on what is in people’s hearts is impracticable. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Allah indeed supports this religion through a wicked man and through people who have no share in the Hereafter.”

He also said:

“I give to some men and leave others without giving, although those I leave are dearer to me than those I give to. I give to some men because of the anxiety and distress in their hearts, while leaving others to the contentment and goodness in their hearts.”

He also said:

“I give one of them a gift, and he goes away carrying it under his arm as fire.” They asked, “O Messenger of Allah, why, then, do you give to them?” He replied, “They insist on asking me, and Allah does not allow me to be miserly.”

In the year of Hunayn, he distributed the spoils of Hunayn among those whose hearts were to be won over from the people of Najd and the freed men of Quraysh: ‘Uyaynah ibn Hisn, al-‘Abbās ibn Mirdās, al-Aqra‘ ibn Hābis and others like them; and Suhayl ibn ‘Amr, Safwān ibn Umayyah, ‘Ikrimah ibn Abī Jahl, Abū Sufyān ibn Harb, his son Mu‘āwiyah, and others like them whom he had set free in the year of the conquest. He gave nothing to the Emigrants and the Helpers.

He gave to these men to win their hearts over to Islam, and winning them over served the Muslims’ common interests. Those to whom he gave nothing were better in his estimation: they were foremost among Allah’s God-fearing friends and the best of Allah’s righteous servants after the prophets and messengers. Among those to whom he gave were some who apostatized from Islam before his death, and most of them were wealthy, not poor.

Had giving on grounds of need taken precedence over giving for the common good, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, would not have given to these wealthy chiefs, whose clans obeyed them, while withholding grants from those with him among