with their backs pressed against the city wall. One man then charged at the enemy, and the people cried out, “There is no god but Allah—he is casting himself into destruction!”

Abu Ayyub replied, “This verse was revealed about us, the Ansar. When Allah granted victory to His Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and made Islam triumphant, we said, ‘Come, let us stay behind with our wealth and set it in order.’ Thereupon Allah revealed: ‘And spend in the way of Allah, and do not cast yourselves with your own hands into destruction’ (Al-Baqarah 2:195).

So casting oneself into destruction would have been for us to remain preoccupied with our property and abandon jihad.” Abu ‘Imran added, “Abu Ayyub continued to strive in the path of Allah until he was buried in Constantinople.”

Al-Tirmidhi said, “This hadith is sound and singular.”⦗1⦘

The virtues of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari

93 – Abu Ayyub was among the foremost and most eminent of the early Ansar. It was in his house that the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—lodged when he migrated from Mecca to Medina, and the clan of Banu al-Najjar, his kinsfolk, were—according to the Prophet himself—the best of all the Ansar’s households. His grave is in Constantinople.⦗2⦘