Sahih Muslim Number 1193, Narrated Aisha - Two persons visited Allah's Apostle (peace be upon him) and both of them talked about a thing, of which I am not aware, but that annoyed him and he invoked curse upon both of them and hurled malediction, and when they went out I said: Allah's Apostle (peace be upon him), the good would reach everyone but it would not reach these two. He said: Why so? I said: Because you have invoked curse and hurled malediction upon both of them. He said: Don't you know that I have made condition with my Lord saying thus: O Allah, I am a human being and that for a Muslim upon whom I invoke curse or hurl malediction make it a source of purity and reward. Sahih Muslim Number 1189, Narrated AbuBurzah al-Aslami - A slave-girl riding a dromedary and there was also the luggage of people upon it, that she suddenly saw Allah's Apostle (peace be upon him) The way of the mountain was narrow and she said (to that dromedary): Go ahead (but that dromedary) did not move). She (that slave-girl), out of anger, said: O Allah, let that (dromedary) be damned. Thereupon Allah's Apostle (peace be upon him) said: Let the dromedary on which the curse has been invoked not proceed with us. Sahih Muslim Number 1190, Narrated AbuHurayrah - Allah's Apostle (peace be upon him) said: It does not seem proper for Siddiq that he should be an invoker of curse. This hadith has been narrated on the authority of AbuKurayb with the same chain of transmitters. Sahih Muslim Number 1191, Narrated AbudDarda - When it was night AbdulMalik got up and called for the servant. It seemed as if he (the servant) was late (in responding to his call), so he (AbdulMalik) invoked curse upon him, and when it was morning Umm Darda' said to him: I heard you cursing your servant during the night when you called him, and she said: I heard AbudDarda' as saying that Allah's Apostle (peace be upon him) said: The invoker of curse would neither be intercessor nor witness on the Day of Resurrection. Sahih Muslim Number 1192, Narrated AbuHurayrah - It was said to Allah's Apostle (peace be upon him) Invoke curse upon the polytheists, whereupon he said: I have not been sent as the invoker of curse, but "I have been sent as mercy." Sahih Muslim Number 1195, Narrated Anas ibn Malik - There was an orphan girl living with Umm Sulaym (who was the mother of Anas). Allah's Apostle (peace be upon him) saw that orphan girl and said: O, it is you; you have grown young. May you not advance in years! The slave-girl returned to Umm Sulaym, weeping. Umm Sulaym said: O daughter, what is the matter with you? She said: Allah's Apostle (peace be upon him) has invoked a curse upon me that I should not grow in age and thus I shall never grow in age, or she said, in my (length) of life. Umm Sulaym went out, having hurriedly wrapped her head in a shawl, to meet Allah's Apostle (peace be upon him). He said to her: Umm Sulaym, what is the matter with you? She said: Allah's Apostle (peace be upon him) , you invoked a curse upon my orphan girl. He said: Umm Sulaym, what is that? She said: She (the orphan girl) states you have cursed her, saying that she might not grow in age or grow in (length of) life. Allah's Apostle (peace be upon him) smiled and then said: Umm Sulaym, don't you know that I have made this stipulation with my Lord. And the stipulation with my Lord is that I said to Him: I am a human being and I am pleased just as a human being is pleased and I lose temper just as a human being loses my temper. So for any person from amongst my Ummah, whom I curse and he in no way deserves it, let that, O Lord, be made a source of purification, purity and nearness to (Allah) on the Day of Resurrection. Sahih Muslim Number 1196, Narrated Abdullah ibn Abbas - I was playing with children and Allah's Apostle (peace be upon him) happened to pass by (us). I hid myself behind the door. He (the Prophet) came and he patted upon my shoulders and said: Go and call Mu'awiyah. I returned and said: He is busy in taking food. He again asked me to go and call Mu'awiyah to him. I went (and came back) and said that he was busy in taking food, whereupon he said: May Allah not fill his belly! Ibn Muthanna said: I asked Umm Umayyah what he meant by the word Hatani. He said: It means "he patted my shoulders". ----------------------------------------------- A few things are clear when we look at this section of Sahih Muslim: 1) The Prophet (saaw) dealt with curses very carefully in general, distancing himself from things that were accursed, and discouraging cursing. 2) The Prophet (saaw) is a human being and he recognized that as a human being at times he may get angry and say something in that state, such as a curse. Also I would just like to add that the Prophet (saaw) was an Arab and it is very obvious that the Arabs would frequently invoke curses for various reasons, so this is very much a part of his people of whom he has grown up with, learnt their language and customs, etc. He (saaw) recognizes this and in preparation for such events, out of his care and concern for the reality of curses, but also understanding that they are sometimes uttered in anger, he prepares for this by making an agreement with Allah that when he does this and they do not deserve it, let it be a source of purity and reward for that person. So he has even included 'when they do not deserve this' because there are times when it is deserved. He recognized and dealt with his humanity strategically and this takes nothing away from him - we should know from this that he was not a mythical figure but a real flesh and blood person and he applied the guidance to his humanity, it is not only we who do that. 3) We aren't told why he cursed the orphan girl, but we can see in the other ahadith that something very insulting must have been done to anger him. Muawiya was busy taking food and not responding to the call of the Prophet (saaw), and we are told in the Qur'an to respond when called. Imagine the disrespect entailed here. The curse mentioned was that Allah does not fill his belly, which if you look at it is very fitting since he was choosing partaking in eating more food than responding to the Prophet (saaw). If anyone has any experience with people you will know that people are on different levels and at times their behavior/speech can be very ugly and if you are sincere hearted you will dislike what is wrong. So he didn't just curse the girl for no reason, we simply are not aware of the reason at this point (if someone knows please inform us), but from looking at the big picture of the situation I don't think that there need be any doubt about the Messenger (saaw).