The Letter of Ḥāṭib ibn Abī Baltaʿah

So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was planning in secret to attack Makkah. That was at first; but then he had to announce it to the Muslims, so that they could get prepared and ready. But the Muslims knew that they were not supposed to speak about it; they were supposed to keep it a secret. One day the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) summoned ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām and al-Miqdād ibn al-Aswad, and he told them: inṭaliqū ḥattā taʾtū Rawḍata Khākh, fa-inna bihā ẓaʿīnatan maʿahā kitābun fa-khudhūhu minhā — go to a place called Rawḍat Khākh; you will find a woman there, and with her is a letter; bring that letter to me.

ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and the two men with him, al-Zubayr and al-Miqdād, rushed off. He said: taʿādā binā khaylunā — they were on horseback — and they reached the place where the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) had told them they would find the woman. So they went up to this woman and told her: give us the letter you have. She said: I do not have any letter. ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib told her: la-tukhrijinna al-kitāba aw la-nulqiyanna al-thiyāb — either you give us the letter or we will strip you of your clothes: we will strip-search you, because the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told us that you have a letter, and that means you have a letter. She was lying, but they told her: this is something the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told us, and if the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said it, it is the truth; so either give us that letter or we will take off your clothes and search for it. Fa-lammā raʾat al-jidd — so when she saw that the matter was serious, she told them: aʿriḍū, turn away; and then she pulled out the letter from her hair. It was hidden in her hair; she pulled out the letter, and the letter was from Ḥāṭib ibn Abī Baltaʿah, one of the Companions. He had written a letter to Quraysh informing them of the plans of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him).

So this thing that Ḥāṭib did — acting as an agent for the kuffār among the Muslims — is a very dangerous thing: he was telling the people of Quraysh about the secret plans of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). When the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) saw the letter and read it, he summoned Ḥāṭib ibn Abī Baltaʿah and told him: mā hādhā? — what is this? Ḥāṭib said — and this hadith is in al-Bukhārī (3007; 4274) — yā Rasūla Allāh, lā taʿjal ʿalayya, innī kuntu imraʾan mulṣaqan fī Quraysh: O Messenger of Allah, do not hurry in making a decision about me; I was a man attached to Quraysh — yaqūlu: kuntu ḥalīfan wa lam akun min anfusihā — I did not belong to Quraysh. Wa kāna man maʿaka min al-Muhājirīn lahum qarābātun yaḥmūna ahlīhim wa amwālahum, fa-aḥbabtu idh fātanī dhālika min al-nasabi fīhim an attakhidha ʿindahum yadan yaḥmūna bihā qarābatī. He said: your Companions have families in Makkah who take care of their relatives, because they belong to clans in Makkah; they have people who take care of their families and their wealth. But I do not have any relatives in Makkah to take care of my family and my wealth, so I wanted to do Quraysh a favour, so that they would protect my family, or not harm them. And in another narration it says that his mother was the one living in Makkah, and he was worried about her condition.

Here is the translation of his words. Ḥāṭib said: O Allah's Apostle, do not make a hasty decision about me. I was a person not belonging to Quraysh, but I was an ally to them from outside and had no blood relation with them, and all the emigrants who were with you have their kinsmen in Makkah who can protect their families and properties. So I liked to do them a favour, so that they might protect my relatives, as I have no blood relation with them. I did not do this to renegade from my religion, nor did I do it to choose heathenism after Islam.

