339 – ʿAbd Allāh narrated to us; he said: Isḥāq ibn Ismāʿīl narrated to us; he said: Jarīr narrated to us, from ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib, from Shahr ibn Ḥawshab, from one of the Prophet’s Companions who said:

“The Messenger of Allah ﷺ dispatched a military detachment. During the encounter, one man charged another, who cried out, ‘I am a Muslim!’—yet he killed him. ⦗215⦘ When news of this reached the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, he said, ‘You killed him while he was saying, “I am a Muslim”?’ The man replied, ‘Messenger of Allah, he only said it with his tongue; it was not in his heart.’ The Prophet repeated his question three times, then said, ‘Why did you not split open his heart and look at what was inside?’ The man said, ‘Messenger of Allah, even if I had opened his heart, how would I know what was in it? Is it not merely a piece of flesh?’ He replied, ‘And what knowledge did you have of what was in his heart when you killed him?’ The man pleaded, ‘Messenger of Allah, ask forgiveness for me.’ The Prophet answered, ‘No,’ three times.

The man eventually died, and his people buried him. But Allah, Exalted is He, commanded the earth, and it expelled him three times. When his people saw this, they carried him away and cast him among the mountains.”