until I wished that I had embraced Islam only on that day (1). Agreed upon.

In another wording he ﷺ said, “Did he say Lā ilāha illā Allah and you still killed him?” I replied, “Messenger of Allah, he said it only out of fear of the weapon.” He said, “Why did you not tear open his heart so you could know whether he said it sincerely or not?” He kept repeating this to me until I wished I had become Muslim on that very day.

Al-Hurqa—with ḥāʾ pronounced with ḍammah and rāʾ with fatḥah—is a branch of the well-known tribe of Juhaynah. His phrase “seeking protection” means he clung to it to save himself from being killed, not that he actually believed it.

399 – Jundub ibn ʿAbd-Allāh (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ dispatched a detachment (2) of Muslims against a people from the polytheists. When the two sides met, there was a man among the idolaters who, whenever he wished, would single out a Muslim, go straight for him, and kill him. One of the Muslims caught him unawares—we used to say it was Usāmah ibn Zayd—and when he lifted the sword over him the man said, “Lā ilāha illā Allah,” yet he killed him. The bearer of the news came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and informed him, telling him everything that had happened with the man. He summoned the killer and asked, “Why did you kill him?” He replied, “Messenger of Allah, he had harmed the Muslims badly and had killed so-and-so and so-and-so,” naming several men. “I closed in on him, and when he saw the sword he said, ‘Lā ilāha illā Allah.’” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Did you kill him?” He answered, “Yes.” He said, “What will you do with Lā ilāha illā Allah when it comes on the Day of Resurrection?” The man said, “Messenger of Allah, ask Allah to forgive me.” He repeated, “What will you do with Lā ilāha illā Allah when it comes on the Day of Resurrection?” He went on saying nothing but, “What will you do with Lā ilāha illā Allah when it comes on the Day of Resurrection?” Reported by Muslim.

400 – ʿAbd-Allāh ibn ʿUtbah ibn Masʿūd said: I heard ʿUmar ibn al-Khattāb (may Allah be pleased with him) say, “During the time of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ there were people who were taken to task through revelation; now that revelation has ceased, we shall henceforth judge you only by what is outwardly apparent in your deeds. Whoever shows us goodness, we grant him security….”