Home > Sira > The arrival of the Prophet in Medina and the place of his dwelling
The arrival of Prophet Mohamed in Medina: the long waiting of the Ansar, the tribes' race to host him, the she-camel guided by Allah, the girls of Banu an-Najjar, seven months with Abu Ayyub, and the virtues of the Ansar.
Updated on 07 September 2026 at 11:07 PM
The chapter of his entry (peace be upon him) into Medina: and where his dwelling settled there: and what relates to that. It has already come in what al-Bukhari reported, from az-Zuhri, from Urwa: that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) entered Medina at the time of the midday siesta. I say: perhaps that was after the sun’s decline: because of what is established in the two Sahihs, from the hadith of Isra’il, from Abu Ishaq, from al-Bara’ ibn ’Azib, from Abu Bakr, in the hadith of the Hijra: we arrived by night: and the people disputed which of them he would stay with: and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "dismount among Banu an-Najjar, the maternal uncles of Abd al-Muttalib: I honor them thereby." And this, Allah knows best, is either on the day of his arrival at Quba: so that his arrival near Medina was in the heat of the siesta: and he stayed under that palm: then traveled with the Muslims: and stayed at Quba: and that by night: and that he called night what was after the sun’s decline: for the afternoon is of the sun’s decline: or that what is meant thereby was when he departed from Quba, as will come: and he traveled and did not reach Banu an-Najjar but at evening: as will come its explanation: and Allah knows best.
And al-Bukhari mentioned, from az-Zuhri, from Urwa: that he stayed with Banu Amr ibn Awf at Quba: and dwelt among them about ten nights: and founded the mosque of Quba in those days: then he mounted, and the people with him: until his mount knelt at the place of his mosque: which was a drying-floor for two orphan boys: called Sahl and Suhayl: so he bought it from the two: and made it a mosque: and that was in the house of Banu an-Najjar.
Muhammad ibn Ishaq said: Muhammad ibn Ja’far ibn az-Zubayr told me, from Urwa ibn az-Zubayr, from Abd ar-Rahman ibn ’Uwaym ibn Sa’ida: men of my people, of the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), told me: when news reached us of the Prophet’s (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) going out from Mecca: and we awaited his coming: we would go out, after the morning prayer, to the outskirts of our lava tract, awaiting the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): and by Allah we departed not until the sun overcame the shades: and when we found no shade we entered: and that in hot days: until the day the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) arrived: we sat as we used to sit: and when no shade remained we entered our houses:
and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) arrived while we had entered the houses: the first to see him was a man of the Jews: who cried at the top of his voice: O Banu Qayla, your grandfather has come: so we went out to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): and he was in the shade of a palm: and with him Abu Bakr, of his like in age: and most of us had never seen the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) before: and the people pointed at him: not distinguishing him from Abu Bakr: until the shade departed from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): and Abu Bakr rose and shaded him with his cloak: and we recognized him then. And the like has already come in the account of al-Bukhari: and Musa ibn ’Uqba mentioned likewise in his Maghazi.
Imam Ahmad said: Hashim told us: Sulayman told us, from Thabit, from Anas ibn Malik: I would run with the boys saying: Muhammad has come: and I would run and see nothing: then they would say: Muhammad has come: and I would run and see nothing: until the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) came: and his companion Abu Bakr: and they hid in part of our lava tracts: then they sent a man of the desert folk to announce them to the Ansar: and about five hundred of the Ansar came toward them: until they reached them: and the Ansar said: go on, in safety, and obeyed: and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and his companion advanced amid their backs: and the people of Medina came out: so that the grown women were above the houses showing him to one another, saying: which of them is he? Which of them is he? And we never saw that day a sight like it: Anas said: I saw him the day he entered upon us: and the day he died: and I never saw two days resembling them. And al-Bayhaqi reported it, from al-Hakim, from al-Asamm, from Muhammad ibn Ishaq as-Saghani, from Abu an-Nadr Hashim ibn al-Qasim, from Sulayman ibn al-Mughira, from Thabit, from Anas: in like manner or the like of it.
