"I was not sent as one to call down curses on people, but I was sent as a mercy."

'Did you then split open his heart so that you know whether he truly meant it when he said it or not?'

Usama ibn Zayd narrates,

The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, sent us to al-Huraqa, a sub-tribe of Juhayna, and we came upon the people in the morning at their springs. A man of the Ansar and I overtook one of their men. When we descended on him, he said:

'There is no god but Allah.'

The Ansari held back from him, but I stabbed him with my spear until I had killed him. When we arrived in Madina, that reached the Prophet and he said:

'O Usama, did you kill him after he had said, "There is no god but Allah"?'

I said:

'Messenger of Allah, he was only trying to save himself.'

God's Messenger, getting very angry, replied to him:

'Did you then split open his heart so that you know whether he truly meant it when he said it or not?'

He continued to repeat it until I wished that I had only become Muslim on that day.