Surah Al-Maaida (5) — Ayah 7

(Ayah 7) {وَ اذْكُرُوْا نِعْمَةَ اللّٰهِ عَلَيْكُمْ ……:} In this verse, the blessing refers to Islam, and the covenant and pledge refer to the promise that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) used to take from every person upon accepting Islam. Since it was by Allah’s command, Allah the Exalted attributed it to Himself (those who deny hadith should reflect on this). It can also refer to the covenant that Allah the Exalted took from the children of Adam, which is inherent in their nature, and also that the Jews were warned to fulfill the covenant taken from them regarding following the Last Prophet. However, the first opinion is more correct. (Ibn Kathir, Qurtubi)

The exegesis of this verse has been done along with the previous verse.

7. And remember Allah’s favor upon you [29] and the firm covenant He made with you when you said, “We hear and we obey.” [30] And fear Allah, for Allah knows well what is in the hearts.

[29] That is, you were enemies of one another. Tribal prejudices had entangled you in enmities and wars, making your lives unbearable for you, and you were seeking a way out of these circumstances, but no such way was visible to you. Then Allah bestowed upon you many favors one after another. He granted you the ability to accept Islam, and then, because of this very Islam, He ended your long-standing and continuous enmities and made you companions, sympathizers, and brothers to one another.
[30]
The Covenant of Aqabah:

That is, the firm covenant which you made with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on the night of Aqabah, that you would obey him in every circumstance. It should be noted that after the pledge of Aqabah, whoever the Prophet ﷺ took a pledge from, it was upon this same covenant. And the Rightly Guided Caliphs also took pledges from the Muslims upon this same covenant. Only through obedience to the leader can the order and unity of the community be maintained, which is why the Prophet ﷺ greatly emphasized obedience to the leader. For details, see the footnote number 91 of verse 59 of Surah An-Nisa. We will now describe the covenant of Aqabah and its background in some detail. In the 10th year of Prophethood, Abu Talib passed away. Then, only a few days later, your compassionate and sympathetic wife, Sayyidah Khadijah al-Kubra, also passed away. In the domestic sphere, Sayyidah Khadijah al-Kubra ؓ was your support, and in the outside world, Abu Talib. Within a few days, both supports were lost. It was as if grief and sorrow descended upon you. For this reason, that year was named 'Aam al-Huzn (the Year of Sorrow). After Abu Talib's death, the courage of the polytheists of Makkah increased, and they began to devise further tortures for the Muslims, thinking that now was the best opportunity to deal with the Prophet of Islam. The majority of the Muslims had already migrated to Abyssinia, and those who remained now found their lives in danger. In these circumstances, you deemed it appropriate to establish a center for preaching outside of Makkah. For this purpose, you ﷺ chose Ta’if, the twin city of Makkah, which was a fertile and lush area. The chiefs of Makkah had properties there, and besides family ties, there were also trade relations. You ﷺ took your servant Zayd bin Harithah with you and set out for Ta’if. Along the way, wherever the opportunity arose, you would preach, until after a journey of twenty days on foot, you reached Ta’if. The Banu Thaqif resided in Ta’if, and three brothers—Mas’ud, Habib, and Abd Yalil—were the chiefs of this city and peers of the chiefs of Makkah. You ﷺ conveyed to them the message of Allah and invited them to Islam. Due to their various relations with the people of Makkah, they were already aware of the situation in Makkah and its people, so they adopted the same attitude as the Quraysh of Makkah. Not only did they reject your ﷺ invitation, but they also behaved very rudely and gave insolent replies. One brother said: If you have really been sent by Allah, then He must want to strip the covering of the Ka’bah. The second said: Could Allah not find anyone more suitable than you for prophethood? The third said: By Allah! I will not speak to you, because if you are truly Allah’s Messenger, then it is not appropriate to answer you, and if you are (God forbid) a liar, then you are not worthy of being spoken to. You ﷺ replied to them with great patience, saying that if you are not willing to accept me as a Messenger, then at least do not obstruct my way. Thus, you ﷺ began to invite and admonish other people. These wretched ones sent their slaves, servants, and the ruffians of the city after you ﷺ to drive you out of Ta’if. So, a gang of these ruffians followed you. Wherever you ﷺ stood to preach, they would curse you, make noise, and throw stones. When you ﷺ became exhausted, these thugs would grab you by the arm and lift you up, then throw stones at your ankles and clap and laugh. Blood flowed profusely, and your ﷺ sandals became soaked inside and out. Finally, you ﷺ took refuge in the enclosure of a garden. This garden belonged to the chief of Makkah, Utbah bin Rabi’ah, and his brother Shaybah. Utbah was a compassionate man. When he saw your condition, he sent grapes to you on a plate through his slave Addas. As soon as you ﷺ reached for the grapes, you said “Bismillah” and then began to eat. Addas said: By Allah! The people here never say this phrase. You ﷺ asked him: Where are you from, and what is your religion? He replied: I am a Christian and a resident of Nineveh. You ﷺ said: So you are from the city of the righteous man Yunus bin Matta. He is my brother; he was a prophet, and I am a prophet. When the slave heard this, he kissed your ﷺ head and hands. Utbah and Shaybah saw this incident, and when Addas returned, they reproached him and said: What were you doing? You have ruined your religion. Addas replied: This man told me something that only a prophet could know.

