Mishkat al-Masabih — Hadith #51099

On the authority of Abu Qatada, he said: We went out with the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, in the year of Hunayn, and when we met, the Muslims were making a round, and I saw a man from the polytheists. He mounted a Muslim man, so I struck him from behind him on the rope around his neck with a sword, so I cut the shield and he approached. Ali, so he embraced me with a hug from which I smelled the smell of death, then death overtook him, so he sent me, so I followed Omar bin Al-Khattab, and I said: What is the matter with the people? He said: God’s command. Then they returned and the Prophet, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, sat and said: “Whoever kills a person for whom there is clear evidence against him, gets his plunder.” So I said: Who will bear witness for me? Then I sat down, and then the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, said the same thing, so I got up and he said: “What’s wrong with you, Abu Qatada?” So I informed him, and a man said: He spoke the truth and plundered him from me, so I will give him his land. Abu Bakr said: No, by God. If no lion from the lion of God fights on behalf of God And His Messenger, and he will give you his plunder. Then the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: “He has spoken the truth, so give it.” So he gave it to me, and I followed with it a sheep in Bani Salamah, for it was the first wealth I acquired in Islam.