Tafsir

أُولَـٰئِكَ الَّذِينَ لَعَنَهُمُ اللَّـهُ (Those are the ones whom Allah has cursed - 47:23) In other words, people who cause corruption in the land and break bonds of kinship have been cursed by Allah, that is, Allah has driven them away from His mercy. On the basis of this verse, Sayyidna ` Umar ؓ regarded the sale of ummul-walad unlawful. Ummul-walad is a term used in Islamic law for a female slave who has borne a child to her master, and who is consequently free at his death. Thus the sale of the mother would result in separating the child from the mother, and this would lead to severing kinship tie between mother and child which necessitates the curse of Allah. Therefore, the sale of ummul-walad was declared unlawful23.

Law Relating to Cursing a Particular Person: The Issue of Cursing Yazid

When ` Abdullah asked his father Imam Ahmad about the permissibility of cursing Yazid, the Imam replied: "Why should we not curse a person whom Allah has cursed in the Qur'an?" ` Abdullah said that he read the Qur'an in its entirety but he did not find Yazid is cursed anywhere. The father recited the present verse and said, Who could be worse than Yazid in breaking up relationships? He did not even care for the Holy Prophet's ﷺ relations.' However, majority of the Ummah hold the view that it is not permissible to curse any particular person unless we know for sure that he died in the state of disbelief. We can nevertheless use cursing phrase with general characteristics, such as curse of Allah be upon the liars, curse of Allah be upon the mischief-makers, and curse of Allah be upon the breaker of kinship ]. Ruh-ul-Ma’ ani on this occasion has discussed this issue elaborately.