the negation of perfect faith; in other words, your faith is not complete until you love for your brother what you love for yourself, and the point is not a total absence of faith.

It is reported that Jarir ibn ‘Abd Allah al-Bajali (may Allah be pleased with him), after pledging to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to offer sincere counsel to every Muslim, once bought a horse from a man for a few dirhams. After purchasing it and leaving, he realized the animal was worth more, so he returned to the seller and said, “Your horse is worth more than what I paid,” and handed over what he believed to be its true value. He then rode off, tried the horse, and discovered it was worth even more than the new price. He went back again and said, “Your horse is worth more,” and added what he thought it deserved. He did this a third time, until the price rose from two hundred dirhams to eight hundred. He acted thus because he had pledged to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) to deal sincerely with every Muslim.

When anyone pledges allegiance to the Prophet (peace be upon him) regarding a matter that is not unique to him, that pledge is binding on all people. Consequently, everyone is, in effect, pledged to the Messenger (peace be upon him) to be sincere toward every Muslim—indeed, to establish the prayer, pay the zakah, and be sincere toward every Muslim.

Here the word bayʿah (pledge of allegiance) means a covenant. In Arabic it can denote a commercial transaction and it can denote a covenant, as in the Almighty’s statement: “Indeed, those who pledge allegiance to you are actually pledging allegiance to Allah” (al-Fath 48:10). It is called bayʿah because each party extends his baʿ—meaning his hand—to the other so that they clasp hands and say, “I pledge to you such-and-such.” And Allah is the One who grants success.