Fath al-Rabbani

Ubaydullah bin Ka’b, who was the most knowledgeable among the Ansar, narrates that from his father, Sayyiduna Ka’b bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him), who was present at ‘Aqabah and pledged allegiance to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) there, it is reported: He says, “We set out with the polytheists of our people to perform Hajj. We used to pray and had understanding of the religion. With us was our elder and leader, Sayyiduna Bara’ bin Ma’rur (may Allah be pleased with him). When we packed our luggage and set out from Madinah Munawwarah, Sayyiduna Bara’ (may Allah be pleased with him) said, ‘People! By Allah, I have seen a dream, but I do not know whether you will agree with me or not.’ We said, ‘What is it?’ He said, ‘I saw that I would not turn my back to the building of the Ka’bah, and I would pray facing it.’ We said, ‘By Allah! What has reached us is that our Prophet prays facing towards Sham (Jerusalem), so we cannot oppose him.’ But he said, ‘I will only pray facing the Ka’bah.’ We said, ‘But we will not do so.’ Now, the situation was that when the time for prayer came, we would pray facing Sham, and Sayyiduna Bara’ would pray facing the Ka’bah, until we reached Makkah Mukarramah. My brother said, ‘We considered his action to be blameworthy, by my father! But we did not oppose him.’ When we reached Makkah Mukarramah, he said, ‘O nephew! Let us go to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and ask him about what I have done on this journey. Since I saw that you opposed me, I have become doubtful about it in myself.’ He says, ‘So we set out to ask the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), but the issue was that we did not recognize him, for we had not seen him. When we met one of the residents of Makkah Mukarramah, we asked him about the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). He said, ‘Do you recognize him?’ We said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘Do you recognize his uncle, Abbas bin Abdul Muttalib?’ We said, ‘Yes,’ because Sayyiduna Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) used to come to us as a merchant, so we recognized him. Anyway, he said, ‘When you enter the mosque, the man sitting with Abbas will be (Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him).’ So we entered the mosque, and there was Sayyiduna Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) sitting, and with him was the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). We greeted them and then sat with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said to Sayyiduna Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him), ‘O Abu al-Fadl! Do you know these two men?’ He said, ‘Yes, this is the leader of his people, Bara’ bin Ma’rur, and this is Ka’b bin Malik. By Allah! I have not forgotten that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) asked, ‘And the poet, is he?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ Now Sayyiduna Bara’ bin Ma’rur (may Allah be pleased with him) said, ‘O Prophet of Allah! I set out on this journey, and Allah Almighty has guided me to Islam. I saw a dream that I would not turn my back to the building of the Ka’bah, but would pray facing it. But my companions did not agree with me, until I became hesitant about it in myself. O Messenger of Allah! What is your opinion about it?’ The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, ‘If you had been patient, you would have been upon the Qiblah.’ So Sayyiduna Bara’ immediately adopted the Qiblah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and prayed with us facing Sham. The family of Sayyiduna Bara’ thought that he continued to pray facing the Ka’bah until his death, but this claim is not correct; we know it better than his family. Then we set out for Hajj and made an appointment to meet the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) at ‘Aqabah in the middle of the days of Tashreeq. So when we completed Hajj and the night came which we had promised to spend with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), with us was Abu Jabir Abdullah bin Amr bin Haram (may Allah be pleased with him). We wanted to conceal this matter of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) from the polytheists of our people. We said, ‘O Abu Jabir! You are one of the leaders and nobles among the chiefs, but we are disinclined from the religion you are upon and fear that you may become fuel for the Fire tomorrow.’ Then I invited him to Islam and informed him of the promise made to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). So he also became Muslim and joined us at ‘Aqabah, and was even made a Naqeeb (leader). So that night, we slept in our dwellings with our people. When a third of the night had passed, we set out from our dwellings according to the promise made to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), sneaking out like the Qata bird, until we gathered in the valley near ‘Aqabah. We were seventy men in total, and with us were two women: one was Umm ‘Ammarah Nusaybah bint Ka’b, who belonged to Banu Mazin bin Najjar, and the other was Umm Mani’ Asma’ bint Amr bin ‘Adi, who belonged to Banu Salamah. We gathered in the valley and began to wait for the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), until he came to us. His uncle, Sayyiduna Abbas bin Abdul Muttalib (may Allah be pleased with him), was also with him. At that time, he was upon the religion of his people, but he wanted to look after the matter of his nephew (Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him) and gain assurance. When they sat down, Sayyiduna Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) spoke first and said, ‘O group of Khazraj! Indeed, you know that Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) is one of us. We have protected him from our people. Here, Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) is honored among his people and strong in his city.’ The Arabs used to call the Ansari tribe Khazraj. We said, ‘We have heard your words. O Messenger of Allah! Now you speak and take from us for yourself and your Lord whatever covenants you wish.’ So the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) spoke, recited some of the Noble Qur’an, invited the people to Allah Almighty, encouraged them towards Islam, and said, ‘I take from you the pledge that you will protect me from everything from which you protect your women and children.’ Sayyiduna Bara’ bin Ma’rur (may Allah be pleased with him) took the hand of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and said, ‘Yes, by the One Who sent you with the truth! We will protect you from that from which we protect our women.’ So we pledged allegiance to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). We were people of battles and weapons; this was inherited by us generation after generation. While Sayyiduna Bara’ (may Allah be pleased with him) was still speaking with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), the ally of Banu Abd al-Ashhal, Sayyiduna Abu al-Haytham bin Tihan (may Allah be pleased with him), spoke up and said, ‘O Messenger of Allah! Indeed, there are agreements between us and the Jews, and because of you, we will break them. But is it possible that when we do all this and Allah grants you victory, you will return to your people and leave us?’ Upon hearing this, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) smiled and said, ‘No, rather now, wherever your blood is sought, my blood will be sought, and wherever your blood is wasted, my blood will be wasted. Now I am from you and you are from me. Those whom you fight, I will fight, and those with whom you make peace, I will make peace.’ The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) further said, ‘Appoint twelve Naqeebs (leaders) for me, who will be responsible for their respective people.’ So they selected twelve Naqeebs, nine from Khazraj and three from Aws. The wording of Ma’bad bin Ka’b’s narration is: The first person who placed his hand on the hand of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was Sayyiduna Bara’ bin Ma’rur (may Allah be pleased with him), then the rest of the people pledged allegiance one after another. When we had pledged allegiance to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), Satan called out in a very loud voice from the top of the valley. I had never heard such a loud voice, and he said, ‘O people of these dwellings! Do you care about the condemned one? The irreligious people are gathering with him to fight you.’ This enemy of Allah, Satan, did not say Muhammad, but said ‘the condemned one.’ Upon hearing this, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, ‘This is the Azabb Satan of this valley; this is Ibn Az-yab. Listen, O enemy of Allah! Beware! By Allah, I will surely, surely deal with you.’ Then the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, ‘Now return to your dwellings.’ Sayyiduna Abbas bin ‘Ubada (may Allah be pleased with him) said, ‘By the One Who sent you with the truth, if you wish, we will attack the people of Mina tomorrow with our swords.’ The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, ‘I have not yet been commanded to do this.’ So we returned and slept in our places. When morning came, the chiefs of Quraysh came to us in our dwellings and said, ‘O group of Khazraj! We have heard that you went to our companion and now want to take him out from among us and pledge allegiance to him to fight us. By Allah! Every Arab would greatly dislike that war should break out between us and you. Now tell us, is the matter really so?’ The polytheists of our people stood up and swore by Allah that nothing of the sort had happened, and that we had no knowledge of such a matter. They were telling the truth, for they did not know what we (seventy people) had done at night. However, we began to look at each other. Then they got up; among them was Harith bin Hisham bin Mughira Makhzumi (he became Muslim at the conquest of Makkah). He was wearing two new shoes. Sayyiduna Abu Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him) said, ‘I also said something, as if I intended to join in the people’s negative response.’ We said, ‘O Abu Jabir! Do you not have the strength to have shoes like those of this young Qurayshi, while you are our leader?’ When Harith heard this, he took off those shoes and threw them towards me and said, ‘By Allah! You will surely, surely wear them.’ He said, ‘You have angered the young man, now return these shoes to him.’ I said, ‘By Allah! I will not return them.’ He said, ‘By Allah! They are fine. If this omen is true, I will take them as spoils.’ This is the hadith of Sayyiduna Ka’b bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) about ‘Aqabah and what he saw there.