Sayyiduna Miqdad bin Aswad (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: I said, "O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)! If I encounter a polytheist and he cuts off my hand, then he hides behind a tree to protect himself from me and says, 'I have accepted Islam for the sake of Allah,' should I kill him?" The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, "No." I said, "O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)! He had cut off my hand." The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, "Do not kill him, because if you kill him, he will take your place, the place you were in before you killed him, and you will take his place, the place he was in before he uttered that word." (Imam Ibn Hibban, may Allah have mercy on him, says:) The statement of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), "You will take his place, the place he was in before he uttered that word," means: When I have forbidden you from this, and after that, if you kill him and consider it lawful, then you will become like him. And there is another meaning of this hadith, which is: If you kill him, you will take his place, meaning you will be killed in retribution (qisas), just as if you kill a Muslim, you are killed in retribution.