“Were it not for the Emigration, I would have been a man of the Ansār; and if people were to take a valley or a mountain pass, I would take the valley and mountain pass of the Ansār. The Ansār are the inner garment, while mankind are the outer cloak. (1)

He also said:

“The Ansār are my very core and the keepers of my secrets.” (2)

And he said:

“I am at peace with those who are at peace with them, and at war with those who fight them.” (3)

Al-Bukhārī relates (4): Ḥajjāj ibn Minhāl narrated to us; Shuʿbah narrated to us; ʿAdī ibn Thābit said: I heard al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib say: I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ—or he said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said—

“The Ansār are loved only by a believer, and hated only by a hypocrite. Whoever loves them, Allah loves him, and whoever hates them, Allah hates him.”

The rest of the compilers, except Abū Dāwūd, also transmitted it on the authority of Shuʿbah. (5)

Al-Bukhārī likewise reports (6): Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm narrated to us; Shuʿbah narrated from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jabr (7), from Anas ibn Mālik, that the Prophet ﷺ said:

“The mark of faith is love for the Ansār, and the mark of hypocrisy is hatred for the Ansār.”

Al-Bukhārī also recorded it through Abū al-Walīd al-Ṭiyālisī (8), and Muslim (9), via Khālid ibn al-Ḥārith and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī—the four of them transmitting from Shuʿbah.

The verses and ḥadīths extolling the virtues of the Ansār are exceedingly numerous. How excellent are the lines of Abū Qays Ṣirmah ibn Abī Anas—mentioned earlier—one of the poets of the Ansār, concerning the arrival of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, their support of him, and their generosity toward him and his Companions, may Allah be pleased with them all.