The Brotherhood

The Muhajirun, the emigrants, had arrived in Madinah with almost nothing, having left homes, wealth and trades behind in Makkah. So the Prophet ﷺ did something no city had seen: he established a formal bond of brotherhood, mu'akhah, pairing each emigrant with a believer of the Ansar, the helpers of Madinah, making them brothers who would share, support, and at first even inherit from one another.

The generosity it unlocked has never been equalled. Sa'd ibn ar-Rabi (ra) of the Ansar said to his new brother Abdur-Rahman ibn Awf (ra): my brother, I am the wealthiest of the Ansar; take half my property. I have two wives; look at which pleases you and I will divorce her so you may marry her. Abdur-Rahman's (ra) reply was as noble as the offer: may Allah bless you in your family and wealth; only show me the way to the market. He went and traded, and rose by his own effort to be one of the richest of the Companions, who would later give vast charity for the sake of Allah.

The Ansar competed to host, to feed, to give. When later spoils came, the Prophet ﷺ proposed dividing them among the emigrants alone if the Ansar agreed, and they agreed gladly. The Qur'an immortalised them: those who had settled in the home and in faith before them love those who emigrate to them, and find in their hearts no need for what the emigrants were given, and prefer others over themselves even though they are in need.

It was social engineering of the highest order, but built on love, not law. In one stroke the Prophet ﷺ dissolved the rivalry between two cities' peoples, gave the destitute a family, and bound a community together so tightly that the Qur'an would forever hold up the Ansar as the standard of selflessness: whoever is protected from the greed of his own soul, those are the successful.