Hassan ibn Thabit

Ḥassān ibn Thābit was the Prophet's (ﷺ) court poet, celebrated for his verses defending Islam and the Prophet (ﷺ) against Qurashī poets. Despite this standing, he was one of three sincere Muslims (alongside Misṭaḥ ibn Uthāthah and Ḥamnah bint Jaḥsh) who fell into repeating the slander against ʿĀʾishah (5 AH), earning the prescribed punishment of eighty lashes for the offense of qadhf, though ʿĀʾishah's own narrator al-Zuhrī records that she would never afterward tolerate anyone speaking ill of him, given his broader service to Islam.

During the period the rumor was circulating, Ṣafwān ibn al-Muʿaṭṭal, the man falsely implicated, struck Ḥassān with the flat of his sword in anger, knocking him unconscious. Ḥassān's family sought retribution, and the case was brought before the Prophet (ﷺ), who ruled that Ḥassān had a legitimate claim against Ṣafwān but asked Ḥassān to forgive him instead; Ḥassān agreed out of respect for the Prophet (ﷺ), and was compensated with a garden in place of retaliation.