Letter of Hazrat Hatib (ra) bin Abi Balta
Hazrat Zubair (ra) was also among the three people whom the Holy Prophet (sa) sent to inquire about the woman who was delivering a letter of Hazrat Hatib bin Abi Balta (ra) to the disbelievers.
Hazrat Ali (ra) narrates, “Whilst sending me, Hazrat Zubair (ra) and Hazrat Miqdad (ra) to a certain location, the Holy Prophet (sa) stated, ‘When you reach Raudha-e-Khaakh, there you will find a woman who has a letter. Take the letter from her and return.’”
Hazrat Ali (ra) further relates, “Subsequently, we set off for Raudha-e-Khaakh”, which is the name of an area situated between Mecca and Medina. “Upon reaching there, we indeed found a woman [as mentioned by the Holy Prophet (sa)]. We instructed her to hand over the letter; however, she denied having any letter. We then warned her that either she should produce the letter or we would be compelled to use force and remove her clothes [in order to search for it].”
In other words, they would be willing to go to any length in order to search for the letter.
“Left with no choice, she took out the letter which was concealed in the bun of her hair and handed it over to us. We took the letter and returned to the Holy Prophet (sa). Upon opening the letter, we found out that the letter was written from Hazrat Hatib bin Abi Balta (ra) in which he had addressed some idolaters of Mecca and was revealing information about a certain directive the Holy Prophet (sa) had issued. The Holy Prophet (sa) asked him to explain the matter and Hazrat Hatib (ra) submitted, ‘O Messenger of Allah (ra)! Please do not make a decision in haste with regard to me. [The reason I have done this is because] I am not from the Quraish, but in fact I came and joined them, therefore I wished to do a favour for them. I did not commit this act owing to disbelief or apostasy, or by giving preference to disbelief having accepted Islam. Instead, I simply did this in order to extend them a favour.’ Upon hearing this, the Holy Prophet (sa) stated that Hazrat Balta (ra) had indeed spoken the truth. At the time, Hazrat Umar (ra) was overcome with extreme anger and submitted to the Holy Prophet (sa), ‘Grant me permission so that I may sever the head of this hypocrite.’ The Holy Prophet (sa) stated, ‘He has participated in the Battle of Badr. Do you not know that observing the people of Badr from the heavens, Allah the Almighty has declared that He has already granted them His forgiveness, regardless of what they do?’”
(Musnad Ahmad bin Hanbal, vol. 1, p. 251, Ali ibn Talib, Hadith no. 600, Alam-ul-Kutb, Beirut, 1998) (Farhang Sirat, Syed Fazl-ul-Rehman, p. 136)