CHAPTER 33: THE STORY OF THE SECOND PLEDGE OF ‘AQABAH
THE STORY OF THE SECOND PLEDGE OF ‘AQABAH
Imam Ahmad related from Jabir that Allah’s Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, remained in Makkah for ten years approaching people in their residences, Ukaz, Majannah and at Mina during the pilgrimage season saying: “Who would give me refuge? Who would aid me till I deliver the message of my Lord so that he may earn Paradise in return?” No one offered to accommodate him or aid him to the extent that a man would proceed from Yemen or Mudar and his people would advise him: “beware of the young man of Quraish so that he may not afflict you.” They would go before his riding animal and would point to him (as a warning). This was the case until Allah sent people from Yathrib who offered to accommodate him and accepted him such that a man would proceed from us and he would believe in him and the Qur’an would be recited to him and he would return to his people and they would believe as he has done. Thereafter, they made ‘Umrah en masse and we said: “Till when shall we leave Allah’s Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, to perform tawaf and they banishing him in the hills of Makkah and they scaring him?” Seventy people among us traveled to him. We met him at one of the Hajj sites and gave him a promise at the mountain pass of ‘Aqabah. We gathered one after the other and in pairs until we were complete. We said: “Upon what should we give our pledge?” he replied, “Give me your pledge upon listening to and obeying my orders in active and inactive state and to spend (in the way of Allah) both in straits and ease and upon commanding the good and forbidding the evil and to speak for the sake of Allah not minding the blame of the blamers and upon helping me and protecting me, when I come to you, from all that you would protect yourself, your wives and your children from and yours will be Paradise as a reward.” We rose to give him our pledge. Asad Ibn Zurarah held his hand and he was the youngest of them. In the narration of Al-Baihaqi, he was the youngest of the 70 besides me.
He said: “Take it easy, O people of Yathrib, we are not giving him the innermost part of a camel except that we recognize him as the Messenger of Allah and verily, his emanation today will bring us into conflict with the entire Arabs and the death of your choice ones and swords will bite you. If you are people who are capable of exercising
patience upon all that, then take him and your reward lies with Allah. But if you fear for yourself, then let him be and you will be excused in the sight of Allah.” They all responded: “Move away from us, O Asad, for by Allah, we shall never abandon this pledge forever and we shall never betray it.” Then we rose to give him our pledge and he took it upon the reward of Paradise.
Then Ibn Ishaq related from Ma‘bad from ‘Abdullah from his father Ka‘b Ibn Malik who said: “We spent that night in our camps until a third of the night passed, and then we went from our camps to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, at the appointed place. We went stealthily in the manner of a tomcat until we gathered at the mountain pass at ‘Aqabah. We were seventy-three men in all and with us were two women, Nusaybah Bint Ka‘b, the mother of ‘Ummarah, one of the women of Banu Mazin Ibn An-Najjar, and Asma’ Bint ‘Amr Ibn ‘Adiyy Ibn Nabi, one of the women of Banu Salamah, and she was the mother of Manee’. Ibn Ishaq has clearly mentioned their names and lineage in the narration of Yoonus Ibn Bukair.
I say that concerning what has been related in some of the Ahadeeth that they were seventy, (this is because) the Arabs most of the times delete fractions (of numbers). ‘Urwah Ibn Az-Zubair and Moosa Ibn ‘Uqbah said, they were seventy men and a woman. There were forty of them from their elders and thirty from the younger ones. The youngest of them was Abu Mas‘ood and Jabir Ibn ‘Abdullah. The report of Muhammad Ibn Ishaq that they were seventy-five is more established. And Allah knows best.
