Answer
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
1- A Muslim should have a soft peace-loving heart. So, wishing good to all humanity, not only Muslims, is a part of the Islamic creed.
2- Wishing harm of any kind to anyone, whatever his race or religion, is contradicting the teachings of Islam.
In responding to your question, Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and an Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, states:
It was never reported that Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), any Companion, or any scholar wished harm to anyone, even the severest enemy.
Rather, the Prophet, when contradicted and severely opposed by the pagans of Makkah, wished from Allah Almighty to guide them to the Right Path.
A good pioneering model of this is what happened when he was returning from At-Taif; thrown with stones and extremely exhausted by the long tiring journey, Allah has sent him Gabriel accompanying the Angel of mountains who greeted him and said, “Oh Muhammad, Allah Almighty has heard what your people has said to you and sent me to order me to do whatever you want; if you want me to turn the two mountains (surrounding Makkah) upside down on them, I will do it.” The Prophet said, “No, but I wish that Allah will create from their offspring who will worship Him.” (Al-Bukhari)
Therefore, it is not Islamic to wish any harm to anyone, even non-Muslims. Rather, we are to treat them kindly showing them the clear image of Islam and wishing them to be guided to the Right Path. This is the best way in offering Islam.
A Muslim cannot rejoice at the suffering of others. He should be reminded of one of the eminent Companions of the Prophet who cried to see those who were defeated by Muslims; when asked why he was crying, he said, “This fate has befallen them because of their disobedience; it could befall us too, if we do the same!”
Almighty Allah knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.