Hadith Text
وَعَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ قَالَ: «يَضْحَكُ اللَّهُ سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى إِلَى رَجُلَيْنِ يَقْتُلُ أَحَدُهُمَا الآخَرَ يَدْخُلاَنِ الْجَنَّةَ؛ يُقَاتِلُ هَذَا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ فَيُقْتَلُ، ثُمَّ يَتُوبُ اللَّهُ عَلَى الْقَاتِلِ فَيُسْلِمُ فَيُسْتَشْهَدُ». مُتَّفَقٌ عَلَيْهِ.
Full Translation
On the authority of Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
“Allah — Glorified and Exalted — laughs at two men: one of them kills the other, yet both of them enter Paradise. This one fights in the path of Allah and is killed. Then Allah turns in mercy to his killer — he accepts Islam and is himself martyred.”
Agreed upon.
Meanings of Key Words
- Yadhak Allah (يَضْحَكُ اللَّهُ) — Allah laughs; laughter here is an attribute of Allah affirmed as it comes, without comparison to human laughter and without asking how — it describes a divine expression of pleasure, of joy, of something that delights Him
- Ila rajulayni (إِلَى رَجُلَيْنِ) — at two men; the laugh is directed at them together — not at one, not despite the other — at both, as a pair, as a story
- Yaqtulu ahaduhuma al-akhar (يَقْتُلُ أَحَدُهُمَا الآخَرَ) — one of them kills the other; the most direct possible statement of what happened — no softening, no euphemism
- Yudkhulan al-jannah (يَدْخُلاَنِ الْجَنَّةَ) — both of them enter Paradise; the punchline arrives before the explanation — we are told the ending first, so that the story that follows lands with full force
- Fi sabil Allah (فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ) — in the path of Allah; the first man’s death was not random — it was shahada, martyrdom, the highest death in Islam
- Yatoob Allahu ‘ala al-qatil (يَتُوبُ اللَّهُ عَلَى الْقَاتِلِ) — Allah turns in mercy to the killer; the initiative is Allah’s — He turns toward the killer before the killer has done anything
- Fa-yuslimu (فَيُسْلِمُ) — he accepts Islam; the turning is completed — from killer of a Muslim to member of the Ummah
- Fa-yustashhadu (فَيُسْتَشْهَدُ) — and he is martyred; he dies the same death as the man he killed — in the path of Allah
Hadith Lessons
This hadith is the final hadith of the chapter on repentance — and Imam al-Nawawi chose it with precision. After twenty-three hadiths that have taken us through the conditions of tawbah, the width of the gate, the hand extended every night, the man who killed a hundred, the woman who gave her soul — the chapter closes with a single image that contains everything.
And it opens with something almost shocking: Allah laughs.
The Laugh That Opens the Hadith
Allah laughing is not a metaphor to be explained away. It is an attribute affirmed by the Prophet ﷺ — belonging to Allah in a manner that befits His majesty, unlike anything in human experience, not to be compared and not to be denied.
But what matters here is what makes Allah laugh — because that tells us what Allah finds delightful, what scenario produces this divine expression of pleasure. And the answer is: two men, one of whom killed the other, both entering Paradise.
This is not a neutral observation. Allah is not laughing at the irony of the situation the way a detached observer might. He is laughing with something that can only be described as delight — at the outcome His own mercy produced. He turned toward the killer. He accepted his Islam. He brought him to shahada. And now the killer and his victim stand at the same gate.
The laugh is the laugh of a Lord who loves what His mercy creates.
The Reversal That Only Repentance Produces
Recall Hadith 9 from Chapter One — the man who fights out of personal courage, tribal zeal, or to show off is not in the path of Allah. Now recall Hadith 8 — only the one who fights so that the word of Allah is the highest is truly fi sabil Allah.
The first man in this hadith died fighting in the path of Allah — and entered Paradise as a martyr. This is already the highest outcome.
Now look at his killer. At the moment he killed that Muslim, he was on the wrong side of everything. He was an enemy of Islam, taking a life that was sacred. By any ledger-based accounting, his record was catastrophic.
And then: “Allah turns in mercy to his killer.”
The initiative is divine. The hadith does not say “the killer sought repentance” — it says Allah turned toward him first. This is the language of divine pursuit — the same structure as Hadith 15 where the camel appeared beside the man who had given up. Allah moved toward this man before the man moved toward Allah.
What followed was Islam, then martyrdom — the same death his victim died. The killer became, at the end, the same thing as the one he killed.
They Enter Together — and That Is the Point
The hadith tells us the ending before the story: both enter Paradise. The martyr who was killed — and the man who killed him. Together.
This is the theological summit of the entire chapter on repentance. Every hadith before this one has been building toward a single claim: that genuine repentance, accepted by Allah, does not merely cancel a sin. It can transform the sinner into something that stands beside the most honoured of Allah’s servants.
The martyr did not have to wait for his killer to be excluded before he could enter. The killer did not enter through a separate, lesser door. They entered together — as the object of Allah’s laughter, His delight, His pleasure at what His mercy had produced.
What This Means for How We See People
This hadith has a quiet but urgent implication for how believers look at people around them — especially enemies, especially those who have harmed the Muslim community, especially those whose record seems irredeemable.
The man who killed a Muslim in battle — fighting against Islam — became a martyr. The man who killed a hundred people became forgiven by a hand span. The woman who came pregnant with the evidence of her sin became the subject of the Prophet’s ﷺ janazah prayer and his testimony about her repentance.
No human being looking at these people at their worst moments could have predicted their endings. And that is precisely the point. Allah’s mercy operates in a dimension that human judgment cannot access. The person you have written off — the one whose record you have privately decided is too damaged, whose sins you have catalogued and found unforgivable — may be the next person Allah laughs toward as they enter Paradise.
This is not a call to ignore wrongdoing or pretend sin does not matter. It is a call to hold every human verdict loosely — because the One who actually decides has already demonstrated, across this entire chapter, that His mercy reaches further than any human ledger can calculate.
Three Questions to Close With
- Is there someone in my life — or in the world — whose past I have decided makes them beyond the reach of genuine change? Does this hadith ask me to reconsider that verdict?
- If Allah laughs with delight at the outcome His mercy produces — what does that tell me about how He feels when I turn back to Him, regardless of what I am turning back from?
- Having completed this chapter — what is the single most important thing I have learned about repentance that I did not fully understand before?