The second part has been completed, praise be to Allah. It will be followed, if Allah wills, by the third part.*
3459—“Shall I not tell you of the best clans of the Ansar—or, of the best of the Ansar?” They said, “Certainly, Messenger of Allah!” He said: “The Banū al-Najjār; then those next to them, the Banū ʿAbd al-Ashhal; then those next to them, the Banū al-Ḥārith ibn al-Khazraj; then those next to them, the Banū Sāʿidah.” Then he gestured with his hands, clasping his fingers and then opening them, like one shooting with his hand, and said: “There is goodness in all the clans of the Ansar.”
It has been narrated in the hadiths of Anas, Abū Usayd al-Sāʿidī, Abū Ḥumayd al-Sāʿidī, and Abū Hurayrah:
First: the hadith of Anas, which has two routes from him:
- Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd:
Muslim (7/175), al-Tirmidhī (3910), al-Nasāʾī in al-Kubrā (8336, 8337 (1), and 8345), al-Ḥumaydī (1197), Aḥmad (3/202), Abū Yaʿlā (3650 and 3855), and Abū Nuʿaym in al-Ḥilyah (6/354) narrated it through various chains from him, with this wording.
- Ḥumayd al-Ṭawīl:
Al-Nasāʾī narrated it in al-Kubrā (8338), as did Aḥmad (3/105), Ibn Ḥibbān (7284 and 7285), and al-Baghawī in Sharḥ al-Sunnah (3979).
Second: the hadith of Abū Usayd, which a group narrated from him:
- Anas ibn Mālik:
Al-Bukhārī (3789 and 3807), Muslim (7/174), al-Ṭayālisī (1355), Aḥmad (3/496), al-Tirmidhī (3911), al-Nasāʾī in al-Kubrā (8339), al-Ṭabarānī (19/579), and al-Bayhaqī (6/371) narrated it through various chains from Shuʿbah, from Qatādah, from him, with this wording.