Ghatafan's Bribe, and the Two Sa'ds' Refusal

Shaykh Yasir Qadhi explains:

Before the Confederate tribes arrived, Ghaṭafān, the second-largest force after Quraysh, having been promised half the produce of Khaybar by the Jewish tribes exiled there in exchange for joining the campaign, sent an emissary to Madinah with a separate proposal: in exchange for one-third of Madinah's date harvest, they would withdraw from the coalition entirely and simply stay home.

True to his custom of consulting the Companions (shūrā), the Prophet ﷺ brought the matter to Saʿd ibn Muʿādh and Saʿd ibn ʿUbādah, the young leaders of the Aws and Khazraj respectively, rather than deciding alone; some sources suggest he was himself initially inclined to accept the arrangement, which involved nothing religiously impermissible in principle. Saʿd ibn Muʿādh asked first whether this was something Allah had directly commanded or simply the Prophet's ﷺ own judgment (ijtihād); told it was the latter, both Saʿds refused on behalf of their tribes, declaring that the Aws and Khazraj had never once submitted to humiliation or tribute even in the days of Jāhiliyyah, and would not begin doing so now under Islam. Dr. Qadhi notes this episode as illustrating one of the underlying wisdoms behind Allah's choice of the Aws and Khazraj as the Anṣār: a people who, unlike most of Arabia, had never been conquered or subjugated by another tribe, and whose fierce independence held firm even under the pressure of a forty-day siege. The Prophet ﷺ, satisfied with their answer, sent the Ghaṭafān emissary back with word that the Muslims had no need of the arrangement.