And in the two Sahihs, through Isra’il, from Abu Ishaq, from al-Bara, from Abu Bakr, in the hadith of the Hijra: the people went out when we arrived at Medina in the roads: and upon the houses: and the boys and the servants saying: Allah is greatest, the Messenger of Allah has come: Allah is greatest, Muhammad has come: Allah is greatest, Muhammad has come: Allah is greatest, the Messenger of Allah has come: and when morning came he departed: and went where he was commanded.
And al-Bayhaqi said: Abu Amr al-Adib informed us: Abu Bakr al-Isma’ili informed us: I heard Abu Khalifa say: I heard Ibn ’A’isha say: when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) arrived at Medina the women and children began saying:
The full moon has risen upon us: from the valleys of al-Wada’:
And gratitude is incumbent upon us: so long as a caller calls to Allah.
Muhammad ibn Ishaq said: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) stayed, as they mention, meaning when he stayed at Quba: with Kulthum ibn Hidm, brother of Banu Amr ibn Awf: and one of Banu Ubayd: and it is said: rather he stayed with Sa’d ibn Khaythama. And whoever mentions his lodging with Kulthum ibn Hidm says: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), whenever he went out from the house of Kulthum ibn Hidm, sat for the people in the house of Sa’d ibn Khaythama: and that because he was a bachelor, with no family: and his house was called: the house of the bachelor: and Allah knows best. And Abu Bakr stayed with Khubayb ibn Isaf, one of Banu al-Harith ibn al-Khazraj, at as-Sunh: and it is said: with Kharidja ibn Zayd ibn Abi Zuhayr, brother of Banu al-Harith ibn al-Khazradj.
Ibn Ishaq said: and Ali ibn Abi Talib remained in Mecca three nights and their days: until he had paid back the deposits which were with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): then he joined the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): and stayed with him with Kulthum ibn Hidm: and the stay of Ali at Quba was but a night or two: and Ali used to say: there was at Quba a woman without a husband, a Muslim: and I saw a man coming to her in the depths of the night: knocking at her door: and she would come out to him: and he would give her something with him: and she would take it: so I inquired into his affair and said to her: O servant of Allah, who is this who knocks at your door every night, and you go out to him, and he gives you something I know not what, and you are a Muslim woman without a husband? She said: this is Sahl ibn Hunayf: and he knows I am a woman with no one: when evening comes he goes to the idols of his people and breaks them: then brings them to me: and says: warm yourself with this: and Ali related that deed of Sahl ibn Hunayf when he died in Iraq.
Ibn Ishaq said: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) stayed at Quba among Banu Amr ibn Awf on Monday, and Tuesday, and Wednesday, and Thursday: and founded his mosque: then Allah brought him out from amid them on Friday: and Banu Amr ibn Awf claim he stayed among them longer. And Abdallah ibn Idris reported, from Muhammad ibn Ishaq: and Banu Amr ibn Awf claim he (peace be upon him) stayed among them eighteen nights. I say: it has already come in what al-Bukhari reported, through az-Zuhri, from Urwa: that he stayed among them about ten nights. And Musa ibn ’Uqba relates, from Mujamma’ ibn Yazid ibn Jariya: that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) stayed among us, meaning among Banu Amr ibn Awf at Quba, twenty-two nights. And al-Waqidi said: and it is said: he stayed among them fourteen nights.