Ka‘b Ibn Malik narrated that after we had gathered at the mountain pass, we waited for Allah’s Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, until he came along with ‘Abbas Ibn ‘Abdul-Muttalib who was still upon the religion of his people but present there with a view to managing the affair of his nephew and to consolidate it for
him. When he sat down, the first to speak was ‘Abbas Ibn ‘Abdul-Muttalib. He said: “O company of Al-Khazraj, verily you know the standing of Muhammad among us. We have protected him from (the harm of) our people. In our midst, he is held in honor among his people and in protection in his land. However, he has insisted on aligning himself with you and to join you. If you know that you will fulfill what you are inviting him to and that you will protect him from his oppositions, then you are free to bear that burden. However, if you know that you will hand him over (to be killed) and betray him after he has moved over to you, let him be right now for he is in honor and protection from his people and his land.” We said: “We have heard your words. Speak, O Messenger of Allah. Take on behalf of yourself and your Lord what you wish.” The Messenger spoke, recited the Qur’an and invited the congregation to Allah and aroused their keenness for Islam. Then he said: “Do you give your pledge upon protecting me from what you would protect yourselves and your children?” Al-Bara’ Ibn Ma’roor held his hand and then said: “Yes, by the One Who sent you with the Truth, we shall protect you from what we would protect our loincloth. So we give our pledge, O Messenger of Allah, for we are men of war.” Abu Al-Haytham Ibn Al-Tayyihan interjected. He said: “O Messenger of Allah, between us and some men is an armistice which we intend to nullify, i.e. (with) the Jews. Will you be offended if we do that? Moreover, if Allah grants you victory, would you return to your people and abandon us?” Allah’s Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, smiled and then said: “Rather, your blood is my blood and my grave and residence will be where yours are. I am from you and you are from me. I will fight with whom you fight and will be at peace with whom you have peace.” Allah’s Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, had told them: “Appoint for me twelve leaders to manage the affairs of their people.” So they appointed twelve leaders – nine from the Khazraj and three from the Aws.
Ibn Ishaq said: Abdullah Ibn Abi Bakr Ibn Hazm narrated to me that Allah’s Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said to the appointed leaders: “You are in charge of the people and you are their guarantor just like the disciples of ‘Eesa, the son of Maryam, and I am the guarantor of my entire followers.” They all agreed.
Narrated ‘Ubadah Ibn As-Samit: “We gave our pledge to Allah’s Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, that we would listen and obey in times of plenty and times of scarcity, to spend (for Allah’s sake) in difficult and times of ease, to command what is good and forbid what is evil and that we would say the truth for the sake of Allah, not minding the blame of the blamers. That we will aid the Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, of Allah when he comes over to us in Yathrib against whatever danger from which we would protect ourselves, our wives and our children and our reward for doing all that shall be Paradise. This is the pledge we gave to Allah’s Messenger.” This chain of narrations is good and strong.
Ibn Ishaq related from Ma‘bad Ibn Ka‘b from his brother ‘Abdullah Ibn Ka‘b Ibn Malik that when we had given our pledge to Allah’s Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, Shaitan yelled from the top of Al-‘Aqabah in a most piercing voice we ever heard: “O people of Al-Jubajib (the name of a residential area), do you want to allow these miscreants and renegades who are with him and who have gathered in order to wage war against you?” Allah’s Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said: “This is the Azabb of Al-‘Aqabah, this is the son of Azyab.” Then Allah’s Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, told them to return to their camps.
Al-‘Abbas Ibn ‘Ubadah Ibn Nadlah said: “O Messenger of Allah, by the One Who sent you with the Truth, if you wish, we will fight the people of Mina tomorrow with our swords.” The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, replied: “We have not been commanded to do that, return to your camps.”
(The narrator continued): We returned to our beds and we spent the night there. At the daybreak, a group of Quraish elders came to our dwellings and said to us: “O people of Khazraj! We have been informed that you came to take Muhammad away from our midst in order to make a pledge with him to fight us. By Allah, of all the Arabs,
there is none whom we hate to be at war with than you.” Immediately, the polytheists among our people swore that nothing of such ever happened. They were true for they knew nothing about it. We just looked at each other.
