There was a man who had been a Christian, then embraced Islam and learned Surat al-Baqarah and Aal Imran. He used to write for the Prophet ﷺ. Later he reverted to Christianity and began saying, "Muhammad knows nothing except what I have written for him."Then Allah caused him to die, and his people buried him. By morning, the earth had cast him out. They said, "This is the doing of Muhammad and his companions. When he fled from them, they dug up our friend and threw him out because he had escaped them."So they dug a grave for him and made it as deep in the ground as they could. By morning, the earth had cast him out again. Then they realized that this was not the work of any human, so they left him discarded.
كان رجل نصرانيا، فأسلم، وقرأ البقرة وآل عمران. فكان يكتب للنبي ﷺ فعاد نصرانيا فكان يقول: ما يدري محمد إلا ما كتبت له. فأماته الله فدفنوه. فأصبح وقد لفظته الأرض، فقالوا: هذا فعل محمد وأصحابه لما هرب منهم. نبشوا عن صاحبنا لما هرب منهم فألقوه. فحفروا له، وأعمقوا له في الأرض ما استطاعوا. فأصبح قد لفظته الأرض. فعلموا: أنه ليس من الناس فألقوه.
Bukhari narrated it in the Book of Virtues (3617), from Abu Muamar, who said, Abdul-Warith narrated to us, who said, Abdul-Aziz narrated to us, from Anas, and he mentioned it. Muslim also narrated it in the Book of the Characteristics of the Hypocrites (2781) through another route from Anas bin Malik, adding to it his saying, "There was among us a man from Banu Najjar who had memorized Baqarah and Al Imran, and used to write for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. He fled and ran away until he joined the People of the Book, who raised his status and said, 'This is a man who used to write for Muhammad,' and they were impressed by him. Before long, Allah broke his neck among them. They dug a grave for him and buried him." The narration mentions his burial three times, then it says, "So they left him cast aside, unburied."Sheikh Islam bin Taymiya, may Allah have mercy on him, said, "This accursed man, who slandered the Prophet ﷺ by claiming that he only knew what was written for him, Allah broke his neck and disgraced him by making the earth cast him out of his grave after he had been buried repeatedly. This is something outside the ordinary course of events, and it shows everyone that this was a punishment for what he had said, and that he was lying, since ordinary dead people are not afflicted with anything like this. It shows that this crime is graver than mere apostasy, since apostates in general die without being afflicted by anything like this. It shows that Allah takes vengeance for His Messenger against whoever slanders and insults him, and that Allah makes His religion manifest and exposes the liar's falsehood, since people were not able to carry out the legal punishment against him."Then he, may Allah have mercy on him, said, "A similar case is what was reported to us by numerous trustworthy Muslims, people of jurisprudence and experience, concerning what they witnessed repeatedly during the sieges of the fortresses and cities along the Levantine coast, when the Muslims besieged Banu Asfar there in our time. They said, 'We would besiege the fortress or city for a month or more than a month, unable to take it, until we nearly despaired. Then its inhabitants would resort to insulting the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and slandering his honor, and its conquest would suddenly be hastened and made easy, delayed by no more than a day or two or thereabouts, after which the place would be taken by force, with a great massacre among them.' They said, 'We would even exchange congratulations over the imminent conquest whenever we heard them slandering him, even as our hearts were filled with rage at what they had said about him.'""Likewise, one of our trustworthy companions told me that the condition of the Muslims from the people of the West with the Christians is the same. It is part of Allah's way that He punishes His enemies, sometimes with a punishment from Himself directly, and sometimes at the hands of His believing servants. Similarly, when the Prophet ﷺ gained power over Ibn Abu Sarh, he declared his blood forfeit because he had slandered prophethood and fabricated lies against him, even though the Prophet had granted amnesty to all the people of Makkah who had fought him and waged the fiercest war against him. And even though the established practice regarding an apostate is that he is not to be killed until he is asked to repent, whether this is obligatory or merely recommended. We will mention, Allah willing, that a group apostatized during the time of the Prophet ﷺ, and were then called to repentance and given the opportunity to repent, until they repented and their repentance was accepted. In this is proof that the crime of one who slanders and insults the Messenger of Allah ﷺ is graver than the crime of the ordinary apostate." Al-Sarim al-Maslul ala Shatim al-Rasul ﷺ (p. 148).The jurisprudential lesson of this chapter is that anyone who insults the Messenger ﷺ or slanders him must be brought before a fair court, and no individual has the right to take criminal action on his own, for Islam forbids that. However, it is permissible for Muslims to demand, particularly from Western society, that everyone who offends the Islamic religion, the Messenger ﷺ, and the noble Quran be criminalized. The United Nations has issued a resolution calling for respect for all religions, yet Western media deliberately insult Islam alone, unlike any other religion, in the name of "freedom of expression," while being unable to insult Judaism. A number of journalists and writers who spoke about "the Holocaust" have been put on trial, which is a double standard, measuring with two different scales. Despite all this, we Muslims affirm to everyone that Islam is a religion of love and peace, mercy and guidance, and that respecting all the prophets and messengers is part of our faith. Those who commit criminal acts are not sanctioned by Islam and do not represent Muslims, but "freedom of expression" does not permit injuring the feelings of others regarding their beliefs.