“Yes,” the man answered. Yet he feared that his people might let him down, so he returned to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and said, “I shall go to them, inform them, and then come back to you next year.” The Prophet replied, “Very well.” The man departed, and in the month of Rajab a delegation of the Ansar arrived.

This ḥadith has been transmitted by all four compilers of the Sunan through several chains from Israʾil, and al-Tirmidhi graded it “sound and authentic.”

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The delegations of the Ansar continued to come year after year until they pledged allegiance to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ again and again. Thereafter the Messenger of Allah ﷺ migrated to them in Madinah and settled among them, as will be explained in detail—if Allah wills; in Him we place our trust.

The Report of Suwayd ibn Ṣāmit al-Ansari

He is Suwayd ibn al-Ṣāmit ibn ʿAṭiyyah ibn Ḥawṭ ibn Ḥubayyib ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿAwf ibn Mālik ibn al-Aws. His mother was Laylā bint ʿAmr al-Najjāriyyah, sister of Salmā bint ʿAmr, the mother of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib ibn Hāshim; thus Suwayd was a maternal cousin of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, the grandfather of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.

Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ibn Yasar said: During this phase, whenever people gathered for the pilgrimage season, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ would approach them, calling the tribes to Allah and to Islam, offering himself and the guidance and mercy he had been sent with. He never heard of any Arab of renown arriving in Mecca without meeting him, inviting him to Allah the Exalted, and presenting his message.

Ibn Isḥāq added: ʿĀṣim ibn ʿUmar ibn Qatādah told me, on the authority of elders from his clan, that Suwayd ibn Ṣāmit of the Banū ʿAmr ibn ʿAwf came to Mecca as a pilgrim— or perhaps for ʿUmrah. His people called him “al-Kāmil,” the Perfect Man, because of his fortitude, eloquence, honour, and noble lineage. He is the one who said:

How many a man you call a friend, yet could you see
what he says in your absence, his cutting words would grieve you.