Hazrat Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) sent me, Zubair, and Miqdad bin Aswad (may Allah be pleased with them) on a mission and said: When you reach Rawdat Khakh (which is the name of a place twelve miles from Madinah), there you will find an old woman riding a camel, and she will have a letter with her. Take that letter from her. We set out, and our horses carried us swiftly. Eventually, we reached Rawdat Khakh, and indeed, there was an old woman riding a camel. We said to her,“Take out the letter.”She said,“I have no letter with me.”But when we threatened her that if she did not produce the letter, we would strip her clothes ourselves, she then took out the letter from within her braided hair and gave it to us. We brought it to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). Its contents were as follows: From Hatib bin Abi Balta’ah to a few men among the polytheists of Makkah, in which he had informed them of some secrets of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: O Hatib! What is this matter? He replied: O Messenger of Allah! Do not be hasty regarding me. My position (in Makkah) was that I had chosen to live among the Quraysh, but I had no blood relation with them. The other emigrants who are with you, all of them have relatives in Makkah, and for that reason, the people of Makkah will protect their relatives and their wealth. But I have no such relationship with the people of Makkah. Therefore, I thought I would do them a favor so that, because of it, they might protect my relatives in Makkah. I did not do this out of disbelief or apostasy, nor after accepting Islam did I become pleased with disbelief. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) heard this and said: Hatib has spoken the truth. Hazrat Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: O Messenger of Allah! Allow me to strike off the head of this hypocrite. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: No, he fought in the Battle of Badr (along with the Muslims), and you do not know, Allah Almighty already knew the conditions of the warriors of Badr (until their death), and He Himself has said:“Do whatever you wish, I have forgiven you.”