The covenant with the Jews and the brotherhood of the emigrants and the Ansar

There lived in Medina the Jewish tribes of the Banu Qaynouqa, the Banu an-Nadir and the Banu Qurayza. Their settlement in the Hijaz went back to the time of Bakht Nassar, when he ravaged the land of Bayt al-Maqdis, as at-Tabari relates. Then, at the bursting of the great dam of Ma’rib, when Saba scattered, the Aws and the Khazraj came to Medina and settled among the Jews, made pacts with them and began to imitate them, because of the knowledge they saw in them, inherited from the prophets. But Allah granted His favour to these associating Arabs by guiding them to Islam, and deprived the Jews of guidance, in recompense for their envy, their injustice and their pride before following the truth.

Imam Ahmad, the Boukhari, Mouslim and Abou Dawoud report, through multiple routes, from Anas ibn Malik: the Messenger of Allah made a covenant between the emigrants and the Ansar in my house. Ahmad further reports, through Amr ibn Chou’ayb, from his father, from his grandfather, that the Prophet wrote a document between the emigrants and the Ansar: that they maintain their fortifications, and that they ransom their captives with kindness and equity among the Muslims. In the Sahih of Mouslim, Jabir reports: the Messenger of Allah wrote for every clan what it was bound to pay for release.

Mohamed ibn Ishaq reports that the Messenger of Allah wrote a document between the emigrants and the Ansar, in which he summoned the Jews, made covenant with them, and confirmed them in their religion and their property, imposing terms upon them and for them. The content he relates runs thus: "In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate. This is a document from Mohamed the Prophet, between the believers and Muslims of Quraysh and Yathrib, and those who followed them, joined them and strove with them. They are one community, exclusive of other people.

The emigrants of Quraysh keep their tribal standing: they pay blood-money among themselves and ransom their captives with kindness and justice among the believers. Each clan of the Banu Awf keeps its former standing: and likewise every clan and every household of the Ansar: the Banu Sa’ida, the Banu Jucham, the Banu an-Najjar, the Banu Amr ibn Awf, the Banu an-Nabit. The believers do not forsake any indebted man of theirs: they pay for him ransom and blood-money with kindness; and no believer makes alliance to the exclusion of another believer. The God-fearing believers stand against whoever of them commits aggression, or seeks the aid of injustice, sin, enmity or corruption among the believers:

their hands are all against him, even were he the son of one of them. A believer does not kill a believer for an unbeliever, nor aid an unbeliever against a believer. The protection of Allah is one: the nearest of them grants asylum in His name. The believers are allies one of another, to the exclusion of others.

Whoever of the Jews follows us has help and equality: they shall not be wronged, nor shall aid be given against them. The peace of the believers is one: no believer makes peace to the exclusion of another believer in fighting in the path of Allah, save upon equity and justice between them. Every expedition that goes out with us takes turns with the next. The believers ransom one another’s blood shed in the path of Allah.

The God-fearing believers are upon the best and most upright guidance. No polytheist of Quraysh may grant asylum to property or person of Quraysh, nor come between it and a believer. Whoever kills a believer without proof shall be delivered to retaliation, unless the heir of the slain is content: the believers are all against him, and nothing is lawful for them against him but standing over him. It is not for a believer who acknowledges what is in this document and believes in Allah and the Last Day to aid an innovator or shelter him:

whoever aids him or shelters him incurs the curse of Allah and His wrath on the Day of Resurrection, and from him shall be taken neither substitution nor just equivalent. Whatever you dispute of any matter, its reference is to Allah and to Mohamed. The Jews bear expenses alongside the believers so long as they fight together. The Jews of the Banu Awf are one community with the believers: to the Jews their religion, to the Muslims theirs; their clients and themselves, except whoever does wrong or sins: he harms none but his own soul and his household.

The same for the Jews of the Banu an-Najjar, the Banu al-Harith, the Banu Sa’ida, the Banu Jucham, the Banu al-Aws, the Banu Tha’laba, the Jafna and the Banu ach-Choutayba: the like of what the Jews of the Banu Awf have. The clients of the Jews are as themselves. None of them goes out without the permission of Mohamed. None is held back from avenging a wound: whoever strikes strikes his own soul and his household, except him who is wronged.