The extent of the suffering you endured on this journey can be gauged from the following hadith: Sayyidah Aisha ؓ narrates that she asked you ﷺ: Was there any day harder upon you than the day of Uhud? You ﷺ replied: Aisha! The hardships I suffered at the hands of your people (the Quraysh), only my heart knows. The hardest day for me was the day of Ta’if, when I presented myself to Abd Yalil bin Kalal, and he did not accept my invitation. I left, dejected, and only felt some relief when I reached Qarn al-Tha’alib (the name of a place). I looked up and saw a cloud shading me, and in it was Jibreel. Jibreel called me and said: Allah has heard what your people have said to you, and He has sent the Angel of the Mountains to you so that you may command him as you wish. Then the Angel of the Mountains greeted me and said: O Muhammad ﷺ, if you wish, I will bring together the mountains of Makkah and Ta’if and crush them all. The Prophet ﷺ replied (Do not do so), rather I hope that Allah will bring forth from their descendants those who will worship Allah alone and associate none with Him.
[بخاري۔ كتاب باب اذا قال احدكم آمين و الملئكة فى السماء مسلم كتاب الجهاد والسير۔ باب مالقي النبى من اذي المشركين و المنافقين]

From this agreed-upon hadith, it is clear that the day of Ta’if was the hardest and most difficult day of your ﷺ life—even harder than the day of Uhud when you ﷺ were wounded. The patience and steadfastness you ﷺ demonstrated on this occasion, and the way you ﷺ forgave and overlooked despite having the power to take revenge, is undoubtedly proof of your ﷺ prophetic greatness. You ﷺ had already despaired of the Quraysh of Makkah accepting Islam, and this incident at Ta’if further increased your grief and sorrow. When you ﷺ returned to Makkah, you stayed at the outskirts of the Haram. Your family was in Makkah, and the people of Makkah were your mortal enemies. You ﷺ sent a message through a man from Banu Khuza’ah to Akhnas bin Shurayq, asking him to grant you protection in Makkah. Akhnas excused himself, saying: I am an ally, and an ally cannot grant protection. Then you sent the same message to Suhayl bin Amr, who also excused himself, saying: The protection given by Banu Amir does not apply to Banu Ka’b. Then you sent the same message to Mut’im bin ‘Adi, who agreed to grant you protection. He called his sons and people of his tribe and told them to arm themselves and gather at the corners of the Ka’bah, because he had granted protection to Muhammad ﷺ. After making these arrangements, he sent you the message that you ﷺ could enter Makkah. So you ﷺ entered Makkah and went into the Haram. Mut’im bin ‘Adi stood on his mount and announced: O people of Quraysh! I have granted protection to Muhammad ﷺ. [سيرة النبى 1: 356 بحواله ابن سعد ص 142] After this, you reached the Black Stone, kissed it, performed prayer, and then went to your house. During this time, Mut’im’s sons stood guard over you with weapons. For the remainder of the Makkan period, you stayed in Makkah under Mut’im’s protection. You ﷺ never forgot Mut’im’s favor throughout your life. During the Battle of Badr, many polytheists were taken captive. For the sake of some of them, Mut’im’s son Sayyiduna Jubayr (who later became Muslim) came to intercede with you. You ﷺ said: If Mut’im were alive today and spoke to me about these filthy captives, I would release them all.
[بخاری۔ کتاب المغازی۔ باب غزوۃ البدر]

