Sahih al-Bukhari 755 records an official inquiry into complaints against Sa‘d ibn Abi Waqqas رضي الله عنه in Kufa. After the people in the mosques generally spoke well of him, a man known as Abu Sa‘dah accused Sa‘d of three serious failures: not going out with military detachments, not distributing equally, and not judging justly. Sa‘d did not make an unconditional curse. He prayed that if the man was lying and had stood only for show and reputation, Allah would prolong his life and poverty and expose him to trials. The same sahih report later describes the man in extreme old age and affliction, openly saying that Sa‘d’s supplication had reached him.
An inquiry was then sent through the mosques of Kufa to ask people directly about Sa‘d. The report in Sahih al-Bukhari says that the people generally praised him until the investigators reached the mosque of Banu ‘Abs. There a man named Usamah ibn Qatadah, known by the kunyah Abu Sa‘dah, stood up and made three grave accusations. He claimed that Sa‘d did not go out with military expeditions, did not divide property equally, and did not judge cases justly.
Sa‘d’s answer is the heart of the event. He did not simply ask for punishment. Instead, he made the prayer conditional upon the accusation being false and motivated by showing off or seeking reputation. He asked Allah that, if the man was lying, his life be prolonged, his poverty be prolonged, and he be exposed to trials.
The hadith then moves forward in time. Abu Sa‘dah later became extremely old. When people asked about his condition, he described himself as an old man in trial and said that Sa‘d’s supplication had reached him. The sub-narrator ‘Abd al-Malik ibn ‘Umayr says that he personally saw the man afterward, with his eyebrows hanging over his eyes from old age. The Bukhari report also describes him as behaving in a fitna-ridden manner in the streets.
Sahih Ibn Hibban 1859 preserves a full parallel account of the same inquiry, accusation, conditional supplication and later outcome, with slight wording differences. Sahih Muslim 453 independently confirms the Kufa complaint and Sa‘d’s defense of his prayer, but its displayed form stops before the accusation, supplication and fulfillment.
The event is therefore best understood as a Companion’s karamah connected with an accepted conditional supplication. Its moral force lies in two things held together by the sahih report: Sa‘d did not ask harm for a truthful critic, and the later outcome is narrated only after the condition—if the accusation was false and made for reputation—had been stated clearly.
Conclusion
This is a high-confidence companion karamah established principally through Sahih al-Bukhari 755 and reinforced by the full Ibn Hibban parallel. The extraordinary element is not a general curse, but the reported fulfillment of Sa‘d ibn Abi Waqqas’s carefully conditional supplication against a man if he had falsely accused him for show and reputation. The story is also a warning about false testimony, public accusation and the seriousness of invoking Allah in a matter of truth.