Allah is guarantor of the most sincere of this document. Upon the Jews their expenses, and upon the Muslims theirs: between them is help against whoever wars upon the people of this document. Between them are mutual counsel and good counsel, and virtue apart from sin:

no man is held sinful by reason of his ally. Help belongs to the wronged. Yathrib is sacred, its inner precinct inviolable for the people of this document. The neighbour is as oneself: he neither harms nor sins.

No protected woman is given asylum without the permission of her family. Whatever incident or quarrel arises among the people of this document, from which corruption is feared, its reference is to Allah and to Mohamed, the Messenger of Allah. Allah is guarantor of the most devout and most sincere of this document. Quraysh is given no asylum, nor its allies.

Between them is help against whoever raids Yathrib. When they are called to a peace treaty, they accept it and are bound by it: and when they are so called, it is due to them from the believers, except whoever fights in religion: to every people their share of the side facing them. This document does not prevent action against an oppressor or a sinner. He who goes out is safe, and he who stays in Medina is safe, except the wrongdoer and the sinner: Allah is guarantor of whoever is virtuous and God-fearing."

Such is the version of Ibn Ishaq, which Abou Oubayd al-Qasim ibn Salam treated at length in his book al-Gharib.

Then, in application of the words of the Most High: those who settled the home and the faith before them love whoever emigrates to them (al-Hachr, 9), and: give to those with whom your oaths are bound their due (an-Nisa, 33), the Prophet established brotherhood between the emigrants and the Ansar. The Boukhari reports, from Ibn Abbas: when the emigrants came to Medina, an emigrant inherited from an Ansari to the exclusion of his blood kindred, because of the brotherhood the Prophet had established between them. Then, when there came down: to each We have appointed heirs, that ruling was abrogated, and the words: give to those with whom your oaths are bound their due, came down concerning aid, hospitality and sincere counsel, inheritance having been abolished. Ahmad reports, through Asim, from Anas: the Prophet established brotherhood between the emigrants and the Ansar in our house.

Ibn Ishaq reports that the Messenger of Allah established brotherhood among his companions, emigrants and Ansar, saying, as it has reached us: "Brother one another in Allah, two by two." Then he took the hand of Ali ibn Abi Talib and said: "This is my brother." Now the Messenger of Allah is the master of the messengers, the imam of the God-fearing, the messenger of the Lord of the worlds, without equal or peer among servants: he cannot have a covenant brother. It is also related that Hamza ibn Abd al-Muttalib, lion of Allah and lion of His messenger, paternal uncle of the Messenger of Allah, was paired with Zayd ibn Haritha, freedman of the Messenger of Allah: and it is to Zayd that Hamza bequeathed on the day of Ouhoud. And Ja’far ibn Abi Talib, the man of the two wings, was paired with Mou’adh ibn Jabal. Ibn Hicham notes that Ja’far was at that time absent in the land of Abyssinia.

Abou Bakr was paired with Kharija ibn Zayd al-Khazraji; Oumar ibn al-Khattab with Otban ibn Malik; Abou Oubayda with Sa’d ibn Mou’adh; Abd ar-Rahman ibn Awf with Sa’d ibn ar-Rabi’; az-Zoubayr ibn al-Awwam with Salama ibn Salama ibn Waqch, or rather az-Zoubayr with Abdallah ibn Mas’oud; Outhman ibn Affan with Aws ibn Thabit ibn al-Moundir an-Najjari; Talha ibn Ubaydallah with Ka’b ibn Malik; Sa’id ibn Zayd with Ubayy ibn Ka’b; Mouss’ab ibn Oumayr with Abou Ayyoub; Abou Houdayfa ibn Outba with Abbad ibn Bichr; Ammar with Houdayfa ibn al-Yaman, the ally of the Abd al-Achhal, or rather Ammar with Thabit ibn Qays ibn Chammas, which is sounder from two angles. Abou Dharr, Bourayr ibn Jounada, was paired with al-Moundir ibn Amr al-Mu’niqi called Limate; Hatib ibn Abi Balta’a with Ouwaym ibn Sa’ida; Salman with Abou ad-Darda; and Bilal with Abou Rouwayha, Abdallah ibn Abd ar-Rahman al-Kath’ami.

