Muzaynah's Dates and the Boast of Banu Asad

Shaykh Yasir Qadhi explains:

Two shorter delegations, one ending in a miracle and the other in a rebuke from Allah.

❧The dates of Muzaynah

The tribe of Muzaynah came, the sources differ on when, fifth, sixth or seventh year; al-Wāqidī says the fifth, and it was the whole tribe, four hundred of them, come to embrace Islam. They studied with the Prophet ﷺ and then wished to return home.

He ﷺ said: yā ʿUmar, give them the provisions they need for the journey back. Food for four hundred men for some weeks. ʿUmar said: yā Rasūlallāh, I have one bag of dates at home; that will not take four hundred men to their land. And the Prophet ﷺ simply repeated it: yā ʿUmar, go and provide for them. So ʿUmar said, I will do it, and there is the whole lesson in those four words, that once he put his trust in Allah he stopped arguing.

He went home and found the room piled with dates to the ceiling; Ibn Isḥāq's expression is that it was like a crouching camel filling the room. He called the tribe, and all four hundred came and filled their sacks, that was how one travelled in those days, a sack of dates and a few other things, eating a handful a day. And the last man to leave said that he looked back and the pile stood exactly as it had before any of them had taken anything.

❧"They think they have done you a favour"

Not every delegation ended so well, even among those who did embrace Islam. Ten men of Banū Asad ibn Khuzaymah came into the masjid loudly and announced: O Messenger of Allah, we testify to the shahādah and we are Muslims, and we want you to know that we came to you without your sending anyone to us, and we accepted Islam without any of you having to fight us. We are not like the other Arabs. We travelled through the darkness and the cold to reach you. And they kept on in that vein.

Allah revealed concerning them: يَمُنُّونَ عَلَيْكَ أَنْ أَسْلَمُوا قُل لَّا تَمُنُّوا عَلَيَّ إِسْلَامَكُم بَلِ اللَّهُ يَمُنُّ عَلَيْكُمْ أَنْ هَدَاكُمْ لِلْإِيمَانِ إِن كُنتُمْ صَادِقِينَ, they consider it a favour to you that they have accepted Islam; say, do not count your Islam as a favour to me; rather Allah has done you a favour in guiding you to faith, if you are truthful.

They were Muslims, the faith was simply weak in their hearts, and the correction is that if you are truly Muslim, the gratitude runs the other way: be thankful that Allah chose you for this.