1040 – ʿArfaja ibn Shurayḥ (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, “When someone comes to you while you are united, seeking to break up your community, kill him.” Muslim narrated it (1).

What is derived from the ḥadith:
1 – The intent of the report becomes clear when its various routes are compared:
• Muslim’s version reads: “Whoever comes to you—while your affairs are one, seeking to divide your community—kill him.”
• Another wording states: “Whoever comes to you—while your affairs are all under one man, wanting to undermine your cohesion or split your community—kill him.”
• A further narration in Muslim says: “Whoever aims to disrupt the order of this ummah while it is united, strike him with the sword, whoever he may be.”

2 – These variants show the obligation to hear and obey the Muslim ruler and the prohibition of rebelling against him. Allah the Exalted says: “O you who believe! Obey Allah, obey the Messenger, and those vested with authority among you” (al-Nisāʾ 4:59). In the two Ṣaḥīḥs it is related from Ibn ʿAbbās that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Whoever dislikes something from his ruler, let him be patient, for whoever withdraws from the authority even a handspan dies a death of pre-Islamic ignorance.” Muslim also records from Abū Hurayrah that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “You must listen and obey, in hardship and in ease, in what pleases you and what displeases you, even when others are given preference over you.”