A levy was imposed on the people of Medina for a military expedition, and I enrolled my name in it. Then I met Ikrima, the freed slave of Ibn Abbas, and informed him of what I had done. He forbade me from this in the strongest terms, then said, "Ibn Abbas told me that some men from the Muslims were with the polytheists, swelling the ranks of the polytheists during the time of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. An arrow would come and strike one of them and kill him, or he would be struck by a sword and killed. So Allah revealed, 'Indeed, those whom the angels take in death while wronging themselves' [Nisa 4:97], the verse."
قطع على أهل المدينة بعت، فاكتبت فيه، فلقيت عكرمة مولى ابن عباس فأخبرته، فنهاني عن ذلك أشد النهي، ثم قال: أخبرني ابن عباس أن ناسا من المسلمين كانوا مع المشركين، يكثرون سواد المشركين على عهد رسول الله ﷺ يأتي السهم فيرمي به، فيصيب أحدهم فيقتله، أو يضرب فيقتل، فأنزل الله: {ان الذين توفىهم الملىكة ظالمي انفسهم} الآية.