Shuʿbah narrated: Abū Isḥāq informed us, saying, “I heard al-Barāʾ say, ‘The first of the Companions to reach us were Musʿab ibn ʿUmayr and Ibn Umm Maktūm, and they used to teach the Qur’an. After them came ʿAmmār, Bilāl, and Saʿd; then ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb arrived with twenty riders; and finally the Messenger of Allah ﷺ himself came. I have never seen the people of Madinah rejoice over anything the way they rejoiced for him. I saw the slave-girls and little boys running through the streets crying, “The Messenger of Allah has come!” Before he even entered the city I had already memorised, ‘Exalt the Name of your Lord, the Most High’ (87:1) and other short chapters like it from the Qur’an.’” Reported by al-Bukhārī.

Israʾīl also related, from Abū Isḥāq, from al-Barāʾ—concerning the incident of the saddle—that Abū Bakr said, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ continued on, and I was with him, until we reached Madinah at night. The people competed with one another as to whom he would stay with. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘Tonight I shall lodge with the Banū al-Najjār, the maternal uncles of the Banū ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, in order to honour them.’ As we entered the city, people lined the roads and stood on the rooftops, and the boys and servants were proclaiming, ‘The Messenger of Allah has come! The Messenger of Allah has come! Allah is Greatest—Muḥammad ﷺ has arrived!’ When morning came he set off and halted wherever he was commanded to halt.” Agreed upon.

Hāshim ibn al-Qāsim reported: Sulaimān—meaning Ibn al-Mughīrah—told us, from Thābit, from Anas, who said, “I used to run with the other boys when they shouted, ‘Muḥammad has come!’ I would run but see nothing; then they would shout again, ‘Muḥammad has come!’ and I would run once more. Eventually the Prophet ﷺ and his companion Abū Bakr did arrive, and we hid behind a wall of Madinah. They then sent a Bedouin man to inform the Anṣār. About five hundred men of the Anṣār came out to meet them, and when they reached them they said, ‘Proceed in safety; you are honoured and obeyed.’ The Messenger of Allah ﷺ and his companion moved forward in their midst. The people of Madinah poured out—so much so that even the young maidens stood on the rooftops looking on and saying, ‘Which one is he? Which one is he?’ He said: So…"