So Ḥāṭib is making it clear: I did not do this out of nifāq or apostasy. In fact, he used the exact word irtidādan, which is riddah: irtidādan ʿan dīnī means I did not become an apostate. Now this shows us something, because there is a difference of opinion among the ʿulamāʾ as to whether such an act is an act of kufr or an act of fisq. However, one can see here from what Ḥāṭib said that he considered this act to be an act of apostasy, and that is why he says: I did not commit apostasy. If he did not consider this act to be an act of kufr, why would he say that? Because he is saying: I did not commit kufr; I did not disbelieve. So the fact that he defends himself against apostasy shows that he considered the act itself to be an act of apostasy; however, his intentions were not intentions of kufr.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: ammā innahu qad ṣadaqakum — he has told you the truth. ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb said: yā Rasūla Allāh, daʿnī aḍrib ʿunuqa hādhā al-munāfiq — O Messenger of Allah, allow me to cut off the head of this munāfiq, this hypocrite. Again, ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb considered this act to be an act of nifāq, an act of kufr, and therefore he wanted to kill Ḥāṭib. If he did not consider it to be an act of riddah, why would he ask the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) to allow him to kill Ḥāṭib? The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: innahu qad shahida Badran, wa mā yudrīka laʿalla Allāha iṭṭalaʿa ʿalā man shahida Badran fa-qāla iʿmalū mā shiʾtum fa-qad ghafartu lakum — he has witnessed the Battle of Badr, and what will tell you? Perhaps Allah looked at those who witnessed Badr and said: O people of Badr, do what you like, for I have forgiven you.

There are two things in this statement of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). The first: it shows the high status of the people of Badr. The second: the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) did not disapprove of what ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb said. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) did not say that he did not deserve to be killed; the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) did not respond to what ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb said regarding nifāq, but he said that the reason he should not be killed is that he had witnessed Badr. This could also be an indication that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) approved of ʿUmar's understanding in accusing a person who commits such an act of being a munāfiq; but because Ḥāṭib had witnessed the Battle of Badr, he should not be punished for it.

Again, this shows the high status of the people of Badr, and the great rank they have in the eyes of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) — and even of the angels. Because Jibrīl (peace be upon him) came to Muḥammad (peace be upon him) and said: what do you consider the people of Badr to be among you? The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: we consider them to be among the best. Jibrīl said: and that is also so with the angels who attended Badr (al-Bukhārī 3992). So not only are the people who attended Badr the best, but the angels who attended Badr are the best too. It is a battle that was witnessed by the creations of the heavens and the earth.

And then Allah (subḥānahu wa taʿālā) revealed:

The verses of Sūrat al-Mumtaḥanah were revealed, and these verses speak of this particular incident of Ḥāṭib ibn Abī Baltaʿah; and again, this is in al-Bukhārī (4890). Allah (subḥānahu wa taʿālā) says: O you who believe, take not My enemies and your enemies as friends, offering them your love, even though they have disbelieved in that truth which has come to you … and whosoever of you Muslims does that, then indeed he has gone far astray from the straight path.

So all those Muslims who have allowed themselves to work as agents for the kuffār, spying on the Muslims, conveying information about the Muslims to the disbelievers, have committed an act of apostasy; they are munāfiqūn. It is a very dangerous sin; it is a very dangerous thing to spy for the disbelievers against the Muslims. And one of the ironies of our age is that in some masājid, intelligence agencies were given a booth to recruit from among the worshippers to work as spies against the Muslims. This is one of the most amazing things to have happened in our age and time. These are masājid al-ḍirār — and the Masjid al-Ḍirār will be discussed with the Battle of Tabūk.

Regarding the ḥukm of al-jāsūs, the spy who spies against the Muslims: the fuqahāʾ, the scholars of Islam, have a consensus that the disbelieving spy is killed. Then there is a difference of opinion regarding the dhimmī — the dhimmī is the Christian or the Jew who pays the jizyah. The opinion of the Ḥanafīs is yūjaʿu wa yuḥbasu wa lā yuqtal: that he should be physically harmed, with a painful harm, and imprisoned, but he should not be killed; this is the opinion of the Ḥanafīs. The Shāfiʿīs have a difference of opinion; while Mālik and al-Awzāʿī say that this is a breach of their covenant with the Muslims, and therefore they should be killed. Regarding the Muslim: the Ḥanafīs, the Shāfiʿīs and the Ḥanbalīs say that he should be punished but not killed, while the Mālikīs say: yajtahidu fīhi al-imām, wa lahu qatluh — the imām exercises his judgement concerning him, and he may have him killed.