Who would "curse himself"? Confusing Hadith

[Catya Sher]

Explanation of this ?
I thought this meant like swearing, so I paid
attention to this.
But it seems to be about literal putting a curse on self or someone.
Who would do that ??!
I must be missing something.
What would be an example of cursing one's possessions, for example ?


"Jabir (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Messenger of Allah (sallallaahu ’alayhi wa sallam) said, "Do not invoke curses on yourself or on your children or on your possessions lest you should happen to do it at a moment when the supplications are accepted, and your prayer might be granted.''
[Muslim].

Commentary: Almighty Allah always listens to everyone's prayer but He has fixed certain times when He grants more prayers addressed to Him. Therefore, one should never curse oneself or one's own children or one's own business, etc., lest this is done at the time when prayers are accepted by Allah and then one has to regret it all his life."

[Bengal_Tiger]

In eastern cultures people cursing (though not meaning it literally) in times of anger and emotion can be common.

Let's take a British example. A man does something stupid and says:

"F*** me, what an idiot I am!"

The F*** of course does not have the sexual meaning of its primary usage but f*** here means as in "damn me" or "woe to me" or even "curse me".

Another example a British man gets annoyed and says.

"Damn, what a stupid bas*ard, I am!", again he does not mean he is the illegitimate son of a couple but means he is silly.

Eastern languages can be more emotional, more bombastic and thus there are curses.

We are told to refrain such things and this is part of the general Islamic emphasis on modesty and restraint, be it in speech, materialism and many other things.

In Syria when I lived there the phrase "Allah yakhrub baituk" (may Allah destroy your house i.e. destroy/ruin your whole life, the "house" signifying your life, possesions etc) is rampant, to the extent that on one occassion a friend of mine who described himself as "Salafi mu'tadil" (moderate Salafi) was joking with another friend and laughed at him and said "Allah yakrub baituk...haha".

All cultures of Muslim lands including the Saudi contain aspects which fundamentally deviate from Islam or violate it, this is why born-Muslims will be tested on their Islam. Will they chose to follow culture or Islam.

Converts are sincere, they abandon their culture and ways of their community for a pure desire to follow the truth. Born Muslims are just born in to Islam but if they are real Muslims will be tested by if they follow culture or religion.

Words also have power.

What someone says can bring about blessings or damnation. It can be destructive or positive, thus this hadith is exhorting us to be careful with our speech.

[Pakhtunzai]

It works