Ibn Ishaq said: Friday overtook the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) among Banu Salim ibn Awf: and he prayed it in the mosque which is in the midst of the valley: the valley of Ranuna’: and it was the first Friday prayer he prayed in Medina. ’Itban ibn Malik, and al-Abbas ibn ’Ubada ibn Nadla, came to him with men of Banu Salim and said: O Messenger of Allah, stay with us, for the number and the provisions and the protection: He said: "leave her way, for she is commanded": of his she-camel: and they left her way: and she went until, passing the house of Banu Bayada, Ziyad ibn Labid and Farwa ibn Amr with men of Banu Bayada met him and said: O Messenger of Allah, come to us, for the number and the provisions and the protection: He said: "leave her way, for she is commanded": and they left her way: and she went until, passing the house of Banu Sa’ida, Sa’d ibn ’Ubada and al-Mundhir ibn Amr with men of Banu Sa’ida intercepted him and said: O Messenger of Allah, come to us, for the number and the provisions and the protection: He said: "leave her way, for she is commanded": and they left her way:
and she went until, passing the house of Banu al-Harith ibn al-Khazradj, Sa’d ibn ar-Rabi’ and Kharidja ibn Zayd and Abdallah ibn Rawaha with men of Banu al-Harith ibn al-Khazradj intercepted him and said: O Messenger of Allah, come to us, for the number and the provisions and the protection: He said: "leave her way, for she is commanded": and they left her way: and she went until, passing the house of Adi ibn an-Najjar, who are his maternal uncles and near, Umm Abd al-Muttalib Salma bint Amr being one of their women, Silit ibn Qays and Abu Salit Usayra ibn Abi Kharidja with men of Banu Adi ibn an-Najjar intercepted him and said: O Messenger of Allah, come to your maternal uncles, for the number and the provisions and the protection: He said: "leave her way, for she is commanded": and they left her way: and she went until she came to the house of Banu Malik ibn an-Najjar and knelt at the door of his mosque today: and it was that day a drying-floor for two orphan boys of Banu Malik ibn an-Najjar, called Sahl and Suhayl sons of Amr: and they were in the tutelage of Mu’adh ibn Afra’: I say: it has already come in the version of al-Bukhari, through az-Zuhri, from Urwa, that the two were in the tutelage of As’ad ibn Zurara: and Allah knows best.
And Musa ibn ’Uqba mentioned that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) passed on his way by Abdallah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul, who was in a house: and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) stood awaiting that he invite him to alight: and he was that day the lord of the Khazraj in their view: and Abdallah said: look at those who called you, and stay with them: and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) mentioned that to a party of the Ansar: and Sa’d ibn ’Ubada excused him, saying: Allah has bestowed favor upon us by you, O Messenger of Allah: and we intended to place the crown upon his head: and make him king over us.
Musa ibn ’Uqba said: and the Ansar had gathered before the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) mounted from Banu Amr ibn Awf: and they walked around his she-camel, each of them contending with his companion for the halter of the she-camel, coveting the honor of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): and venerating him: and whenever he passed a house of the houses of the Ansar they invited him to lodge: and he said: "leave her: for she is commanded: I alight only where Allah has made me alight": and when she came to the house of Abu Ayyub she knelt at the door: and he dismounted: and entered the house of Abu Ayyub: until he built his mosque and his dwellings.
Ibn Ishaq said: when the she-camel knelt with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) he did not dismount until she sprang up and traveled a little way: and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) letting her halter loose upon her, not bending it with it: then she turned back behind her and returned to her first kneeling place and knelt in it: then she settled and folded and placed her hind legs: and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) dismounted from her: and Abu Ayyub Khalid ibn Zayd carried his saddlebag: and placed it in his house: and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) stayed with him: and asked about the drying-floor: whose is it? Mu’adh ibn Afra’ said to him: it is, O Messenger of Allah, for Sahl and Suhayl sons of Amr: and they are two orphans in my care: and I shall satisfy them for it: so take it as a mosque: and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) commanded that it be built: and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) stayed in the house of Abu Ayyub until he built his mosque and his dwellings: and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and the Muslims of the Emigrants and the Ansar worked in it: and the account of the building of the mosque will come soon, Allah willing.
