His companions said, “Messenger of God, you have given ʿUyaynā and al-Aqraʿ one hundred each, yet you left Juʿayl ibn Surāqah al-Ḍamrī!” The Messenger of God ﷺ replied:
“By Him in whose hand is Muhammad’s soul, Juʿayl is worth more than the whole earth filled with men like ʿUyaynā and al-Aqraʿ. I gave to those two only to win their hearts so that they might embrace Islam, whereas I have entrusted Juʿayl ibn Surāqah to the faith that is already in him.”
Ibn Isḥāq (1) then listed others to whom the Messenger of God ﷺ gave less than one hundred—too many to enumerate here.
In the sound report (2) Safwān ibn Umayyah said: “The Messenger of God ﷺ kept giving me from the spoils of Ḥunayn while he was at that time the most detested of people to me, until he became the most beloved of all people to me.”
The Arrival of Mālik ibn ʿAwf al-Naṣrī before the Messenger ﷺ
Ibn Isḥāq (3) related: The Messenger of God ﷺ asked the delegation of Hawāzin about Mālik ibn ʿAwf, “What has become of him?” They replied, “He is at al-Ṭāʾif with Thaqīf.” He ﷺ said:
“Tell him that if he comes to me as a Muslim I will return to him his family and property and give him one hundred camels.”
When this reached Mālik, he slipped away from Thaqīf and came to the Messenger of God ﷺ at al-Jiʿrānah—or in Mecca—where he embraced Islam, and his Islam was sound. The Prophet returned to him his family and property and granted him one hundred camels. Mālik ibn ʿAwf then said:
Never have I seen, nor ever heard of one
Among all people equal to Muhammad;
Most loyal, most generous with ample gifts when asked,
And should you wish, he tells you what tomorrow brings.
When serried ranks lay bare their fangs of spear and flashing blade,
He is a lion guarding tender cubs, poised amid the swirling dust.
He went on: The Messenger of God ﷺ appointed him over those of his people who had accepted Islam—namely the tribes of Thumalah, Salimah, and Fahm. With them he fought Thaqīf; no herd of theirs would emerge but that he raided it, until he pressed them hard.
Al-Bukhārī (4) said: Mūsā ibn Ismāʿīl narrated to us; Jarīr ibn Ḥāzim narrated to us; al-Ḥasan narrated to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn