the things, which we have mentioned if his intellect is basically sound. The only exception is when someone is forced to do it while his heart is at rest in belief.

This was the fatwa given by the people of Andalusia against Ibn Hatim when he denied the asceticism of the Messenger of Allah and his family.

Muhammad ibn Sahnun said that someone in the hands of the enemy who curses the Prophet is killed unless it is known that he was forced to become Christian or was compelled to say that against his will. Abu Muhammad ibn Abi Zayd said that one cannot claim the excuse of a slip of the tongue in the cases of this kind.

Abu’l-Hasan al-Qabisi gave a fatwa that someone who reviles the Prophet while he is drunk should be killed because it is assumed that the drunkard believes that and does it when he is not drunk. Furthermore, the hadd-punishments for slander, murder and all the hudud are not removed by drunkenness because the person brought the state of drunkenness on himself. This is because someone who drinks wine knowing that it will confuse his intellect and cause him to do disliked things is the same as someone who intends doing the things that this will inevitably bring about. It is on this basis that we make divorce, emancipation, retaliation and the hadd-punishments binding on the drunkard.

This judgement is not refuted by the hadith in which Hamza said to the Prophet, "Are you other than the slave of my father?"[35]

The Prophet knew that Hamza was drunk and turned away because at that time wine had not yet been forbidden. Thus there was no wrong action in the offences ensuing from it. The judgement was that what ensued from it was pardoned as is the case with what ensues from sleep or drinking a trustworthy remedy.