I heard ‘Ali (رضي الله عنه) say: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) sent me, az-Zubair and al-Miqdad, and he said: “Go to the garden of Khakh, where you will find a woman riding a camel with whom there is a letter, and take it from her.” We set out with our horses galloping, until we reached that garden, and there we found the woman. We said: Give us the letter. She said: I do not have any letter. We said: Either you give us the letter or we will remove your clothes. So she brought it out from her braided hair, and we took it and brought it to the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) and in it (was written): From Hatib bin Abi Balta`ah to some of the mushrikeen of Makkah, telling them about some of the plans of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: `O Hatib, what is this?` He said: Do not be hasty in judging me, O Messenger of Allah (ﷺ). I am a man who was attached to Quraish but I was one of them. The Muhajireen who are with you have relatives who will protect their families in Makkah, and I wanted, as i have no blood ties among them, to do them a favour so that they would protect my family. I did not do it out of kufr or because I apostatized from my religion, or because I approved of Kufr after becoming Muslim. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: `He has told you the truth.` `Umar (رضي الله عنه) said: O Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), let me strike the neck of this hypocrite. He said: “He was present at Badr, and you do not know, perhaps Allah looked upon the people of Badr and said: `Do what you wish, for I have forgiven you.`