We say: some of these names call for reserve. The brotherhood of the Prophet with Ali is denied and its validity rejected by some of the scholars: brotherhood was legislatively instituted for mutual aid and the joining of hearts, and the Prophet had no need of the aid of any of them, nor an emigrant of another emigrant, as in the pairing of Hamza with Zayd ibn Haritha, unless the Prophet entrusted the upkeep of Ali to someone else: for he had supported Ali since childhood, in the lifetime of his father Abou Talib, as reported from Moujahid. Similarly it would be that Hamza bound himself to the upkeep of their freedman Zayd ibn Haritha, and paired with him on that account. As for the pairing of Ja’far with Mou’adh ibn Jabal, it calls for reserve, as Abd al-Malik ibn Hicham noted: Ja’far only returned at the conquest of Khaybar, at the beginning of the year seven: how could the Prophet pair him with Mou’adh at his arrival in Medina, unless one says the brotherhood was prearranged against his return.

As for the pairing of Abou Oubayda with Sa’d ibn Mou’adh, it contradicts what Imam Ahmad reports, and Mouslim likewise, alone in it, through Abd as-Samad, from Hammad, from Thabit, from Anas: the Messenger of Allah paired Abou Oubayda ibn al-Jarrah with Abou Talha. That version is sounder than what Ibn Ishaq mentions of the pairing of Abou Oubayda with Sa’d ibn Mou’adh. And Allah is most knowing.

The Boukhari reports, in the chapter on how the Prophet paired his companions, the words of Abd ar-Rahman ibn Awf: the Prophet paired me with Sa’d ibn ar-Rabi’ when we came to Medina. And the words of Abou Jouhayfa: the Prophet paired Salman the Persian with Abou ad-Darda. Ahmad reports through Houmayd, from Anas: Abd ar-Rahman ibn Awf arrived, and the Prophet paired him with Sa’d ibn ar-Rabi’ al-Ansari. Sa’d said to him: I am the wealthiest of the people of Medina in property: look at the half of my wealth and take it; and I have two wives: look at which of them pleases you more, and I shall divorce her for you. Abd ar-Rahman said: may Allah bless your family and your wealth for you, show me the market. He went there, bought and sold, and made profit. After some days he came back with a little cheese and butter, and the Prophet, seeing upon him a trace of yellow, said:

"What is this, O Abd ar-Rahman?" He said: O Messenger of Allah, I have married a woman of the Ansar. He said: "What dower did you give her?" He said: the weight of a date stone in gold. He said: "Hold the wedding feast, even with a sheep." The Boukhari alone reports this hadith in this manner. He reports it also in other places, and Mouslim reports it through routes from Houmayd. The Boukhari’s connecting of it directly to Abd ar-Rahman ibn Awf is strange: the hadith is only known connectedly from Anas, unless Anas received it from him directly. Ahmad reports, through Thabit and Houmayd, from Anas, a version in which Sa’d said: O my brother, I am the wealthiest of the people of Medina: look at the half of my wealth and take it. And Abd ar-Rahman said: truly, by Allah, were I to lift a stone, I would hope to find gold and silver beneath it.

Ahmad reports, through Houmayd, from Anas, a chain meeting the condition of the two Sahihs: the emigrants said: O Messenger of Allah, we have never seen a people who, when we came to them, relieved us so well in little, nor were so generous in much: they have spared us all toil and shared with us every comfort, until we fear they will take the whole reward. He said: "No, so long as you praise them and pray to Allah for them." None of the compilers of the Six Books reported it in this form, but it is established in the Sahih through another route. The Boukhari reports, from Abou Hourayra: the Ansar said to the Prophet: share the palm trees between us and our brothers.

He said: "No." They said: we shall bear the costs, and you share the fruit with them. He said: "They heard and obeyed." Abd ar-Rahman ibn Zayd ibn Aslam reports that the Messenger of Allah said to the Ansar: "Your brothers have left their properties and their children and come out to you."

They said: our property is shared between us and them. He said: "Is there nothing beyond that?" They said: what is that, O Messenger of Allah? He said: "They are a people who do not know work: you will bear their costs and share the fruit with them."

They said: yes. We have already related the hadiths and traditions on the merits of the Ansar and their fine qualities, concerning the words of the Most High: those who settled the home and the faith before them.