ever.

A similar account was transmitted by ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, from Abū Jaʿfar, from Harmalah, the freedman of Usāmah, who said: “Usāmah sent me to ʿAlī …,” and he reported something to that effect. (1)

Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-ʿAdl narrated to us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad the jurist narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Bāqī narrated to us; ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Bazzār narrated to us; Abū ʿAlī ibn Shādhān narrated to us; Abū Sahl ibn Ziyād narrated to us; Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār narrated to us; Yūnus ibn Bukayr narrated to us, from Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq; he said: Muḥammad ibn Usāmah ibn Muḥammad ibn Usāmah related to me, from his father, from his grandfather Usāmah ibn Zayd, who said:

I, together with a man from the Anṣār, caught up with a man, and when we brandished our swords against him he declared, “lā ilāha illā Allāh” (there is no god but Allah). Still, we did not hold back until we had killed him.

When we returned to the Prophet ﷺ and informed him of what had happened, he said, “O Usāmah, what will you do with lā ilāha illā Allāh?”

We said, “Messenger of Allah, he only uttered it to protect himself from being killed.”

He repeated, “What will you do, O Usāmah, with lā ilāha illā Allāh?”

He kept repeating this until I wished that none of my previous deeds in Islam had occurred and that I had embraced Islam only on that day and had not killed him.

So I said, “I pledge to Allah that I will never again kill a man who says lā ilāha illā Allāh—ever.”

The Prophet ﷺ asked, “Even after me, O Usāmah?”

He replied, “Even after you.” (2)