Ibn Ishaq related: A group of people from Mina investigated the information and found it to be true. So after that they went after our people until they caught up with Sa‘d Ibn ‘Ubadah at Adhakhir, close to Makkah, as well as Al-Mundhir Ibn ‘Amr, the brother of Banu Sa‘idah Ibn Ka‘b Ibn Al-Khazraj, both of whom were among the leaders. Al-Mundhir managed to escape but they caught Sa‘d, tied his hands to his neck with thongs of his girth and brought him back to Makkah. On the way, they beat him and dragged him by his hair and he was a man with thick hair.
Sa‘d narrated: “By Allah, I was in their captivity when we came upon a group of Quraish among whom was a tall, white, handsome and pleasant looking man. I said to myself that if any good would come from these people, then it would be from this man. But when he approached, he raised his hand and gave me a violent blow in the face. Again I said to myself: No good would come from them after this. Since I was in their hands as they dragged me along, a man from among them felt pity over my plight and said to me, “Don’t you have any right to protection from any of the Quraish?” “Yes,” I said. “I used to secure the merchandise of the merchants of Jubair Ibn Mut‘im Ibn
‘Adiyy from the harm they might be exposed to in my country. I also used to do the same for Al-Harith Ibn Harb Ibn Umayyah Ibn ‘Abd Shams.” “Good, then shout their names showing the ties you have with them.” I did as I was told and the man went to the two men and found both of them in the Ka‘bah. He said to them: “A man of the Khazraj is being beaten in the valley and he is calling you for help.” “Who is the man?” They both asked and the man said, “Sa‘d Ibn ‘Ubadah.” “Yes, he is speaking the truth, he used to secure the commerce of our merchants and protect them from the harm they might be exposed to in his land.” So they both came to him and freed Sa‘d from the clutches and he went away. The one who hit Sa‘d in the face was Suhail Ibn ‘Amr.
Ibn Ishaq related: When the Ansar who gave pledge to Allah’s Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, on the night of the second (pledge of) ‘Aqabah and returned to Madinah, they propagated Islam. Among their people, some of their chiefs remained upon their religion of polytheism among whom were ‘Amr Ibn Al-Jamooh Ibn Zaid Ibn Haram Ibn Ka‘b Ibn Ghanm Ibn Ka‘b Ibn Salimah. His son, Mu‘adh Ibn ‘Amr was among those who witnessed the ‘Aqabah and gave pledge to Allah’s Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. ‘Amr Ibn Jamuh was among the leaders of Banu Salamah and the noblest among them. He had a wooden idol in his house called Manat. It was the practice of the noblemen to choose a family god which they would venerate, clean and perfume. When the two sons of Banu Salimah, his son, Mu‘adh and Mu‘adh Ibn Jabal accepted Islam, they would sneak by night to ‘Amr’s idol, carry it outside and turn it upside down in one of the cesspits of Banu Salamah. In the morning, ‘Amr would cry out: “Woe unto you, who assaulted our god tonight?!” After searching frantically for it, he would find it upside down in the cesspit. He would remove it, wash it, perfume and then make it clean again. Then he would say, addressing his idol: “If I knew who did this to you I will make him sorrowful.” Again, ‘Amr spent the night while the same fate befell his wooden deity. Again, he searched and found it in the same cesspit. He washed it and restored it to its place in the house.
When the “transgression” against his god became unceasing, one day, after he had rescued the idol from the cesspit, washed it, perfume it, ‘Amr brought a sword and hung it on the neck of the idol and then addressed it thus: “By Allah, I do not know who is doing this to you, if you have any good (you can do for yourself), here is a sword
with you, defend yourself against him.” In the night, ‘Amr slept while the twosome attacked his idol once again. They removed the sword from the idol’s neck, tied it with a rope to the carcass of a dog and threw ‘Amr’s god into one of the cesspits of Banu Salamah. In the morning, ‘Amr Ibn Jamooh did not find the idol in its place. He later found it tied to a dead dog in a cesspit. When he beheld his god in such a despicable situation, he realized his folly. The Muslims among his people spoke to him and he too accepted Islam by Allah’s Mercy and became a committed Muslim. When he realized his folly and became a Muslim he thanked Allah for saving him from blindness and misguidance.
By Ibn Katheer
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