- “Allah laughs at two men, one of whom kills the other, yet Allah admits them both into Paradise: one of them is an unbeliever and kills the other; then he embraces Islam, fights in the path of Allah, and is killed.”
Ahmad recorded it (2/511): Ruh narrated to us; Muhammad ibn Abi Hafsah narrated to us; Ibn Shihab narrated to us from Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib, from Abu Hurayrah, in a report attributed to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, with this wording. It includes the addition: “It was asked: ‘How can that be?’ He replied: ‘One of them...’” and so on. This is an authentic chain of transmission according to the criteria of al-Bukhari and Muslim.
It has another route with similar wording, recorded by al-Nasa'i (2/63) and Ahmad (2/244), from Sufyan ibn Uyaynah, from Abu al-Zinad, from al-A'raj, from Abu Hurayrah, in a report attributed to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. This too is authentic according to their criteria. Al-Bukhari and Muslim both recorded it through this route with the wording: “Allah laughs at two men.” It will appear later, Allah the Exalted willing.
It also has a third route in al-Musnad (3/318): Abd al-Razzaq narrated to us; Ma'mar narrated to us from Hammam ibn Munabbih, from him. This chain too is authentic according to their criteria. Muslim (6/40) and al-Bayhaqi recorded it in al-Asma wa al-Sifat (p. 468). Al-Bukhari and Muslim also recorded it through the route of al-A'raj from him with similar wording. It has previously appeared under no. 1074.