And al-Bayhaqi said in ad-Dala’il: Abu Abdallah said: Abu l-Hasan Ali ibn Umar the hafiz informed us: Abu Abdallah Muhammad ibn Makhlad ad-Duri told us: Muhammad ibn Sulayman ibn Isma’il ibn Abi al-Ward told us: Ibrahim ibn Sirmah told us: Yahya ibn Sa’id told us, from Ishaq ibn Abdallah ibn Abi Talha, from Anas: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) came to Medina: and when we entered the Ansar came, their men and their women: and said: to us, O Messenger of Allah: He said: "leave the she-camel: for she is commanded": and she knelt at the door of Abu Ayyub: and girls of Banu an-Najjar came out beating tambourines and saying:
We are girls of Banu an-Najjar: how good a neighbor is Muhammad!
And the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) came out to them: and said: do you love me? They said: yes, by Allah, O Messenger of Allah: He said: "and I, by Allah, love you: and I, by Allah, love you: and I, by Allah, love you." And this hadith is strange in this form: none of the authors of the Sunan reported it: and al-Hakim reported it in his Mustadrak, as you see. Then al-Bayhaqi said: Abu Abd ar-Rahman as-Sulami informed us: Abu l-Qasim Abdallah ibn Sulayman an-Nahhas, reciter in Baghdad, informed us: Umar ibn al-Hasan al-Halabi told us: Abu Khaythama al-Massissi told us: Isa ibn Yunus told us, from Awf al-A’rabi, from Thumama, from Anas: the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) passed by a tribe of Banu an-Najjar: and girls beating tambourines saying: we are girls of Banu an-Najjar: how good a neighbor is Muhammad: and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "Allah knows that my heart loves you": and Ibn Majah reported it, from Hisham ibn Ammar, from Isa ibn Yunus. And in the Sahih of al-Bukhari, from Abu Ma’mar, from Abd al-Warith, from Abd al-’Aziz, from Anas: the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) saw women and children coming, I think he said, from a wedding: and the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) rose in a showy manner and said: "O Allah, you are of the people most beloved to me": and he said it three times.
And Imam Ahmad said: Abd as-Samad ibn Abd al-Warith told us: my father told me: Abd al-’Aziz ibn Suhayb told me: Anas ibn Malik related: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) advanced toward Medina, with Abu Bakr behind him: and Abu Bakr an old man, recognizable: and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) a young man, unrecognized: a man would meet Abu Bakr and say: O Abu Bakr, who is this man before you?: and he would say: this man guides me the way: and the asker thought he only guided him the road: but he meant the path of good: and Abu Bakr turned and behold a rider of Fars had caught up with them: and he said: O Prophet of Allah, this is a rider of Fars who has caught up with us: and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) turned and said: "O Allah, throw him": and his horse threw him: then he rose spurring: and said: O Prophet of Allah, command me what you wish: He said: "stay in your place: and let none follow us": and he was at the first of the day striving against the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): and at the end of the day a shield for him: and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) alighted at the side of the lava tract: then sent to the Ansar: and they came and greeted the two: and said: ride, in safety and reassured: and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) rode: and Abu Bakr: and they girded around the two with weapons: and it was said in Medina: the Prophet of Allah has come:
and they watched for the Prophet of Allah, looking at him: and saying: the Prophet of Allah has come: He said: and he advanced riding until he alighted by the side of the house of Abu Ayyub: He said: and he would inform his family: when Abdallah ibn Salam heard of him while he was in a palm of his people harvesting for them: and he hastened to lay down what he harvested: and came while it was with him: and heard from the Prophet of Allah: and returned to his family: and the Prophet of Allah said: "which of the houses of our people is nearest?" Abu Ayyub said: I, O Prophet of Allah: this is my house and this my door: He said: "then go and prepare us a midday rest": and he went and prepared them a midday rest: then came and said: O Messenger of Allah, I have prepared for you a midday rest: rise with the blessing of Allah: and when the Prophet of Allah came Abdallah ibn Salam came: and said: I testify you are the Prophet of Allah truly: and that you have come with truth: and the Jews know that I am their lord and the son of their lord: and their most knowledgeable and the son of their most knowledgeable: call them and ask them: and they entered upon him: and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said to them: O assembly of Jews: woe to you, fear Allah: for by Him besides whom there is no god you know that I am the Messenger of Allah truly: and that I have come with truth: so accept Islam: They said: we know it not: three times: and thus al-Bukhari reported it alone, from Muhammad, unattributed, from Abd as-Samad.
