(141) باب الْجَاسُوسِ
Narrated 'Ubaidullah bin Abi Rafi`:
I heard `Ali saying, "Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) sent me, Az-Zubair and Al-Miqdad somewhere saying, 'Proceed till you reach Rawdat Khakh. There you will find a lady with a letter. Take the letter from her.' " So, we set out and our horses ran at full pace till we got at Ar-Rawda where we found the lady and said (to her). "Take out the letter." She replied, "I have no letter with me." We said, "Either you take out the letter or else we will take off your clothes." So, she took it out of her braid. We brought the letter to Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) and it contained a statement from Hatib bin Abi Balta a to some of the Meccan pagans informing them of some of the intentions of Allah's Messenger (ﷺ). Then Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "O Hatib! What is this?" Hatib replied, "O Allah's Messenger (ﷺ)! Don't hasten to give your judgment about me. I was a man closely connected with the Quraish, but I did not belong to this tribe, while the other emigrants with you, had their relatives in Mecca who would protect their dependents and property . So, I wanted to recompense for my lacking blood relation to them by doing them a favor so that they might protect my dependents. I did this neither because of disbelief not apostasy nor out of preferring Kufr (disbelief) to Islam." Allah's Messenger (ﷺ), said, "Hatib has told you the truth." `Umar said, O Allah's Apostle! Allow me to chop off the head of this hypocrite." Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "Hatib participated in the battle of Badr, and who knows, perhaps Allah has already looked at the Badr warriors and said, 'Do whatever you like, for I have forgiven you."
Reference: Sahih al-Bukhari 3007
In-book reference: Book 56, Hadith 216
USC-MSA web (English) reference(deprecated numbering scheme): Vol. 4, Book 52, Hadith 251