When you ﷺ returned from Ta’if to Makkah, the season of Hajj had begun. You went to Mina for the purpose of preaching and invited the people of the tribe of Aws from Madinah to Islam. In Madinah, the tribes of Aws and Khazraj had been engaged in civil war for many years, which the serious-minded people were greatly distressed by, but they saw no way out of it. These people had actually come, besides for Hajj, to seek the help of the Quraysh of Makkah against the Khazraj. When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ invited them to Islam and explained its teachings, an intelligent man from the tribe of Aws said: By Allah! The work for which you have come is better than what we came for. That is, they saw in your ﷺ person what they had long been searching for—a way to escape from civil wars. Thus, in Dhu al-Hijjah of the 10th year of Prophethood, at the place called Aqabah, five (and according to some narrations, six) men accepted Islam. This was the first ray of hope that appeared at the end of the Year of Sorrow. Through these men, Islam also began to spread among the tribe of Khazraj. These people were troubled by mutual civil war, as the Jewish tribes of Madinah would ally with one side or the other and keep them fighting. Thus, the following year, in Dhu al-Hijjah of the 11th year, at the same place, twelve men from Aws and Khazraj accepted Islam at your ﷺ invitation and formally pledged allegiance to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, which became known as the First Pledge of Aqabah. Its conditions were that we will worship only Allah and not associate anyone with Him, will not commit theft or adultery, will not bury our daughters alive, will not slander anyone, will not backbite anyone, and will obey every command of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. This pledge took place late at night in utmost secrecy. These new Muslim Companions requested you ﷺ to send a teacher with them. So you ﷺ sent Sayyiduna Mus’ab bin ‘Umayr ؓ to teach the commands of the Quran and to preach in Madinah. Mus’ab stayed at the house of As’ad bin Zurara, who was a respected chief of Madinah. This is the same Mus’ab bin ‘Umayr who was the scion of a wealthy family in Makkah, a handsome and elegant young man who wore fine clothes. But when he accepted Islam, his mother cut off his food and drink and expelled him from the house. He endured everything for the sake of the true religion and preferred poverty over wealth. He had the honor of being the first preacher of Islam in Madinah. He was the standard-bearer of the Muslim army at the Battle of Badr and was martyred at the Battle of Uhud. Through his efforts, Islam spread from house to house from Madinah to Quba. The chiefs of the tribe of Aws, Sa’d bin Mu’adh and Usayd bin Hudayr, also embraced Islam. Through these two chiefs, the strength of Islam increased considerably. Thus, the following year, seventy-five people from Madinah, including two women, came to Makkah during the days of Tashreeq at the time of Hajj, and at the place of Aqabah (which is between Mina and Makkah), pledged allegiance to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and entered the fold of Islam. This pledge also took place late at night in utmost secrecy and became known as the Second Pledge of Aqabah. The most important condition of this pledge, to which the Noble Quran draws attention, is heard from the words of ‘Ubadah bin Samit ؓ, who participated in both the First and Second Pledges of Aqabah, and whose statement is mentioned by both Bukhari and Muslim: ‘Ubadah bin Samit ؓ says: We pledged allegiance to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ that we would obey whatever command he gave us, whether in ease or hardship, whether we liked it or disliked it, even if he preferred others over us, and whoever he appointed as leader, we would obey him, would not dispute with him, and would always speak the truth, and would not fear the blame of any blamer in this matter.
[بخاری۔ کتاب الاحکام۔ مسلم۔ کتاب الامارۃ۔ باب وجوب طاعۃ الامراء فی غیر معصیۃ]