Ibn Ishaq said: Yazid ibn Abi Habib told me: Marthad ibn Abdallah al-Yazani told me: Abu Ruhm as-Sama’i told me: Abu Ayyub told me: when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) stayed with me in my house he stayed in the lower part: and I and Umm Ayyub in the upper: and I said to him: my father and mother be your ransom, O Messenger of Allah: I dislike and consider it grave to be above you: and that you be beneath me: so come up: and be in the upper: and we descend: and be in the lower: and he said: "O Abu Ayyub, it is gentler for us and for whoever stays with us that I be in the lower part of the house": and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was in the lower part: and we above him in the dwelling: and a water jar broke upon us: and I and Umm Ayyub took a piece of qatifah we had, we had no cover but it: and we dried the water with it: fearing lest something drop upon the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and harm him: He said:
and we would make him the supper: then send it to him: and when he returned the surplus to us I and Umm Ayyub would seek the place of his hand and eat of it, seeking by that the blessing: until we sent him one night his supper: and we had placed in it onion or garlic: and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) returned it: and I saw no trace of his hand in it: He said: so I came to him in alarm: and said: O Messenger of Allah, my father and mother be your ransom, you returned your supper: and I saw in it no place of your hand?: and he said: "I found in it the scent of this tree: and I am a man given private address: but you: eat it": He said: so we ate it: and made not that tree thereafter. And thus al-Bayhaqi reported it, through al-Layth ibn Sa’d, from Yazid ibn Abi Habib, from Abu l-Hasan, or Abu l-Khayr, Marthad ibn Abdallah al-Yazani, from Abu Ruhm, from Abu Ayyub: and he mentioned it: and Abu Bakr ibn Abi Shayba reported it, from Yunus ibn Muhammad al-Mu’addib, from al-Layth.
And al-Bayhaqi said: the hafiz Abu Abdallah informed us: Abu Amr al-Hiri informed us: Abdallah ibn Muhammad told us: Ahmad ibn Sa’id ad-Darimi told us: Abu an-Nu’man told us: Thabit ibn Yazid told us: Asim al-Ahwal told us, from Abdallah ibn al-Harith, from Aflah, the freed slave of Abu Ayyub, from Abu Ayyub: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) stayed with him and stayed in the lower part: and Abu Ayyub in the upper: and Abu Ayyub was warned in his night: and said: we walk above the head of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): and they moved aside and spent the night in a side: then he said to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), meaning in that: He said: "the lower is gentler for us": He said: I shall never ascend a terrace beneath which you are: and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) moved to the upper:
and Abu Ayyub in the lower: and he would make food for the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): and when it was brought he asked the place of his fingers: and followed the places of the fingers of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): and he made him food with garlic in it: and when it was returned to him he asked the place of the fingers of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): and he was told: he did not eat: and he was alarmed and ascended to him: and said: is it forbidden?: and the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "no: but I dislike it": He said: then I dislike what you dislike, or what you disliked: and the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was visited: meaning the angel came to him: and Muslim reported it from Ahmad ibn Sa’id.
And it is established in the two Sahihs, from Anas ibn Malik: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was brought a wide bowl, and in a version, a pot: in which were greens of herbs: He said: so he asked: and he was informed of the herbs in it: and when he saw it he disliked eating it: He said: "eat: for I am given private address by whom you are not."
