whether in vigor or weariness, to spend in hardship and in ease, to enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong, to speak about Allah without fearing the blame of any critic, and to give aid to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ when he comes to us in Yathrib, defending him with the same resolve with which we defend our own selves, our wives, and our children—and in return we shall have Paradise. Such was the pledge we gave to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.

This chain of transmission is sound and strong, though the two Ṣaḥīḥs did not record it.

Yūnus (1) likewise relates from Ibn Isḥāq: ʿUbadah ibn al-Walīd ibn ʿUbadah ibn al-Ṣāmit told me, on the authority of his father, from his grandfather ʿUbadah ibn al-Ṣāmit. He said:

“We pledged to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ the pledge of war: to listen and obey in hardship and in ease, in eagerness and reluctance, even when others are preferred over us; not to contest authority with those to whom it rightfully belongs; and to speak the truth wherever we may be, fearing for Allah’s sake the reproach of no reproacher.”

Ibn Isḥāq (2) reports in another account, from Maʿbad ibn Kaʿb, from his brother ʿAbd Allāh ibn Kaʿb ibn Mālik:

“When we had concluded our pledge to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, Satan cried out from the top of the mountain pass in the shrillest voice I have ever heard: ‘O people of the Jabājib—(the Jabājib are the encampments)—do you know what Mudhammam and the apostates with him have done? They have gathered to wage war against you!’

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘That is the screecher of the pass, Ibn Uzayb’”—Ibn Hishām adds: or it is said, Ibn Uzyab—‘Do you hear, O enemy of Allah? By Allah, I will surely deal with you!’ Then he said, ‘Disperse to your tents.’

ʿAbbās ibn ʿUbādah ibn Naḍlah remarked, ‘O Messenger of Allah, by Him who sent you with the truth, if you wish, we shall fall upon the people of Minā tomorrow with our swords.’

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ replied, ‘We have not been commanded to do that; rather, return to your camps.’ So we went back to our sleeping places and remained there until morning.

At daybreak the chiefs of Quraysh came to us in our dwellings and said, ‘O company of the Khazraj, word has reached us that you have come to this companion of ours to spirit him away from among us and to pledge yourselves to fight us. By Allah, there is no tribe among the Arabs with whom we would more loathe to have war break out than with you.’

Some of our own people who were still idolaters rose and swore, ‘Nothing of the sort has happened; we know nothing about it’—and they were truthful, for they did not know. Meanwhile some of us glanced at one another.

The delegation then withdrew, and among them was al-Ḥārith ibn Hishām ibn al-Mughīrah al-Makḥzūmī, wearing a pair of brand-new sandals. I said to him—a remark meant to involve the group in what had just been said—‘O Abū Jābir, can you, a chief among us, not acquire a pair of sandals like those of this young man from Quraysh?’

Al-Ḥārith heard me, removed the sandals from his feet, and tossed them to me, saying, ‘By Allah, you shall wear them!’

Abū Jābir protested, ‘Enough! You have offended the young man—by Allah, give him back his sandals.’

I replied, ‘By Allah, I will not return them. It is a good omen; and if the omen proves true, I shall indeed strip him of them.’

Ibn Isḥāq (3) also related: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Bakr told me that they went to ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ubayy ibn Salūl and said the like