Ubaidullah bin Abu Rafi’ was the trusted special assistant of our master Ali (may Allah be pleased with him). He narrates: I heard our master Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) saying this. The Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) sent me, our master Zubair (may Allah be pleased with him), our master Talha (may Allah be pleased with him), and our master Miqdad bin Aswad (may Allah be pleased with him). The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: You all go and reach the garden named Khakh. There will be a woman there, she will have a letter, you should take it from her. We rode our horses swiftly to that garden, and there was a woman present. We said to her: Take out the letter. She said: I do not have any letter. They said: By Allah! Either you take out the letter or we will search your clothes. So she took out the letter from her hair bun. We brought it to the service of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), and the letter was from Hatib bin Abi Balta’ah to some polytheists living in Makkah. In this letter, our master Hatib (may Allah be pleased with him) had informed those people about the intentions of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: O Hatib, what is this? He replied: O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)! Do not be hasty regarding me. I am a person who is associated with the Quraysh, but I am not a part of the Quraysh. The other emigrants who are with you, they have relatives in Makkah, because of which their relatives and families are safe, but I do not have any kinship in Makkah due to which I could protect my family. That is why I wanted that if I do not have any blood relation with them, then I should do them a favor, so that they may take care of my relatives and my family. By Allah! O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)! I did not do this by turning away from my religion or by being pleased with disbelief after accepting Islam. The Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said: He has told you the truth. Our master Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)! Allow me to strike the neck of this hypocrite. The Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said: He participated in Badr. Do you not know, perhaps Allah has looked towards the people of Badr and said: Do whatever you wish, I have forgiven you.
(The narrator says:) Regarding this, the following verse was revealed: "O you who believe! Do not take My enemies and your enemies as friends."