Allah grants the unbeliever repentance; he embraces Islam, is then killed, and thus enters Paradise.’
Agreed upon (1), and I have not found a higher chain for it except through this route.
321 – Thābit ibn Ḥazm ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muṭarrif al-Saraqusṭī
The erudite scholar, Imām, and hadith master Abū al-Qāsim al-Saraqusṭī, the Andalusian linguist, author of the book Dalāʾil.
He studied with Muḥammad ibn Waḍḍāḥ, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Salām al-Khushanī, and—during his travels—with al-Nasāʾī, Abū Bakr al-Bazzār, Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Jawharī the goldsmith, and others.
Ibn al-Faraḍī said: “He was a scholar who issued legal opinions, well-versed in hadith, grammar, lexicography, rare expressions, and poetry …” He went on: “He died in Ramadan, in the year 313 AH.”
He left behind a number of useful works and served as the judge of Zaragoza.
(1) Reported by al-Bukhari, 6/3029 (Book of Jihad, chapter: “The unbeliever who kills a Muslim and then embraces Islam”); by Muslim, no. 1890 (Book of Governance, chapter: “Two men who kill one another yet both enter Paradise”); by Malik, 2/460 (Book of Jihad, chapter: “Martyrs in the path of Allah”); and by al-Nasaʾi, 6/393-394, from the hadith of Abu Hurayra: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Allah laughs at two men; each kills the other, yet both enter Paradise. One fights in the path of Allah and is martyred; Allah then accepts the killer’s repentance, he embraces Islam, fights in the path of Allah, and is likewise martyred.”
(*) Ibn al-Faradi, Taʾrikh ʿUlamaʾ al-Andalus, 1/100; Ibn Hazm, Jadhwat al-Muqtabis, 185; Ibn al-Jawzi, al-Muntazam, 6/203; Ibn al-Bashkuwal, Bughyat al-Multamis, 254; Yaqut, Muʿjam al-Buldan, 3/213; al-Dhahabi, Tadhkirat al-Huffaz, 3/869-870; Ibn Kathir, al-ʿIbar, 2/155-156; al-Yafiʿi, Mirʾat al-Janan, 2/266; Ibn Farhun, al-Dibaj al-Mudhahhab, 1/319-320; al-Suyuti, Tabaqat al-Huffaz, 355-356; al-Suyuti, Bughyat al-Wuʿat, 1/480; al-Maqrizi, Nafh al-Tib, 2/49 (within the biography of his son Qasim); Ibn al-Imad, Shadharat al-Dhahab, 2/266; al-Kattani, al-Risala al-Mustatrafah, 155.
(2) His nisba derives from this city. Saraqusta (Zaragoza) is a renowned Andalusian town, celebrated for its abundance of superior fruits. Built on a large river, it also lent its name to the fine, delicate fabrics known as saraqusiyyat. See Yaqut, Muʿjam al-Buldan, 3/212-214.