the believers when He sent among them a Messenger from among themselves.”

This favour extends to all believers, Arab and non-Arab, earlier and later generations alike. The Messenger is one of them because he is a human being and a believer. He belongs more specifically to the Arabs, being an Arab who came speaking their language, and more specifically still to Quraysh.

This particular connection establishes the proof against them, but confers no superiority except through faith and piety, for Allah says:

“Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you.”

Thus, the Ansār were superior to those of Quraysh who were granted their freedom, although the Ansār belonged neither to Rabīʿah nor to Mudar, but to Qahtān. Most hold that they were descendants of Hūd, not descendants of Abraham. It has also been said that they were descendants of Ishmael, based on the hadith concerning Aslam, when he said:

“Shoot, for your forefather was an archer.”

Aslam belongs to Khuzāʿah, and Khuzāʿah descends from Abraham. There is further discussion of this, but this is not the place for it. The point is that the Ansār were more distantly related to the Messenger than any of Rabīʿah and Mudar, numerous as these tribes were. Nevertheless, they were superior to the majority of Quraysh, except for the first and foremost among the Emigrants, who included both Qurashīs and non-Qurashīs. The forerunners numbered fourteen hundred in all, excluding those who emigrated to Abyssinia.