'Abdallah b. ‘Adi b. Hamra’ said he saw God’s messenger standing at al-Hazwara (Taj al-'Arus gives two statements about this place, one saying it was a place at the gate of the wheat sellers, the other saying it was the market of Mecca which was later incorporated in the mosque when it was enlarged) and saying, “I swear by God that you are the best part of God’s earth and the part dearest to Him. Had I not been expelled from you I would not have gone out.”
Ibn ‘Abbas reported God’s messenger as saying to Mecca, “What a fine town you are, and how dear you are to me! Were it not that my people expelled me from you, I would live nowhere else.”
Tirmidhi transmitted it, saying this is a hasan sahih tradition whose isnad is gharlb.
Narrated Abu Shuraih al-‘Adawi told that he said to ‘Amr b. Sa‘id when he was sending troops to Mecca (The reference is to an expedition against 'Abdallah b. az-Zubair):
Let me tell you something, commander, which God’s messenger said on the day following the Conquest. My ears heard it, my heart has retained it, and my eyes saw him when he spoke it. After praising and extolling God he said, “God, not men, has made Mecca sacred, so it is not allowable for a man who believes in God and in the last day to shed blood in it, or lop a tree in it. If anyone seeks licence to do so on the ground that God’s messenger fought in it, tell him that God has given permission to His messenger but not to you. He gave him permission only during one hour on one day, and its sacredness has been restored to it like what it was yesterday. Let him who is present convey the information to him who is absent." Abu Shuraih was asked what ‘Amr had replied, and said he had replied, “I am better informed of that than you, Abu Shuraih.' The sacred territory does not give refuge to one who is disobedient, or one who flies when he has shed blood, or one who flies because of a fault (kharba).” (The word is used of a vice)
Bukhari and Muslim. In Bukhari’s work kharba is said to mean a crime.
Ya'la b. Umayya reported God’s messenger as saying, “Storing up food to sell it at a high price in the sacred territory is a profanation of its sanctity.”
