English translation
3081. Narrated Sa'd bin 'Ubaida: Abū 'Abdur-Raḥmān, who was one of the supporters of Uthmān, said to Abū Ṭalḥa who was one of the supporters of 'Alī, "I perfectly know what encouraged your leader (i.e., 'Alī) to shed blood. I heard him saying: Once the Prophet ﷺ sent me and Az-Zubair saying, 'Proceed to such and such Ar-Rauḍah (place) where you will find a lady, whom Ḥāṭib has given a letter.' So when we arrived at Ar-Rauḍah, we requested the lady to hand over the letter to us. She said, 'Ḥāṭib has not given me any letter.' We said to her, 'Take out the letter or else we will strip off your clothes (to search the letter).' So, she took it out of her braid. So, the Prophet ﷺ sent for Ḥāṭib, (who came) and said, 'Don't hasten to give your judgement about me, for by Allāh, I have neither become a disbeliever, nor an apostate by discarding Islām. (The reason for writing this letter was) that there is none of your companions but has relatives in Makkah, through whom Allāh protects their families and property, while I have nobody there, so I wanted to do them some favour (so that they might look after my family and property).' The Prophet ﷺ believed him. 'Umar said, 'Allow me to chop off his (Ḥāṭib's) neck as he has proved to be a hypocrite.' The Prophet ﷺ said, (to ‘Umar), ‘Who knows, perhaps Allāh has looked at the warriors of Badr and said (to them): Do whatever you like, for I have forgiven you.’” ‘Abdur-Raḥmān added, “So this is what encouraged him (i.e., ‘Alī).” [See Hadīth No. 3007]