And al-Waqidi reported that As’ad ibn Zurara, when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) stayed in the house of Abu Ayyub, took the halter of the she-camel of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): and it remained with him. And it is reported from Zayd ibn Thabit that he said: the first gift offered to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) when he stayed at the house of Abu Ayyub, I brought it: a bowl in which was bread crumbled with milk and ghee: and I said: my mother sent this bowl: He said: "may Allah bless you": and he called his companions and they ate: then came the bowl of Sa’d ibn ’Ubada, crumbled bread and stringy meat: and there was not a night but at the door of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) were three or four carrying food, taking turns:
and his stay in the house of Abu Ayyub was seven months: and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) sent, while staying in the house of Abu Ayyub, his freedman Zayd ibn Haritha and Abu Rafi’: and with the two two camels and five hundred dirhams: that they bring Fatima and Umm Kulthum daughters of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): and Sawda bint Zam’a his wife: and Usama ibn Zayd: and Ruqayya had emigrated with her husband Uthman: and Zaynab was with her husband in Mecca, Abu l-’As ibn ar-Rabi’: and Umm Ayman, the wife of Zayd ibn Haritha, came with them: and Abdallah ibn Abi Bakr went out with the children of Abu Bakr: among them A’isha, the mother of the believers: and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) had not entered upon her.
And al-Bayhaqi said: Ali ibn Ahmad ibn Abdan informed us: Ahmad ibn Ubayd as-Saffar informed us: Khalaf ibn Amr al-’Ukbari told us: Sa’id ibn Mansur told us: ’Attaf ibn Khalid told us: Siddiq ibn Musa told us, from Abdallah ibn az-Zubayr: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) arrived at Medina: and his mount knelt between the house of Ja’far ibn Muhammad ibn Ali and the house of al-Hasan ibn Zayd: and the people came to him and said: O Messenger of Allah, the lodging: and his mount rose with him: He said: "leave her: for she is commanded": then it bore him until it came to the place of the minbar: and knelt: then he slipped through the people: and there was an arbor they sprinkled and maintained and cooled themselves in: and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) dismounted from his mount in it: and took to the shade: and Abu Ayyub came to him and said: O Messenger of Allah, my dwelling is the nearest of the dwellings to you: transfer your saddlebag to me: He said: "yes": and he carried his saddlebag to the lodging: then a man came to him and said: O Messenger of Allah, where do you settle?: He said: "the man is with his saddlebag wherever it is": and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) remained in the arbor twelve nights until he built the mosque: and this is a great virtue for Abu Ayyub Khalid ibn Zayd, whose house the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) stayed in.
And we were informed, through Yazid ibn Abi Habib, from Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Abdallah ibn Abbas: that when Abu Ayyub came to Basra, Ibn Abbas being governor over it on behalf of Ali ibn Abi Talib: Ibn Abbas went out from his house until he lodged him in it, as he had lodged the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) in his house: and ceded him all that its door enclosed: and when he intended departing Ibn Abbas gave him twenty thousand and forty slaves: and the house of Abu Ayyub passed after him to his freedman Aflah: and al-Mughira ibn Abd ar-Rahman ibn al-Harith ibn Hisham bought it from him for a thousand dinars: and repaired what had weakened of its building: and gifted it to a poor household of the people of Medina.
And likewise his staying in the house of Banu an-Najjar: and Allah’s choosing that for him: is a great virtue for them: and there were in Medina many houses, reaching nine: every house an independent quarter: by its dwellings, its palms, its crops, its people: every tribe of their tribes gathered in its quarter: and they were like adjoining villages: and Allah chose for the Messenger of Allah the house of Banu Malik ibn an-Najjar. And it is established in the two Sahihs, from the hadith of Shu’ba: I heard Qatada: from Anas ibn Malik, from Abu Usayd: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "the best of the houses of the Ansar: Banu an-Najjar: then Banu Abd al-Ashhal: then Banu al-Harith ibn al-Khazradj: then Banu Sa’ida: and in every house of the Ansar there is good": Sa’d ibn ’Ubada said:
it seems to me the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) has granted us preference: It was said: he preferred you over many: that is the wording of al-Bukhari: and thus al-Bukhari and Muslim reported it, from the hadith of Anas and Abu Salama, from Abu Usayd Malik ibn Rabi’a: and from the hadith of Abbas ibn Sahl, from Abu Humayd, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), in like manner: and he added in the hadith of Abu Humayd: Abu Usayd said to Sa’d ibn ’Ubada: do you not see the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) gave the Ansar choice and made us last: and Sa’d caught up with the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and said: O Messenger of Allah, you gave the houses of the Ansar choice and made us last: He said: "is it not sufficient for you that you be of the chosen?"
