The Second Pledge of al-ʿAqaba

Seventy-three men and two women of the Ansar secretly pledged allegiance to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in the glen of al-ʿAqaba at Mina during the nights of Tashriq, that they would protect him as they protected themselves and their families. The pledge was the gateway to the Hijra and the founding of the state.

After a group of the Khazraj had embraced Islam in an earlier season and the flame of Islam blazed again in Yathrib, seventy-three men and two women came in the season of the thirteenth year of the mission. The Prophet ﷺ appointed to meet them in the glen of al-ʿAqaba on the middle of the days of Tashriq by night, and they slipped from their camps like sandgrouse.

al-ʿAbbas, the Prophet's ﷺ uncle, attended to secure a guarantee for his nephew, and the people said: Take for your Lord and for yourself what you will. He stipulated for Allah His worship alone, and for himself and his Companions protection and defence. They said: And what is ours if we fulfil it? He said: "Paradise." They said: Stretch out your hand — and they pledged to him.

One of them said: By Allah, if you wish, we will fall upon the people of Mina tomorrow with our swords. He ﷺ said: "We have not been commanded to that," and chose from them twelve leaders. Only months passed before he permitted his Companions to migrate to the abode of the Ansar. So the Second ʿAqaba was the first brick in the building of the state.