Cursing Others
Abdullah bin Mas‘ud once went to see his friend Abu Umair. However, he was not at home. So he conveyed his greetings to his wife and requested some water to drink. There was no water available in the house so she sent a female servant to bring water from the neighbours, but she did not return till very late. Umar’s wife scolded their female servant saying she was extremely lazy and cursed her. Having heard her, Hazrat Abdullah returned home thirsty. The following day he met Abu Umair and he asked him why he returned home so quickly without drinking water. He answered, “When your wife cursed the servant, the saying of the Holy Prophet (sa) came to mind that whoever is cursed but is innocent, the curse is reverted to the one who cursed. So I thought that if the servant was innocent then the curse would revert to me without cause.” *(Sira Al-Sahaba, Vol. 2, p. 223, Dar-ul-Isha‘at, Karachi)*Therefore, it is better to go without drinking. So this was the level of fear of God these people possessed that if there was even a remotest chance of God Almighty being upset with them for any reason, they would abstain and stay away from it.