They were related, on the material side, to the Banu ‘Adiy Ibn al-Najjar who had given one
of their daughters, Salma bint ‘Amr, to Hashim in marriage. To Hashim she bore ‘Abdul
Muttalib, but Hashim, however, left the boy with his mother in Yathrib where he was
brought up and was taken to Makkah by his uncle after he had grown up into a youth. These
blood relationships, which were the adhesive elements in tribal organization, cannot be
ignored since kinship played an important role in the social life of the Arabs. On reaching
Madinahh, the Prophet (r) stayed with Abu Ayyub Ansari who belonged to Banu ‘Adiy Ibn
al-Najjar.
Aus and Khazraj traced back their roots from Qahtan while the Muslims hailing from Mak-
kah or other places close to it claimed their descent from ‘Adnan. Thus, after the Prophet
(r) migrated to Madinah and the Ansaar pledged their support to him, both the ‘Adnan and
Qahtan had been at odds with one another during the pre-Islamic times but they were
banded together in Madinah and thus the pagan passions of blood and clan, of vanity and
pride and of contemptuous self-conceit were abolished by the wholesome influence of
Islam.
For all these causes and considerations as well as for its strategic location, Madinah was
the fittest place to be selected for the emigration of the Prophet (r) and his companions as
it was eminently suited to be made the radiating center of Islam until it gained enough
strength to prevail over the Peninsula and charged the whole country with a new spirit of
virtue and godliness.
EXPANSION OF ISLAM IN MADINAH
The teachings of Islam were so appealing that the people of the Aus and the Khazraj, awa-
kened to interest, quickly attested their faith in it. S’ad Ibn Mu’adh was the first to embrace,
then Usayd Ibn Hudayr, the leader of Bani ‘Abdul Ash’hal, a clan of Aus followed suit. The
wise and courteous stance of Mus’ab Ibn Umary, together with the proper manner in which
he presented Islam to them, convinced these people of the truth that is Islam. Then the
remaining clansmen of Bani ‘Abdul Ash’al were led to accept the faith such that shortly
thereafter, there was not a house of the Ansaar in which a man or a woman had not given
his or her faith to Islam. (Ibn Hisham, Vol. I, pp. 436-38)
THE SECOND PLEDGE OF ‘AQABA
In the next year, during Hajj, Mus’ab Ibn Umayr (t) went back to Makkah with a number
of Ansaar Muslims and other polytheists of Madinah. After the Ansaar had performed their
pilgrimage, the Prophet (r) met them at the previous year’s meeting place late in the mid-
dle of the night. At this time, there were seventy-three of them, including two women. The
Prophet of God (r) came accompanied by his Uncle, ‘Abbas Ibn ‘Abdul Muttalib, who had
still not embraced Islam.