He said:
The Messenger of God ﷺ then asked, “Are your women and children dearer to you, or your wealth?”
They replied, “Messenger of God, you have placed us between our lineage and our property; our children and our women are certainly dearer to us.”
The Messenger of God ﷺ said, “Whatever belongs to me and to the Banū ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib is yours. When I have led the people in prayer, rise and say: ‘We seek the intercession of the Messenger of God ﷺ with the Muslims, and the intercession of the Muslims with the Messenger of God ﷺ, concerning our children and our women.’ I shall then give them to you and plead for you.”

When the Messenger of God ﷺ had performed the noon prayer with the people, they rose and said exactly what he had instructed. He thereupon declared, “What belongs to me and to the Banū ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib is yours.”

The Emigrants said, “Whatever belongs to us is for the Messenger of God ﷺ.”
The Helpers said, “Whatever belongs to us is for the Messenger of God ﷺ.”
But al-Aqraʿ ibn Ḥābis said, “As for me and the Banū Tamīm—no.”
ʿUyainah said, “As for me and the Banū Fazārah—no.”
And al-ʿAbbās ibn Mirdās al-Sulamī said, “As for me and the Banū Sulaym—no.”
The Banū Sulaym responded, “Rather, whatever belongs to us is for the Messenger of God ﷺ.”
Al-ʿAbbās ibn Mirdās then said to them, “You have disgraced me!”

The Messenger of God ﷺ said, “Whoever keeps hold of his right shall receive, for every captive, six shares from the first booty that God grants us.” So they returned the women and children to their people.

The Messenger of God ﷺ mounted, and the people followed him, saying, “Messenger of God, distribute to us our booty!” They pressed him until they drove him beneath a tree and snatched off his cloak. He said, “People, give me back my cloak! By Him in whose hand is my soul, if you had with me livestock equal in number to the trees of Tihāmah, I would distribute it among you; and you would never find me miserly, cowardly, or untruthful.”

He then stood beside a camel, plucked a single fiber from its hump, held it between his fingers, and raised it, saying, “People, by God, I have no share of your fayʾ—not even this fiber—save the fifth, and that fifth is returned to you. So hand over even the needle and the thread, for embezzlement is a disgrace and a shame upon its perpetrator on the Day of Resurrection.”

A man of the Helpers brought a ball of camel-hair yarn and said, “Messenger of God, I took this so I could sew a saddle-pad for my camel; its back is sore.” The Messenger of God ﷺ replied, “My portion of it is yours.” The man said, “If it has come to this, I have no need of it,” and he threw it away.

This account indicates that he ﷺ returned their captives to them before any division of the spoils, as Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ibn Yasār held, contrary to Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah and others.

Al-Bukhārī relates in his Ṣaḥīḥ, through the chain of al-Layth—ʿUqayl—al-Zuhrī—ʿUrwah—from al-Miswar ibn Makhramah and Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam, that when the delegation of Hawāzin came to the Messenger of God ﷺ as Muslims and asked him to restore to them their wealth and their women, he said: “With me are those you see, and the speech I love most is the truest. Choose one of the two groups: either the captives or the property. I had waited for you.”

The Messenger of God ﷺ had delayed for them more than ten nights after returning from al-Ṭāʾif. When they realized that he would return only one of the two, they said, “We choose our captives.” So the Messenger of God ﷺ stood before the Muslims, praised God as He deserves, and said, “To proceed: These brothers of yours have come to us repentant, and I have resolved to restore to them their captives. Whoever among you wishes…"