When she saw that he was in earnest, she said, “Turn aside.” He turned aside, whereupon she untied the braids of her hair, drew the letter out from them, and handed it over. ʿAlī then brought it to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ summoned Ḥāṭib and said, “O Ḥāṭib, what moved you to do this?”
He replied, “O Messenger of Allah, by Allah I am a believer in Allah and His Messenger; I have neither altered nor turned back. But I was a man with no blood-ties or clan among those people, while I have children and family living in their midst, so I sought to win their favor on their account.”
ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb said, “O Messenger of Allah, let me strike off his head, for the man has acted hypocritically!”
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “And how do you know, O ʿUmar? Perhaps Allah looked upon the people of Badr on the day of Badr and said, ‘Do whatever you will, for I have forgiven you.’ ”
Allah—exalted is He—then revealed concerning Ḥāṭib: “O you who believe! Do not take My enemy and your enemy as allies, extending to them affection while they have disbelieved in the truth that has come to you, expelling the Messenger and yourselves because you believe in Allah, your Lord. If you have set out to strive in My path and to seek My good pleasure, secretly offering them affection…” (to the end of the passage).
Ibn Isḥāq relates this story in a mursal form. Al-Suhaylī (1) records that Ḥāṭib’s letter said: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ is coming toward you with an army as dark as night, flowing like a torrent. By Allah, even were he to march against you alone, Allah would grant him victory over you, for He will certainly fulfill what He has promised him.”
He also states—in Tafsīr Ibn Sallām (2)—that Ḥāṭib wrote: “Muhammad has set out; whether to you or to someone else, so be on your guard.”
Al-Bukhārī (3) reports: Qutaybah narrated to us; Sufyān, from ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, informed me that al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad heard ʿUbayd Allah ibn Abī Rāfiʿ say: I heard ʿAlī say, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ sent me, al-Zubayr, and al-Miqdād, saying: ‘Proceed until you reach Rawḍat Khākh; there you will find a woman carrying a letter—take it from her.’ We rode off at full gallop until we reached the meadow and found the woman.
“We said, ‘Bring out the letter.’
“She said, ‘I have no letter.’
“We said, ‘You will certainly produce the letter, or we shall strip off your clothes.’
“He continued, ‘She then produced it from within her plaits, and we brought it to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. It read: From Ḥāṭib ibn Abī Baltaʿah to certain people in Mecca among the idolaters, informing them of some of the affairs of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.’
“He said, ‘O Ḥāṭib, what is this?’
“He replied, ‘O Messenger of Allah, do not be hasty with me. I was a man attached to Quraysh—an ally, not one of their own—and among those with you from the Emigrants are men who have relatives who protect their families and property. Since I lacked such kinship among them, I wished—seeing that I had been deprived of that advantage of lineage—to earn a favor with them by which they might safeguard my relatives. I did not do so in apostasy from my faith, nor out of satisfaction…’