Fath al-Rabbani

Benefits: … The process of teaching and propagating the religion continued in Yathrib, and many people became Muslim. In the thirteenth year of Prophethood, during the season of Hajj, many Muslims and polytheists came from Yathrib for Hajj. The Muslims decided that they would not leave the Messenger of Allah (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) wandering among the mountains of Makkah, suffering hardships, and in a state of fear and anxiety. Therefore, they made secret contact and agreed to hold a gathering at night, on the middle day of the days of Tashreeq, in the valley near Jamrat al-‘Aqabah. On the appointed day, these people slept in their tents with their people, and when the first third of the night had passed, they quietly slipped out in ones and twos and reached the place near ‘Aqabah. Altogether, they were seventy-three men: sixty-two from Khazraj and eleven from Aws. Along with them were these two women: Sayyidah Nusaybah bint Ka‘b and Sayyidah Asma’ bint ‘Amr (radi Allahu anhuma). The matters that were agreed upon in that gathering have already been mentioned in this chapter.

After this second pledge at ‘Aqabah, the general body of Muslims began to migrate to Madinah, while some Companions had already migrated before this, and the Messenger of Allah (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) had also been shown the abode of migration for the Muslims, the signs of which pointed to Yathrib.