Islam, and he recited the Qur’an to them. Now one of the ways in which Allah had prepared the ground for Islam was that some Jews lived among them in their land. The Jews were people of scripture and learning, while the Khazraj were polytheists who worshipped idols. The Jews had previously fought and defeated them, and whenever a dispute arose they would say, “The time of a prophet who is about to be sent has now drawn near. We shall follow him, and then we shall wipe you out with him as ʿĀd and Iram were wiped out.”

When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ spoke to those men and called them to Allah, they said to one another, “O people, know for certain that this is the very prophet the Jews have been threatening you with; do not let them reach him before you do.” So they responded to him, accepted Islam, and said, “We are leaving behind a people among whom there is no tribe more riven by enmity and evil than they. Perhaps Allah will unite them through you. We shall return to them, invite them to your mission, and set before them what we have accepted from you. If Allah gathers them around you, no one will be mightier than you.” Then they departed.

Ibn Isḥāq said: According to what is reported, they were six men of the Khazraj: Asʿad ibn Zurārah, ʿAwf ibn ʿAfrāʾ, Rāfiʿ ibn Mālik al-Zuraqī, Qutbah ibn ʿĀmir al-Sulamī, and ʿUqbah ibn ʿĀmir. Jarīr ibn Ḥāzim narrated from Ibn Isḥāq that, in place of ʿUqbah, he named Muʿādh ibn ʿAfrāʾ and Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allah of the clan of ʿAdī ibn Ghanm.

When they returned to Medina they spoke to their people about the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and called them to Islam, and talk of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ spread among them. The following year, during the pilgrimage season, twelve men from the Anṣār came and met the Messenger of Allah ﷺ at al-ʿAqabah—this is the “First ʿAqabah.” They pledged allegiance to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ with the pledge taken from women, before fighting had been made obligatory. They were: Asʿad ibn Zurārah; ʿAwf and Muʿādh, the sons of al-Ḥārith (both sons of ʿAfrāʾ); Dhakwān ibn ʿAbd Qays; Rāfiʿ ibn Mālik; ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit; Yazīd ibn Thaʿlabah al-Balawī; ʿAbbās ibn ʿUbādah ibn Naḍlah; Qutbah ibn ʿĀmir; and ʿUqbah ibn ʿĀmir—all of them from the Khazraj—together with Abū al-Haytham ibn al-Tayyihān and ʿUwaym ibn Sāʿidah from the Aws.