Chapter: The Beginning of the Story of the Helpers and the First ʿAqabah Pledge

Aḥmad ibn al-Miqdām al-ʿAjlī reported: Hishām ibn Muḥammad al-Kalbī told us, saying: ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Abī ʿĪsā ibn Khayr narrated to us from his father who said: “I heard a voice from Quraysh calling out at night from the summit of Abū Qubays:

If the two Saʿds embrace Islam, then Muhammad will rise
In Mecca, fearing no opposition from any foe.

When morning came, Abū Sufyān said, ‘Who are the two Saʿds—Saʿd of Bakr, Saʿd of Tamīm?’

On the following night they again heard the unseen caller recite:

O Saʿd of the Aws, stand forth as a helper,
And O Saʿd—noble Saʿd of the Khazraj clan—
Respond to the Caller of guidance; entreat your Lord
For a well-known wish in the Gardens supreme,
For Allah’s reward to the seeker of guidance
Is the Paradisal gardens with spreading canopies.

Abū Sufyān then said, ‘By Allah, he means Saʿd ibn Muʿādh and Saʿd ibn ʿUbādah.’

Al-Bakkāʾī transmitted from Ibn Isḥāq: When Allah willed to manifest His religion and give might to His Prophet, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ set out during the pilgrimage season in which he met the Helpers. As was his practice, he presented himself to the tribes. While he was at al-ʿAqabah he encountered a group from the Khazraj. ʿĀṣim ibn ʿUmar ibn Qatādah told me, on the authority of some elders of his people, that when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ met them he asked, “Who are you?” They replied, “A party of the Khazraj.” He said, “Are you the allies of the Jews?” They answered, “Yes.” He said, “Will you sit down so that I may speak with you?” They said, “Certainly.” So they sat with him, and he invited them to Allah and set before them