Al-Bukhari (no.6780) records a hadith about a man who was brought to the Prophet ﷺ for repeatedly drinking alcohol. After one such occasion, a Companion cursed him because he had been brought for the punishment of flogging quite a few times. The Prophet ﷺ stopped him and said: ‘Do not curse him. By Allah, I know that he loves Allah and His Messenger.’
This is a profoundly hopeful hadith teaching us that a person may repeatedly be overcome by a sin — even a grave one requiring a public punishment — without that sin extinguishing the love of Allah and His Messenger ﷺ within his heart.
The Prophet ﷺ condemned the sin, ordered its punishment, but upheld the sinner’s dignity and faith. He did not allow a repeated failure to avoid the same sin to become the man’s entire identity.
So the lesson here is: Never confuse a believer’s weakness for a particular sin with the absence of goodness in his heart. For oftentimes the love of Allah remains alive even in a heart still struggling to obey Him in some of the basics.
Wa’Llahu wali al-tawfiq.
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