The Man Who Entered Paradise Without a Prayer

Then there is al-Uṣayrim, ʿAmr ibn Thābit, who was from al-Aws, but was not interested in Islam — he was a mushrik, and had not embraced Islam yet. When the Muslims left for the Battle of Uḥud, he asked, "Where is Saʿd ibn Muʿādh?" They said, "He is at Uḥud." "Where is so-and-so?" "He is at Uḥud." So instead of staying while all of his people were fighting at Uḥud, he decided he was going to join them. He did join with the Muslims at Uḥud, and he fought, and he was wounded. Before he died, some of his relatives came to him, and when they saw him they said, "This is al-Uṣayrim — as far as we know, he was not interested in becoming Muslim. What is he doing here?" So they rushed up to him and asked him, "Al-Uṣayrim, did you fight for the sake of Islam, or did you fight for the honour of your people?" He said, "No, I fought for the sake of Islam." So al-Uṣayrim died, and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said he is in Paradise. Abū Hurayrah would later ask people, he would quiz them: "Tell me about a man who entered into Paradise without praying one prayer to Allah, the Almighty and Glorious" — and if they did not know the answer, he would tell them it was al-Uṣayrim. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said, "ʿAmila qalīlan wa-ujira kathīran" — he did very little, but he was rewarded a lot. Al-Uṣayrim did not pray, did not fast, did not do anything — all he did was say, "Ashhadu an lā ilāha illā Allāh, ashhadu anna Muḥammadan rasūlu Allāh," and then he died as a martyr, and he received the highest levels of Paradise. So martyrdom is the one deed that would guarantee a person the highest levels of Paradise without doing anything else.