The incident of Hilful Fuzool:

This is an incident from the early days of our Prophet ﷺ, before his prophethood. Hilful Fuzool was always remembered fondly by our Prophet ﷺ throughout his life. There was a man from the tribe of Zubail, who came to Makkah to sell his goods. Aas ibn Wa’il, a well-known Makkan leader, bought his goods. He promised to pay him the next day but several days passed by and he kept on making excuses to pay his money. When he had made every possible effort and failed to get his money, he tried involving some influential people, but failed again. Angry and depressed, he drafted a poetry and stood on the hillock of Makkah and cried aloud while reciting the poetry complaining his grief. Zubair ibn Abu Muttalib, who was a paternal uncle of the Prophet ﷺ , felt bad about it and noted that the reputation of Makkans was being damaged. He assembled a few well respected, influential men to form a committee in the house of Abdullah ibn Jud’an. It was similar to the human rights association in today’s terms.

The Prophet ﷺ also participated along with the senior leaders. They all decided that since Makkah was a sacred city so it was their duty to protect the interests of visitors, too. Thus, all of them agreed to help if any traveler was exploited or cheated in Makkah. The momentum grew and became strong. The Prophet ﷺ  cherished this incident whenever he recalled it and used to say:

“I witnessed a pact of justice in the house of Abdullah ibn Jud’an that was more beloved to me than a herd of expensive red camels. If I were called to it now in the time of Islam, I would respond.”

In another narration, the Prophet said, “Make such pacts to restore rights to their owners and that no oppressor has strength over the oppressed.”

 al-Sunan al-Kubrá 12114