"The Anṣār Take Another Road"

Fa-ḥamida Allāha wa athnā ʿalayh — so the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) praised Allah and thanked Him. And that is how we should start our major events, our talks: we start them by praising Allah (swt); that is the sunnah. And then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) spoke these words to the Anṣār. He said: did I not come to you when you were misguided, and Allah guided you through me? I came to you when you were poor, and Allah enriched you through me; I came to you when you were enemies, and Allah brought you together. They responded and said: all favours belong to Allah and His Messenger. Everything the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said, we agree with; and all of these favours you mentioned belong to Allah and to you.

And then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told them: well, will you not answer back? They said: what should we say, when all favours belong to Allah and His Messenger? The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: by Allah, if you wished, you could say — and you would be telling the truth if you did — you came to us rejected, and we believed in you; you were betrayed, and we supported you; you were a fugitive, and we gave you a home; you were poor, and we enriched you. O people of the Anṣār, are you upset because of a small material gain that I am using to bring a people closer to Islam, while I have entrusted you to your Islam? Are you not content, O people of the Anṣār, that people should go back with sheep and camels, while you go back to your homes with the Messenger of Allah? By Him in whose hand is the soul of Muḥammad, were it not for the hijrah, I would be a man of the Anṣār; and if the people took one road and the Anṣār took another road, I would take the road of the Anṣār. O Allah, forgive the Anṣār, the sons of the Anṣār, and the grandsons of the Anṣār.

Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī said: they wept — they started weeping until their beards were wet — and they said: we are pleased with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) as our share. The Anṣār are special, and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told them so: you are different from the rest of the people; I am giving the other people this money to bring them closer to Islam; but I trust your īmān and I trust your faith, and I know that you are not in need of these worldly things to bring you closer to me and closer to Allah; you already have that in your hearts. The Anṣār, when they first met the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) — what was the deal between them and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him)? We support you and fight for you; and what do we get in exchange for that? Al-Jannah. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) did not promise them the dunyā. From day one, the Anṣār were in it for the right reasons.

So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told them: I came to you. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was reminding them of the blessings of Allah that came to the Anṣār when the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) arrived in Madīnah. They were misguided; they were kuffār; and what is a greater disaster than being a kāfir? And they were guided through Muḥammad (peace be upon him); and what is a greater blessing than that? Nothing. Nothing counts when compared with the blessing of hidāyah. And that is why the most frequent duʿāʾ we make is the duʿāʾ we say in al-Fātiḥah: ihdinā al-ṣirāṭa al-mustaqīm — guide us to the straight path (1:6). That is better for us than money; it is better than women; it is better than children; it is better than having a house; it is better than everything — the best thing one could have. It is better than being healthy.

And then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told them: and you were poor, and Allah enriched you. How did Allah enrich them? In terms of the economy of Madīnah: before, it was based on agriculture, and agriculture in Madīnah was actually declining because of the constant state of war they were in because of the hijrah of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). So what does the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) mean by "enriched you through me"? It means through the ghanāʾim coming from jihād for the sake of Allah. And then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: and you were enemies. Al-Aws and al-Khazraj were at each other's throats, and Allah brought them together. So they agreed, and they said: all favours belong to Allah and His Messenger; we cannot reject that, and we cannot complain.

But then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told them: on the other hand, you could also tell me: you were rejected by your people of Quraysh, and it is we who believed. You could say: you were betrayed by your people, and we are the ones who supported you. You could say: you were a fugitive, you had nowhere to go, and there was a bounty on you, and it is we who gave you a home and a base from which to spread the daʿwah. And you could also say that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was poor and had nothing, and we are the ones who hosted him. But the Anṣār obviously would not say that; they would not complain; they would not brag about what they had done, because they considered everything to be a blessing from Allah (swt), and everything good they did, they considered to be from Allah (swt).

And then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told them that this was a small material gain: and I am giving it to these people not because I love them, not because I like them; it is because I want to bring them closer to Islam. These are called the — And then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told them something that only people who understand the greatness of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) can appreciate: he told them that the people were going back with sheep and camels, while they were going back to their homes with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). I am going back with you; I am not going to stay in Makkah; I am going back with you. And then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told them: were it not for the hijrah — because the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) is counted as a Muhājir, which is a higher status than Anṣārī — so the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) says: were it not for the hijrah, I would count myself a member of the Anṣār.

And then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told them: if all the people took a certain road while you took another road, I would follow yours; I would be with you. And then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) made this lovely duʿāʾ for the Anṣār: O Allah, forgive the Anṣār; forgive the sons of the Anṣār; and forgive the grandsons of the Anṣār. And when the Anṣār heard these words, they wept until their beards were wet, and they said: we are pleased with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him).

There are different narrations, as mentioned, in al-Bukhārī and Muslim, and in one of them there is a statement that catches the attention. Hishām says: qultu: yā Abā Ḥamzah, wa anta shāhidun dhāk? Qāla: wa ayna aghību ʿanh? (al-Bukhārī 4337). Hishām, the Tābiʿī narrating the hadith, is asking Anas ibn Mālik, whose kunyah is Abū Ḥamzah: O Abū Ḥamzah, were you a witness to that? Anas said: and where else would I be? What catches the attention here is the answer Anas gave. He did not say, yes, I was there; he told him: and where else would I be? And this shows a virtue of Anas ibn Mālik (may Allah be pleased with him), the servant of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him): he was always with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and he would not miss such an event; he would definitely be there. And that is why it is mentioned that Anas ibn Mālik used to have so many dreams of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) — to the extent that it is said he used to dream of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) every night — because he was always with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him).