The Second ʿAqabah (Pledge):

Yahya ibn Sulaym al-Taʾifi and Dawud al-ʿAttar related—this is Dawud’s wording—“Ibn Khuthaym narrated to us, from Abu al-Zubayr al-Makki, from Jabir ibn ʿAbd Allah:

‘The Messenger of Allah ﷺ spent ten years following the pilgrims to their camps during the seasons of Majannah, ʿUkaz, and Mina, proclaiming, “Who will shelter me and support me so that I may convey my Lord’s messages? He shall have Paradise.” Yet he found no one. A traveler would even warn his companion who had come from Mudar or from Yemen, and when that man’s people or kinsman met him they would say, “Beware of the young man of Quraysh, lest he mislead you.” He would walk among their tents calling them to Allah while they pointed at him with their fingers, until Allah sent us to him from Yathrib. One of us would come to him, believe in him, and learn the Qur’an from him; then he would return home and his household would embrace Islam through him, so that no house in Yathrib remained without a group openly professing Islam.

‘Then we consulted one another—seventy of us gathered—and said, “How long shall we leave the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to roam the mountains of Mecca in fear?” So we travelled until we met him during the season. We arranged to meet him at the mountain pass of ʿAqabah, and there we assembled, some singly, some in pairs, until we were all with him. We said, “O Messenger of Allah, on what terms shall we pledge allegiance to you?” He replied, “On hearing and obedience in vigor and in sloth; on spending in prosperity and in hardship; on enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong; on speaking for Allah without fearing the blame of any blamer; and on supporting me when I come to you in Yathrib—protecting me from what you protect your own selves, your wives, and your children. In return, you shall have Paradise.”

‘We rose and pledged allegiance to him. Asʿad ibn Zurarah—who was the youngest of the seventy—took hold of his hand.’