“O ‘Amr, do you not know that Islam wipes away what came before it?”

It is well known that the Islam which wipes away past sins is that of believers, not that of hypocrites. Moreover, ‘Amr ibn al-‘Ās and others like him who emigrated to the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—after al-Hudaybiyah left their homelands voluntarily, not under compulsion. There were no hypocrites among the Emigrants. Hypocrisy was found only among some of those from the Ansār who entered Islam. The Ansār were the people of Medina; when their leading men and the majority of their people embraced Islam, the rest found it necessary to profess Islam hypocritically, because Islam had gained strength and ascendancy among their people.

As for the people of Mecca, their leading men and the majority of their people were unbelievers. Thus, no one openly professed faith unless he was a believer both outwardly and inwardly, for anyone who openly professed Islam was mistreated and shunned. A hypocrite professes Islam only to further his worldly interests, whereas anyone who openly professed Islam in Mecca suffered in his worldly affairs.

Then, when the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—emigrated to Medina, most believers emigrated with him. Some, however, were prevented from emigrating to join him. Among those prevented were men of Banū Makhzūm, such as al-Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah, Khālid’s brother and Abū Jahl’s maternal half-brother. For this reason:

“The Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—would supplicate for these men in prayer, saying: ‘O Allah, deliver al-Walīd ibn al-Walīd, Salamah ibn Hishām, and the oppressed believers. O Allah, punish Mudar severely, and afflict them with years of famine like those in Joseph’s time.’”

Among the Emigrants, from the first to the last, there was no one whom anyone accused of hypocrisy. Rather, they were all believers whose faith was attested.

“Cursing a believer is like killing him.”