Fourthly: The hadith of Ka‘b ibn Malik:
It has been referenced in this Silsilah under hadith no. 3430.
To the sources cited there may be added al-Kuna wa al-Asma’ (2/108) by al-Dulabi. *
- (In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy.
From Muhammad, the servant and Messenger of Allah, to Heraclius, the great one of the Romans:
Peace be upon whoever follows right guidance. To proceed: I invite you to Islam. Accept Islam and you will be safe; Allah will grant you your reward twice over. But if you turn away, then you will bear the sin of the arisiyyin (the common people). And: “O People of the Scripture, come to a word that is just between us and you: that we worship none but Allah, associate nothing with Him, and that none of us take others as lords besides Allah. But if they turn away, then say: Bear witness that we are Muslims.”)
It was narrated by al-Bukhari (no. 7—the wording is his—and 51, 2681, 2941, 2979, 3174, 4553, 5980, 6260, and 7196), Muslim (5/163–166), al-Tirmidhi (2717), al-Nasa’i in al-Kubra (11064), ‘Abd al-Razzaq (9724), Ibn Hibban (6555), Ahmad (1/263), Ibn Mandah in al-Iman (143), al-Tahawi in Mushkil al-Athar (1380 and 1977), Ibn Abi ‘Asim in al-Ahad wa al-Mathani (488), al-Bayhaqi in Dala’il al-Nubuwwah (4/380–381), al-Lalaka’i in Sharh Usul I‘tiqad Ahl al-Sunnah (1457), and Ibn ‘Asakir in Tarikh Dimashq (23/428), through various routes from ‘Ubayd Allah ibn ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Utbah ibn Mas‘ud, who reported that ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Abbas informed him that Abu Sufyan ibn Harb informed him that Heraclius sent for him while he was among a caravan of Quraysh. They were merchants in Syria during the truce that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, had made with Abu Sufyan and the disbelievers of Quraysh. So they came to him while they were in Aelia (Jerusalem), and he summoned them