There are some responsibilities you simply cannot mess up.

Guarding a dangerous prisoner of war is definitely one of them.

But sometimes, even the most trusted people have very human moments.

After one of the battles, the Prophet ﷺ brought home a prisoner of war and gave Aisha (RA) a simple but crucial instruction:

"Watch this prisoner. Be careful and don't lose sight of him."

They were dealing with someone who had just been in active combat against the Muslims.

The security of the household, and potentially the community, depended on keeping this man secure.

The Prophet ﷺ left to attend to other matters.

Then, as happens in any home, friends came over.

Aisha (RA) found herself caught up in conversation.

The house wasn't large, but in that cozy atmosphere of friendship and laughter, she completely forgot about the prisoner.

By the time she remembered to check on him, he was gone.

When the Prophet ﷺ returned and discovered the empty room, his reaction was immediate and intense.

Here was a dangerous man now loose in Medina, and the person he had trusted most had let it happen.

"Aisha, what happened?"

"Ya Rasulillah ﷺ, my friends came over and I lost sight of him..."

The Prophet ﷺ responded with words that would echo in Aisha's (RA) mind for hours:

"Qata'Allahu yadaki"—"May Allah cut off your hands."

Then he immediately left the house to search for the escaped prisoner.

While the Prophet ﷺ was out trying to contain a potentially dangerous situation, Aisha (RA) sat at home in a state of terror.

Understand that , "May Allah cut off your hands" was a common figure of speech in Arabic culture—similar to how we might say "I could just kill you!" when frustrated, without literally meaning it.

But Aisha (RA) knew her husband's unique status and the power behind his words.

She had witnessed his miracles.

She had seen the power of his supplications.

What if this time was different?

So there she sat, turning her hands over and over, watching them intently, waiting to see which one would fall off first.

When the Prophet ﷺ came home and found his wife staring at her hands with such intensity, he was immediately concerned.

"What are you doing, ya Aisha?"

"Ya Rasulillah ﷺ, I'm looking at my hands to see which one is going to fall off because of your dua against me."

The Prophet ﷺ could have simply reassured her that it was just an expression.

Instead, he revealed something remarkable about divine mercy:

He taught her that any harsh words he spoke to a believer in anger or frustration would actually become a source of purification and closeness to Allah on the Day of Judgment.

Aisha (RA) had made a serious mistake that could have endangered lives.

She had disappointed the person she loved most in a moment when he was counting on her completely.

Yet even in that failure, even in his very human moment of anger, divine mercy was already at work.

The woman who sat watching her hands in fear had actually been given a gift she couldn't yet see.

Not distance from Allah, but a means of drawing closer to Him.

Sometimes our biggest mistakes become doorways to even greater mercy,