Al-Walid ibn Muslim reported: Abu ʿAmr and Mālik ibn Anas told us that the people of Caesarea captured Ibn Ḥudhāfah. Their king ordered that he be put through a series of ordeals, which he bore with patience. They then locked him in a room for three days and placed wine and pork before him, yet he would not touch any of it.

When they looked in on him, they said to the king, “His neck is drooping; if you do not take him out, he will die.”

The king brought him out and asked, “What kept you from eating and drinking?”

He replied, “Necessity had indeed made them lawful for me, but I disliked letting you gloat over Islam.”

The king said, “Kiss my head and I will set one hundred prisoners free for you.”

He answered, “That I will do.”

So Ibn Ḥudhāfah kissed his head, whereupon the king released one hundred captives and also set him free.

Ibn ʿĀʾidh likewise transmitted the story of Ibn Ḥudhāfah, saying, “Al-Walid ibn Muḥammad narrated to us that Ibn Ḥudhāfah was captured…,” and he told the incident at length, stating that the king freed three hundred captives for him, presented him with thirty thousand dinars, thirty maidservants, and thirty male servants.

It is quite possible that this king had secretly embraced Islam, and the extraordinary honour he showed Ibn Ḥudhāfah points to that.

The same has been suggested about Heraclius: he invited his people to enter the faith, and when he feared their reaction he said, “I was only testing your firmness in your religion.”

Whoever accepts Islam inwardly in this manner may hope to be spared everlasting punishment in the Fire, for a measure of faith has indeed taken root within him (1). The real fear concerns someone who outwardly submits to Islam and the Messenger, acknowledging them as true while still believing his own religion to be sound; such a person ends up venerating both religions, just as many of the so-called “Muslim” bureaucrats have done (2), and that will avail him nothing.