Usāmah and the Man Who Said Lā Ilāha Illā Allāh

The story of Usāmah is also related within this sariyyah. It is a famous story: the story of Usāmah and the man who said lā ilāha illā Allāh (al-Bukhārī 4269; Muslim 96). There was a man who, whenever the enemy attacked, would be ahead of them, and whenever they retreated, would be the last. In this karr and farr process of fighting, of attack and retreat, this man was the first in attacking and the last in retreating, so he was causing the Muslims some problems. Usāmah said: I and one man from the Anṣār both made it our objective to get him. So we attacked, and when we were within range, he said lā ilāha illā Allāh. Usāmah said: the Anṣārī stopped, and I carried on and struck him with my sword and killed him.

The news was carried to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was angry, and he told Usāmah: did you kill him after he said lā ilāha illā Allāh? Usāmah said: he only said it to seek refuge from the sword. He said: did you kill him after he said lā ilāha illā Allāh? And he kept on repeating it, again and again, until Usāmah said: I wished that I had not become Muslim until that moment. And then Usāmah made a vow that he would never in his life fight anyone who says lā ilāha illā Allāh.

There are two important lessons here. Number one: the sanctity of Muslim blood. It is the greatest crime after shirk to shed the blood of a Muslim, and the āyāt of the Qur'an and the hadith show the danger and the greatness of this sin. The one who was murdered will come on the Day of Judgement holding on to the one who murdered him, and will say: O Allah, ask this man why he spilled my blood (al-Tirmidhī 3029). And there is no sin about which our scholars debated whether the tawbah is accepted or not, except the sin of killing a Muslim. Obviously, the majority view, and the right opinion, is that the tawbah is accepted; however, it shows how dangerous this thing is, that it reached the level where some of them disagreed with this opinion. So the blood of one Muslim is sacred; and in the hadith it says that it is more sacred than the House of Allah (Ibn Mājah 3932).

The next important lesson: al-akhdh bi-l-ẓāhir. People are taken by what is seen, by what is apparent. Because in another narration it says: why did you not split his heart open to see what was in it? Have you opened up his heart to know whether he was a Muslim or not — whether he was honestly saying lā ilāha illā Allāh, or saying it just to seek refuge from the sword? How do you know? So we go by al-ẓāhir, by what we see. If a person claims to be a Muslim, then we take him at his word, and we leave al-sarāʾir, what is in the heart, to Allah (ʿazza wa jall) on the Day of Judgement. Now this applies both ways: it applies to kufr, and it applies to īmān. If what we see from a person is kufr, then we judge them to be disbelievers; if what we see from a person, apparently, is īmān and Islam, then we judge them to be Muslim. We do not dig into their hearts and try to find out what is in them. The same lesson can also be seen in the story of Jundub^*: when he took this man as a prisoner, and that man said, I am a Muslim, Jundub did not argue with that and say, you are lying, you are a spy. No — he told him: if you are a Muslim, then have ṣabr, patience, for one day; and if you are not — Allah knows.