He related that he was part of one of the military expeditions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. He said, "The men broke and fled, and I was among those who fled."He continued, "When we got clear of the battle, we said to one another, 'What do we do now? We have fled from the battlefield and brought down Allah's wrath upon ourselves.' Then we said, 'Let us enter Madinah, settle there quietly, and slip away so that no one sees us.'So we entered the city and said, 'What if we present ourselves to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ? If there is a way for us to repent, we will stay. If not, we will leave.'We sat waiting for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ before the dawn prayer. When he came out, we rose toward him and said, 'We are the runaways.'He turned to us and said, 'No, rather you are the ones who regroup and return to fight.'We drew near and kissed his hand, and he said, 'I am the main body of the Muslims to whom you return.'"
حدثنا أحمد بن يونس حدثنا زهير حدثنا يزيد بن أبي زياد أن عبد الرحمن بن أبي ليلى
حدثه أنه كان في سرية من سرايا رسول الله ﷺ قال فحاص الناس حيصة فكنت فيمن حاص قال فلما برزنا قلنا كيف نصنع وقد فررنا من الزحف وبؤنا بالغضب فقلنا ندخل المدينة فنتثبت فيها ونذهب ولا يرانا أحد قال فدخلنا فقلنا لو عرضنا أنفسنا على رسول الله ﷺ فإن كانت لنا توبة أقمنا وإن كان غير ذلك ذهبنا قال فجلسنا لرسول الله ﷺ قبل صلاة الفجر فلما خرج قمنا إليه فقلنا نحن الفرارون فأقبل إلينا فقال لا بل أنتم العكارون قال فدنونا فقبلنا يده فقال إنا فئة المسلمين
Grading, its isnad is daif. See number 5223. Tirmidhi also related it in the Book of Jihad, the chapter on what has been said about fleeing from the battlefront, number 1716, from the hadith of Yazid bin Abu Ziyad, with the same wording, and he said, hasan gharib. Yazid is daif, as mentioned repeatedly before. See number 1474.