Surah Al-Fath (48) — Ayah 18

Indeed, Allah was pleased with the believers when they pledged allegiance to you under the tree [24]. He knew what was in their hearts, so He sent down tranquility [25] upon them and rewarded them with a near victory [26].

[24]
Those Who Slander the Companions?

This verse begins with ﴿لَقَدْ رَضِيَ اللّٰهُ﴾. For this reason, this pledge is called the Pledge of Ridwan, meaning such a sincere and devoted pledge upon which Allah granted these people the certificate of His pleasure. And in some hadiths, it is explicitly mentioned that all those who participated in this pledge are destined for Paradise. Yet, despite this, some people even doubt the faith of these noble Companions, may Allah be pleased with them. They say that no doubt, at the time of the Pledge of Ridwan, these people were loyal to Islam and sincere for its cause, but later they proved to be disloyal. In other words, these people first accused those great Companions, may Allah be pleased with them. The second accusation is against Allah Almighty, as if, when granting His certificate of pleasure, He could not even know that those to whom He is giving this certificate would later turn out to be disloyal. Thus, this belief is not only an insult to the distinguished Companions but also a severe blow to the knowledge of the unseen of Allah Almighty. Such people should be concerned for their own faith.

The Tree Under Which the Pledge Was Taken:

Regarding the tree under which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ took the pledge, two types of narrations are found. According to the narration of Tabari, Muslims began to visit this tree. They would go there and perform prayers and nawafil, etc. When Sayyiduna Umar ؓ learned of this, he had it cut down during his caliphate. In contrast, from authentic and reliable narrations, it is known that the very next year, some Companions who had participated in the Pledge of Ridwan went there, but even they could not recognize the tree under which the pledge had been taken. In this regard, consider the following hadiths:
1. Sayyiduna Jabir bin Abdullah Ansari ؓ says that on the day of Hudaybiyyah, we were one thousand four hundred men. [بخاري۔ كتاب التفسير]
Tariq bin Abdur Rahman says: I set out with the intention of Hajj. On the way, I saw some people performing prayers, so I asked, "What is this mosque?" They said: Here was the tree under which the Prophet ﷺ took the Pledge of Ridwan from the Companions. Hearing this, I went to Sa'id bin Musayyib. He said that my father (Musayyib bin Hazm) was among those who pledged under the tree. He used to say, "When I went there the next year, I could not recognize that tree." Sa'id says: The Companions of the Prophet ﷺ could not recognize that tree, and do you people know more than them? (that you recognized it and built a mosque there). [بخاری۔ کتاب المغازی۔ باب غزوۃ الحدیبیۃ]

[25]
On That Day, Stopping the Battle Was Allah’s Favor:

That is, regarding those who pledged, it became clear how much devotion and self-sacrifice for Islam existed among them. Thus, Allah Almighty made their hearts firm on the matter that, whatever the outcome, we must fight. Apparently, the result that seemed likely was that on one side there were only fourteen hundred unarmed and foreign Muslims, and on the other side was their powerful mortal enemy, who, in terms of equipment, numbers, supplies—in every respect—was superior to them. And the most important thing was that he was at home, and his opponents, the Muslims, had come to his home. In this situation, for Allah to make the hearts of the Muslims firm on battle and to provide them with tranquility was indeed a great blessing from Allah. And its second meaning could also be that, after so much progress towards war, Allah cooled their emotions for the sake of making peace with the disbelievers, and made them content with obedience to Allah and His Messenger ﷺ.

[26] The near victory refers to the conquest of Khaybar, which occurred only three months after the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah.