The 365 · Sunnah · Day 209 · Social
The Sunnah of Honoring the Stranger and New Believer
The hadith
إِنَّ الْإِسْلَامَ بَدَأَ غَرِيبًا، وَسَيَعُودُ غَرِيبًا كَمَا بَدَأَ، فَطُوبَى لِلْغُرَبَاءِ
The Prophet ﷺ said: 'Islam began as a stranger and will return to being a stranger as it began; so glad tidings to the strangers (ṭūbā li-l-ghurabāʾ)' (Muslim 145). And to the Muhājirūn arriving in Madinah: he ﷺ paired them with the Anṣār in muʾākhāh, brotherhood, so no stranger walked alone. The new Muslim, the traveler, the relocated, the alone-in-the-masjid: each is a gharīb the dīn obligates us to honor.
Svenska: Profeten ﷺ: 'Islam började som en främling och ska återvända som en främling; goda nyheter till främlingarna.' (Muslim 145)
Muslim 145, Bukhari (Muakhāh narrations)
The story
When the Muhājirūn arrived in Madinah, the Prophet ﷺ paired them, one by one, with an Anṣārī. The Anṣār offered half of everything: half of their wealth, half of their homes. The brotherhood was so deep that the Muhājir and his Anṣārī counterpart would INHERIT from each other in the early period of Madinah (later changed by Quranic revelation back to blood inheritance). ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf, paired with Saʿd ibn al-Rabīʿ, was the example: he refused the wealth and asked for the market. Within years, he became one of the wealthiest in Madinah, and his entry into the city had begun with a single Anṣārī's open door.
Why it's here
Because the Prophet ﷺ identified strangers as a category Allah favors. 'Glad tidings to the strangers.' Not just the geographic stranger, but the gharīb in faith: the new Muslim navigating a new identity, the traveler away from family, the convert disowned by relatives, the believer in a community where they are the only one. Allah's mercy is described as descending especially on these. And the Prophet ﷺ modeled the welcome perfectly: the muʾākhāh at Madinah, where every Muhājir was paired with an Anṣārī who opened his home, his wealth, his family. No stranger walked alone in the early Muslim community. We who inherited this model must continue it.
Try it today
1) Identify one new face at your masjid or in your community this week; introduce yourself, exchange contacts, invite them for a meal; 2) Make a deliberate practice of welcoming new converts; their first Ramadan, their first Eid, their first major occasion is when they need community most; 3) Reach out to a Muslim who relocated to your city in the last year; check in; 4) If you are an Anṣārī in your city (long-rooted), be the host; if you are a Muhājir (newer), build the bond from your side; 5) Make duʿā for the ghurabāʾ: 'allāhumma jʿalnī min al-ghurabāʾi al-ladhīna basharta bi-l-ṭūbā' (O Allah, make me of the strangers You gave glad tidings of).
In your day
Identify the strangers in your community. The new Muslim who comes to Friday prayer alone. The convert family whose first Eid will be at a strange masjid. The brother whose job relocated him to your city and who knows nobody. The sister whose marriage moved her away from her support network. The international student. The new neighbor. Each is a gharīb. The Sunnah is structured welcome: a Friday meal invitation, an introduction to community members, a phone number given freely, a check-in week after Eid, a place at your table. Adopt one gharīb in your community this year and structurally integrate them. You may become their Anṣārī.
A reflection to carry
Read the hadith: 'Islam began as a stranger and will return to being a stranger; ṭūbā li-l-ghurabāʾ.' Ṭūbā is a Quranic word (al-Raʿd 13:29) for the highest tree of Jannah. The Prophet ﷺ attached it to the strangers. And he ﷺ modeled the welcome at the highest possible level in Madinah: the muʾākhāh. Each Muhājir paired with an Anṣārī. Half of everything offered. No stranger left alone. Ya akhī, ya ukhtī, our communities are full of ghurabāʾ we have not paired. The convert who comes to Friday prayer hesitantly, sits in the back, leaves without speaking. The brother newly relocated who eats Eid lunch in his apartment because no one invited him. The sister whose marriage moved her to a city where she knows no one. The international student whose family is across the ocean during Ramadan. Each is a Muhājir waiting for an Anṣārī. The reward of being that Anṣārī is in this hadith and in the Quran (al-Ḥashr 59:9): Allah praised the Anṣār for preferring others over themselves. The dīn opens this door of reward to every Muslim community in every generation. Walk through it. Adopt one gharīb this year. Become their bridge to the community.
Read the longer reflection
Yā Rabb, the Prophet ﷺ identified the strangers as a category You favor. 'Glad tidings to the strangers.' The new Muslim. The relocated. The convert. The international student. The sister whose marriage took her away from home. The brother whose work moved him to a city of strangers. Each is a gharīb whom You promised ṭūbā to. And You gave us, in Madinah, the model of welcome: the muʾākhāh. Every Muhājir paired with an Anṣārī. Every newcomer enfolded. No one walking alone. Forgive me, ya Allāh, for the strangers in my own masjid I have not welcomed. The new face at Friday prayer I did not approach. The convert whose first Eid I did not invite into. The newly-arrived brother whose Ramadan iftars happened in his solitary apartment while my home was full. Each was a missed Anṣārī moment. Open my home, ya Rabb. Open my circle. Make me the brother who asks the unfamiliar face at the masjid: where are you from, do you know anyone here, come for dinner this Friday. Make me the sister who walks across the women's section to greet the new convert with a hug and an exchange of numbers. Build me into an Anṣārī in whatever city You have planted me, ya Allah. And ya Rabb, if I am a Muhājir in some new place You will move me to, let me find an Anṣārī too. Let me receive what I have given. And let the chains of welcome multiply across our ummah until no gharīb is ever alone in a Muslim community. Āmīn ya Wadūd.
Sources: Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim. The Qur'an and its translation are verified; the scholarship is retold faithfully in our own words and credited to its sources, never reproduced verbatim.
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