1143. ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar —may Allah be pleased with them both—relates that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Whoever kills a muʿāhad (a person living under Muslim protection) will not smell the fragrance of Paradise, even though its fragrance can be perceived from a distance of forty years’ travel.” Al-Bukhārī recorded it (1).

Vocabulary of the ḥadīth
• yuriḥ: with ḍamma on the yāʾ and kasra on the rāʾ; it means “to perceive the scent.” Thus, “he will not smell the fragrance of Paradise.”
• Fragrance of Paradise: “fragrance” here denotes a pleasant breeze; the fragrance of Paradise is its sweet, perfumed breeze. Ibn al-Qayyim writes in Hādī al-Arwāḥ that the fragrance of Paradise is of two kinds: one that souls in this world may occasionally sense, beyond the capacity of words to convey; and another apprehended by the physical sense of smell, which in the Hereafter will be perceived by both those who are near and those who are far.

Points derived from the ḥadīth

1. Sharḥ al-Iqnaʿ states: Under an aman (safe-conduct) it is forbidden to kill, enslave, capture, take property, or in any way molest the protected person, for the aman grants inviolability. Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr records in his Sunan that ʿUmar ibn al-Khattāb —may Allah be pleased with him—said: “If one of you were merely to point with his finger toward the sky and someone descended trusting in that protection, and he then killed him, I would execute him for it.”
2. The ḥadīth proves that killing a muʿāhad is unlawful and counts as a major sin, for the text threatens the killer with exclusion from Paradise.
3. Some narrations add the phrases “without any crime” or “without right,” but that restriction is already understood from the general principles of the Sharīʿah.
4. When a legitimate claim arises, both a dhimmī and a muʿāhad are subject to the prescribed punishments, for they are bound by the rulings of the Muslims. By contrast, a ḥarbī (enemy combatant) and a mustaʾmin (temporary visitor granted safe-conduct) are not obligated to abide by Islamic legal rulings.