Rather there is established for all who accepted Islam of the people of Medina, and they are the Ansar: honor and elevation in the world and the hereafter: Allah the Most High said: "The foremost ones of the Emigrants and the Helpers, and those who followed them in excellence: Allah is pleased with them and they are pleased with Him. He prepared for them Gardens beneath which rivers flow, abiding therein forever. That is the mighty triumph!", the hundredth verse of at-Tawbah: and He said: "And those who settled the home and the faith before them: they love whoever emigrates to them: and find in their breasts no need of what they are given: and prefer them above themselves though poverty be theirs: and whoever is guarded against the avarice of his soul, those are the prosperous", the ninth verse of al-Hashr: and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "were it not for the Hijra I would be a man of the Ansar: and were the people to take a valley or a defile I would take the valley of the Ansar and their defile: the Ansar are the star: and the people the thickness of hair": and he said: "the Ansar are my liver and my belly": and he said: "I am peace to whoever makes peace with them: and war to whoever wars upon them."
And al-Bukhari said: Hajjaj ibn Minhhal told us: Shu’ba related: Adi ibn Thabit told me: I heard al-Bara’ ibn ’Azib say: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), or he said: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "the Ansar: none loves them but a believer: and none hates them but a hypocrite: whoever loves them Allah loves him: and whoever hates them Allah hates him": and the rest of the company reported it except Abu Dawud, from the hadith of Shu’ba. And al-Bukhari said likewise: Muslim ibn Ibrahim told us: Shu’ba related, from Abdallah ibn Abdallah ibn Jabr, from Anas ibn Malik, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "the sign of faith is love of the Ansar: and the sign of hypocrisy is hatred of the Ansar": and al-Bukhari reported it likewise from Abu l-Walid at-Tayalisi: and Muslim from Khalid ibn al-Harith, and Abd ar-Rahman ibn Mahdi: the four: from Shu’ba: in like manner: and the verses and hadiths on the virtues of the Ansar are very many: and how fine is what Abu Qays Sirmah ibn Abi Anas said, previously mentioned, one of the poets of the Ansar: upon the coming of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) to them: their aiding of him: and their consoling him and all his companions together.
Ibn Ishaq said: and Abu Qays Sirmah ibn Abi Anas said likewise, mentioning what Allah honored them with of Islam: and what He singled them out with of His Messenger (peace be upon him):
He dwelt in Quraysh some thirteen pilgrim seasons: remembering, were he to meet a pitying friend,
And he offered himself to the people of the seasons: and saw none to shelter him: nor a caller,
When he came to us Allah made manifest His religion: and he became rejoicing: with Tayba content,
He found a friend: and the resolves were reassured by him: and he had from Allah an evident aid,
He recites to us what Nuh said to his people: and what Musa said when he answered the caller,
He fears no one of men near now: nor of men far,
We spent for him wealth of our lawful riches: and our selves at the clash and the forsaking,
We war against whoever of all men takes enmity: altogether: though it be the beloved heir,
And we know that Allah, nothing besides Him: and that the Book of Allah has become a guide,
I say when I pray in every house: your tenderness: let not the enemies prevail over us,
I say when I cross a frightening land: blessed be the name of Allah: You the Protector,
Stride on turning away: the lances are many: and you leave for yourself no lasting one,
By Allah the youth knows not his striving: if he makes not for himself Allah a protector,
And the watered palms slight not their master: when they wake sated: and he remains unfed.
Ibn Ishaq and others mentioned it: and Abdallah ibn az-Zubayr al-Humaydi and others reported it, from Sufyan ibn ’Uyayna, from Yahya ibn Sa’id al-Ansari, from an old woman of the Ansar.