Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah

Hazrat Fudail bin Zaid al-Raqashi (may Allah be pleased with him), who participated in seven battles during the caliphate of Hazrat Umar (may Allah be pleased with him), narrates that Hazrat Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) sent an army, and I was also part of that army. We besieged the people of Sahar Yaj. When we saw that today we would conquer them, we said: Let us return, rest for a while, and then come back refreshed to conquer them. When we returned from there, a slave among the Muslims followed them and spoke to them in Persian, and wrote them a guarantee of safety (protection) on a scroll, tied it to an arrow, and threw it towards them. When we returned, we saw that those people had come out of the fortress. We asked them: What has happened to you? They said: You have granted us safety. We said: We have certainly not done so; indeed, a slave has granted you safety who himself has no authority over anything. You should go back until we write to Hazrat Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) and seek his opinion. They said: We do not distinguish between your free men and your slaves; we are not going back. Now, if you wish, kill us, or if you wish, forgive us. He narrates that we wrote the situation to Hazrat Umar (may Allah be pleased with him). Hazrat Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) wrote: The slave of the Muslims is also from among the Muslims; his guarantee is their guarantee. He narrates that Hazrat Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) enforced the protection granted by the slave.