Al-Lu'lu Wal-Marjan 1622 — The Book of the Virtues of the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ

'Ubaidullâh bin Abî Rafî' Narrated from:

I heard 'Alî رضى الله عنه saying, "Allâh's Messenger ﷺ sent me, Az-Zubair and Al-Miqdâd somewhere saying, 'Proceed till you reach Rawdat Khâkh. There you will find a lady with a letter. Take the letter from her.' So, we set out and our horses ran at full pace till we got at Ar-Rawda where we found the lady and said (to her), 'Take out the letter.' She replied, 'I have no letter with me.' We said, 'Either you take out the letter or else we will take off your clothes (to search for the letter).' So, she took it out of her braid.We brought the letter to Allâh's Messenger ﷺ and it contained a statement from Hâtib bin Abî Balta'a to some of the Makka pagans informing them of some of the intentions of Allâh's Messenger ﷺ. Then Allâh's Messenger ﷺ said, 'O Hâtib! What is this?'Hâtib replied, 'O Allâh's Messenger! Don't hasten to give your judgement about me. I was a man closely connected with the Quraish, but I did not belong to this tribe, while the other emigrants with you had their relatives in Makka who would protect their dependants and property. So, I wanted to recompense for my lacking blood relation to them by doing them a favour so that they might protect my dependants. I did this neither because of disbelief nor apostasy nor out of preferring Kufr (disbelief) to Islâm.'Allâh's Messenger ﷺ said, 'Hâtib has told you the truth.' 'Umar said, 'O Allâh's Messenger! Allow me to chop off the head of this hypocrite.' Allâh's Messenger ﷺ said, 'Hâtib participated in the battle of Badr, and, who knows, perhaps Allâh has already looked at the Badr warriors and said, 'Do whatever you like for I have forgiven you.' " ( Sahîh Al-Bukhârî, Hadîth No. 251, Vol. 4)