And the importance of this condition is that you ﷺ, according to the wishes of the Ansar, appointed twelve naqibs or leaders from among these seventy-five men, so that the work of the revolutionary movement of Islam would be conducted with discipline. ‘Ubadah bin Samit ؓ himself was also appointed as a naqib. The books of Seerah provide further details, namely that on this occasion, when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was invited to come to Madinah, Sayyiduna ‘Abbas ؓ said to them: O group of Ansar! Muhammad ﷺ is honored and respected among his family. We have always stood as a shield for him against his enemies. Now he wishes to come to you. If you can support him until death, then do so; otherwise, say so now. The Ansar did not reply to Sayyiduna ‘Abbas ؓ, but said to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ: Whatever covenant you wish to take from us, we are ready. So the Prophet ﷺ said: Pledge that you will fully assist me in spreading the true religion, and when I come to live among you, you will support me and my companions as you support your own families. The Ansar asked: What will we get in return? You ﷺ replied: “Paradise.” One of the Ansar, Abu al-Haytham, interrupted and said: Is it possible that when you gain power and authority, you will leave us and return to your homeland? You ﷺ smiled and said: That will not happen. My life and my death will be with you. After these details of the covenant were settled, the first to pledge allegiance at your hand was Bara’ bin ‘Azib bin Ma’rur ؓ, then all the companions pledged allegiance. Although these covenants were made with utmost secrecy, the polytheists of Makkah got wind of it. So a delegation of disbelievers went to the tribe of Khazraj. Since the polytheists of Khazraj themselves knew nothing about this agreement, they assured the delegation that no such agreement had been made. Thus, the delegation returned. However, the effect of this incident was that the Muslims of Khazraj became alert and quickly set out for Madinah. Later, the polytheists of Makkah learned that the story of the agreement was not just a rumor but was based on fact. So they set out in pursuit of the Muslims of Khazraj, but the Muslims had already gone ahead quickly. However, Sa’d bin ‘Ubadah ؓ, who was the chief of the tribe of Khazraj and had accepted Islam, was caught. The polytheists wanted to beat him, but Mut’im bin ‘Adi and Harb bin Umayyah intervened, because the trade caravans of the Quraysh used to pass near Madinah under the protection of Sa’d bin ‘Ubadah, so the polytheists had to restrain their anger. In this way, all the Muslims reached Madinah safely. After Mus’ab bin ‘Umayr ؓ, Abdullah ibn Umm Maktum ؓ reached Madinah. These two gentlemen used to teach the Quran to the Muslims of Madinah. After them, ‘Ammar bin Yasir ؓ, Bilal bin Rabah ؓ, and Sa’d bin Abi Waqqas ؓ reached Madinah. After them, Sayyiduna ‘Umar ؓ, along with twenty Muslims, set out for migration, challenging the Quraysh of Makkah, and reached Madinah. Finally, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, Sayyiduna Abu Bakr al-Siddiq ؓ, and ‘Amir bin Fuhayrah ؓ arrived in Madinah.
[بخاری۔ کتاب التفسیر سورۃ اعلیٰ بروایت براء بن عازب]

In this way, the center of the revolutionary movement of Islam was transferred from Makkah to Madinah.