Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: Al-Harith (al-Ghatafani) came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said: "Give us half of the dates of Madinah; otherwise I will gather horsemen and foot soldiers against you." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Let me consult the men named Sa'd"; by this the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) meant Sayyiduna Sa'd bin Ubadah (may Allah be pleased with him) and Sayyiduna Sa'd bin Mu'adh (may Allah be pleased with him). The two of them said: "No! By Allah! Even in the time of Ignorance we never accepted humiliation for ourselves; so how could that be now, when Allah Almighty has granted us the blessing of Islam?" The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) went back to al-Harith and informed him about this, and he said: "O Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him)! You have broken the pact." The narrator says: Sayyiduna Hassan bin Thabit (may Allah be pleased with him) composed these verses about it: "O Harith! Who betrays the protection of one who grants protection more than you? Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) does not betray. If you betray, then betrayal is part of your habits, and baseness grows in the roots of the sakhbar plant. And the trust of al-Nahdi, when I met it, was like glass which, once broken, cannot be mended." The narrator says: Al-Harith said: "O Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him)! Restrain Hassan's tongue from us! For if it were mixed with the water of the sea, it would make even that bitter."
Al-Bazzar and al-Tabarani recorded it, and the wording of their narration is: Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: Al-Harith al-Ghatafani came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said: "O Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him)! Give us half of the dates of Madinah!" The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Let me first consult the men named Sa'd." Then the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) sent for and summoned Sayyiduna Sa'd bin Mu'adh, Sayyiduna Sa'd bin Ubadah (may Allah be pleased with him), Sayyiduna Sa'd bin al-Rabi' (may Allah be pleased with him), Sayyiduna Sa'd bin Khaythamah (may Allah be pleased with him) and Sayyiduna Sa'd bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him). He said: "I know that the Arabs will shoot at you from a single bow. Al-Harith has demanded of you that you give him half of the dates of Madinah. If you make this payment to him this year, it will be better for your affairs afterwards." They said: "O Messenger of Allah! Is this revelation coming from the heavens? If so, then we submit to the command of Allah. Or is it your personal opinion and your wish? Then we consider that we should follow your wish and your opinion. And if your aim is to look after our survival, then by Allah, regarding ourselves and those people, we consider that they can take dates from us only if they buy them from us or come as (our) guests." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Do you hear what these men are saying?" Then those people said: "O Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him)! You have broken the pact." So Sayyiduna Hassan bin Thabit (may Allah be pleased with him) composed these verses: "O Harith! Who betrays the protection of one who grants protection more than you? Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) does not betray. And the trust of al-Murri, when I met it, was like glass which, once broken, cannot be mended. If you betray, then betrayal is part of your habits, and baseness grows in the roots of the sakhbar plant." Among the narrators of al-Bazzar and al-Tabarani is Muhammad bin Amr, whose narration is hasan (good); the rest of its narrators are thiqat (trustworthy).