The Prophet's address to the Ansar at al-Ji'rana

When the Prophet divided the spoils of Hunayn at al-Ji'rana and gave the chiefs of Quraysh and the tribal leaders lavish gifts to reconcile their hearts, while nothing of it reached the Ansar, the Ansar felt the hurt until one of them said: the Messenger of God has met his own people ¹. Sa'd ibn Ubada gathered them in an enclosure, and the Prophet addressed them until they wept and wet their beards, saying: we are content with the Messenger of God as our portion and share ².

Ibn Ishaq relates from Abu Sa'id al-Khudri that when the Ansar saw the great gifts going to Quraysh and the Arab tribes while nothing of them came to the Ansar, murmuring spread among them. Sa'd ibn Ubada went in to the Prophet and told him of their hurt, and he asked: "and where do you stand in this, Sa'd?" He said: Messenger of God, I am only of my people. So he ordered him to gather them in an enclosure ¹.

The Prophet came to them, praised and extolled God, then said: "O assembly of the Ansar, a saying has reached me about you — a hurt you have felt against me in yourselves. Did I not find you astray, and God guided you? Poor, and God enriched you? Enemies, and God united your hearts?" They said: yes — God and His Messenger are most gracious and most excellent ².

Then he said: "By God, had you wished you could have said — and you would have been truthful and believed: you came to us denied, and we believed you; forsaken, and we helped you; driven out, and we sheltered you; poor, and we comforted you. Did you feel it in yourselves, O Ansar, over a trifle of this world by which I reconciled a people so they would become Muslim, while I entrusted you to your Islam? Are you not content that the people go off with sheep and camels while you return to your homes with the Messenger of God? By Him in whose hand is Muhammad's soul, were it not for the Hijra I would have been a man of the Ansar; and if the people took one mountain pass and the Ansar another, I would take the pass of the Ansar. O God, have mercy on the Ansar, the sons of the Ansar and the sons of the sons of the Ansar" ³.

The people wept until their beards were wet, and said: we are content with the Messenger of God as our portion and share. Then the Prophet departed and they dispersed ².