جامع ترمذی · Hadith 1644

Narrated Fadalah bin 'Ubaid: That he heard 'Umar bin Al-Khattab saying: I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) saying: 'The martyrs are four: A believing man whose faith is good, he meets the enemy and proves faithful to Allah until he is killed. That is the one to whom the people will raise up their eyes like this on the Day of Judgement' and he raised his head until his Qalansuwah fell - [he said:] I do not know if it was 'Umar's Qalansuwah or the Qalansuwah of the Prophet (ﷺ) that fell - he said, 'And a believing man whose faith is good (but not as brave as first), he meets the enemy, but due to cowardice, it only appears that he was struck with a thorn of an acacia tree when an unexpected arrow comes to him, yet it kills him. He is among the second level. And a believing man who has mixed righteous deed with another evil one, he meets his enemy and proves faithful to Allah until he is killed. This one is in the third level. And a believing man who wasted himself (in wrongdoing), he meets the enemy and proves faithful to Allah until he is killed. This one is in the fourth level.' [Abu 'Eisa said:] This Hadith is Hasan Gharib, it is not known except as a narration of 'Ata bin Dinar. He said: I heard Muhammad saying: Sa'eed bin Abi Ayyub reported this Hadith from 'Ata bin Dinar - from some Shaikhs of Khawlan - and he did not mention 'from Abu Yazid' in it. And he said: 'Ata bin Dinar; there is no harm in him.

Translated by Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan · Reviewed by Islamic University of Madinah · Published March 2020