The Second Pledge of Aqaba (Pledge of War) - Our Prophet 4 - Struggles In Mecca

Now, after a while, after preaching the religion of Islam for some time, Mus'ab [ibn Umayr] returns to Makkah to inform the Prophet of the results and what he has accomplished in Madinah. And the Prophet was very happy to hear that. Then, in the following year, year 13 of the Be'that [proclamation] this is the last year in which the Prophet stayed in Makkah. This was the last year of his life in Makkah.

So, the year 13 a large group of people from Madinah, about 500 of them, they come to the Hajj, to the pilgrimage. Those who had become Muslim, they come. And those who were not Muslim, they also came because they would come for the pilgrimage anyway. Now the Prophet makes a secret meeting with the Muslims.

He tells them, Come to my house. The Prophet was in a house in 'Aqabah, in Mina. This house belonged to his grandfather, 'Abdul Muttalib. He had a house there. The Prophet, in that house, calls for a secret meeting. He tells them at night, when people are sleeping, do not make any noise, do not make any conspicuous movements. Come, I have a meeting with you.

70, about 70 of the Muslims of Madinah, they go and they meet the Prophet, salla Allahu 'alayhi wa alihi, in that house. 70 men, two women, they come to the Prophet. They pledge allegiance to the Prophet, salla Allahu 'alayhi wa alihi. We call this the second allegiance of 'Aqabah.

The first one was those twelve men, the previous year who made the allegiance with the Prophet. This is the second allegiance that they make. Now you have about 72 people who make Bay'atul 'Aqabah, the allegiance of 'Aqabah with the Prophet, salla Allahu 'alayhi wa alihi.

They give him the following promise. First of all, they said we will protect you and your family just like we would protect ourselves, our children and our family. Number two, we would give you refuge and support if that is needed. Number three will obey you and listen to you. Number three [four] we will spend our money and donate that in your cause and the cause of Islam. Number five we will enjoy the good, we will forbid the evil. Number six will uphold the truth. We will not be scared. We will not be concerned with others. What they will say and them attacking us will stay firm.

And number seven, and this is a very important one that the Prophet made sure to make this promise with them. That we will not try to compete with those who are rightful to this affair, meaning the Khilafah and leadership. If there is anyone whom Allah and the Prophet see as being the rightful caliphs and leaders, we will not compete with them or dispute with them. We will accept whomever you choose. Once the Prophet saw that they made this commitment then he pledged the allegiance with them and he accepted their allegiance.

Notice that the Prophet, salla Allahu 'alayhi wa alihi, would always make this emphasis on who will rule after him. If you remember from previous lessons, some tribes, they told the Prophet we will support you, but if you appoint us as rulers after you, he would not accept. He would say, this matter belongs to Allah, Subhanahu wa Ta'ala.

So, when did the Prophet really accept the allegiance of the people of Madinah? When they told him that whomever you choose, we are okay with that. They made that promise, so he accepted their allegiance. Now, the Prophet, by the way, he did warn them that, look, there is going to be a big fight with the Persian Empire, with the Roman Empire, with the kings of the time. Are you willing to sacrifice? They said yes'.

There was a man by the name of al-'Abbas Ibn Nadlah. He wanted to make sure; he was from the Ansar. He wanted to make sure that the Ansar were not fooling around with the Prophet. He told them, look, the Prophet does not need you guys. If you really want to support him, then support him, but do not fool him. Do not let him migrate or come or, you know, build anything on your promises and then you betray him. Be very clear with the Prophet. They told him, no, we are firm in our belief.

And specifically, three of them. One of them was 'Abdullah Ibn Hazab or Haram, the father of Jabir. You have heard of Jabir Ibn 'Abdullah al-Ansari. His father was present at the 'Aqabah incident over here. The second one was As'ad Ibn Zurarah. And the third one was Ibn Tayhan who is a great companion of the Prophet, and Imam 'Ali.

These three, they told him, what is this talk that you are saying, O Messenger of God? Our blood is your blood. Our soul is your soul. And whatever you do, we accept. So, yes, we will stay firm. Even if we are fought, even if wars are waged against us, we accept that. When the Prophet, salla Allahu 'alayhi wa alihi, sees this determination from them, he accepts their allegiance and the allegiance of 'Aqabah takes place.

Now, one final note. The Makkans, the Quraysh, they hear about this. They hear about this allegiance that secretly took place. So they take their swords and they come to the house of the Prophet in 'Aqabah.

The Ansar tell the Prophet, 'Oh, we hear the you know, we hear them carrying their swords. Do you want us to fight them now? Let us fight them now.' The Prophet says, 'No, I have not been given that permission. Let us not fight them.' They say, okay, come with us to Madinah now. He says, no, not yet. I have not been given permission to migrate.

So he tells them, Just leave before they arrive at the house. Quickly, leave. So they disperse and they [Quraysh] arrive at the scene at the house. Hamza, he comes and he meets them. They tell him, 'Oh, Hamza, is there a secret meeting here we are not aware of? You are making a secret deal with the people of Madinah to fight us?' Hamza does Taqiyyah [dissimulation] over here to protect the Prophet's life.

He says, no, no, no, there is nothing here. Go, leave. And if anyone of you tries to come to the house, I will kill him with my sword. So the two people who were with the Prophet at the allegiance of 'Aqabah from the Makkans were Hamza and Imam 'Ali Ibn Abi Talib, 'alayhi as-salam. These two were there defending the Prophet, salla Allahu 'alayhi wa alihi.

Now they [Quraysh] go to 'Abdullah Ibn Ubayy. 'Abdullah Ibn Ubayy, he was a leader from the people of Madinah, but he was not a Muslim. He actually turned out to be an enemy of Islam. They told him, what is this? You are making secret deals with Muhammad? He says, No, I am not aware of this. So, they were confused. Did really something happen? Was there a secret meeting? But then later they realized that, no, there was a secret meeting. So, they tried to chase some of the Ansar who were going back to Madinah, especially As'ad Ibn Zurarah, and they torture him because he made that deal with the Prophet, salla Allahu 'alayhi wa alihi.

In any case, they [Ansar] go back to the city of Madinah and now they are anxiously waiting for the Prophet, salla Allahu 'alayhi wa alihi, to migrate to the city of Madinah.

But notice that what Hamza did, by the way, was an act of Taqiyyah in the presence of the Prophet, and the Prophet did not rebuke him. So, this is another proof that we can use that when you are in danger, you do not have to tell them exactly what is going on. And he did that in order to defend the life of the Prophet, salla Allahu 'alayhi wa alihi.

Wa salla Allahu 'ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa 'alihi at-Tahirin. [and peace and blessings of Allah be upon our Master Muhammad and his purified progeny]