Persaudaraan antara Muhajirin dan Anshar

Among the first acts of the Prophet ﷺ in Medina — alongside building the mosque and before the Constitution — was the mu'akhat: the formal brotherhood pairing each Muhajir (migrant from Mecca) with an Ansari (helper of Medina). The pairings were made at the house of Anas ibn Malik, with approximately forty-five to ninety pairs (sources vary). The Prophet ﷺ also paired himself with Ali ibn Abi Talib. The brotherhood was designed as a replacement family structure: the Muhajirun had left their homes, property, income, and social networks in Mecca; the Ansar provided material support, social integration, and in early practice even inheritance rights. The generosity the Ansar offered was extraordinary by any standard. Sa'd ibn al-Rabi' al-Ansari, paired with Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf, offered to divide his property in half and to divorce one of his wives so Abd al-Rahman could marry her after the waiting period. Abd al-Rahman declined: 'Show me where the market is.' He went to the market, traded, made a profit on his first day, and built a new fortune through his own ability within a year. Not every Muhajir had Abd al-Rahman's gifts — many accepted Ansari support during the transition period, sharing meals, homes, and date harvests. The Quran elevated the brotherhood's spirit to one of the highest moral categories in Islamic ethics. Surah al-Hashr (59:9) describes the Ansar as those who 'find in their hearts no need for what the emigrants were given, but give preference over themselves even though they are in poverty' — the quality of ithar, selfless preference for others, which became a defining characteristic of the Ansari generation. The Prophet ﷺ said: 'Love of the Ansar is a sign of faith, and hatred of the Ansar is a sign of hypocrisy.' He said: 'If all people went one way and the Ansar went another, I would go with the Ansar.' These words were not political — they expressed a personal love for a community that had made everything possible. The brotherhood's model — of welcoming the stranger with unconditional generosity, of giving preference to others over oneself even in poverty — became a permanent ethical ideal in Islamic tradition, enshrined by the Quran and embodied by the generation that first lived it.