the pledge, “We have bonds and covenants with those people, and we shall break them.”

Those who pledged allegiance to him were among the greatest of Allah’s creation in their love for Allah and His Messenger and in sacrificing their lives and wealth to please Allah and His Messenger, to a degree that none of these later figures could match. Yet the ultimate object they sought through this was Paradise. Had there been any higher goal, they would have sought it. But they knew that Paradise contains everything beloved and desired. Indeed, Paradise contains things that are not