Home > Sira > The story of the second Aqaba pledge
The story of the second Aqaba pledge: al-Bara ibn Ma’rour and the qibla, ’who will give me refuge?’, the covenant of war, the twelve naqibs, the poem of Ka’b ibn Malik, the cry of the devil, and the captivity of Sa’d ibn ’Ubada.
Updated on 07 September 2026 at 11:07 PM
Ibn Ishaq said: then Mus’ab ibn ’Umayr returned to Mecca: and went out the Muslims of the Ansar with the polytheist pilgrims of their people, until they came to Mecca: and they made appointment with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) at the Aqaba, among the middles of the days of at-tashriq, when Allah willed for them His generosity, the victory of His prophet, the exaltation of Islam and its people. Ma’bad ibn Ka’b ibn Malik told me that his brother Abdallah ibn Ka’b, who was the most knowledgeable of the Ansar, told him that their father Ka’b, who was among those who witnessed the Aqaba and pledged allegiance to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) there, told him: we went out with the polytheist pilgrims of our people, having already prayed and understood, and with us was al-Bara’ ibn Ma’rour, our lord and our eldest. When we set our faces toward the journey and went out of Medina, al-Bara’ said: O you, I have had an idea: and by Allah I know not whether you will accord with me in it or not. We said: and what is it? He said: I have decided not to leave this building behind my back, and to pray toward it.
We said: by Allah, it has not reached us that our prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) prayed toward anything but Syria: and we do not intend to oppose him. He said: I shall pray toward it. We said to him: but we shall not. And whenever the prayer came upon us we prayed toward Syria, and he prayed toward the Kaaba, until we came to Mecca. He said to me: O nephew, let us go to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), that I may ask him about what I did in this journey of mine: for something of it has settled in my soul, from your opposing me in it. We went out asking for the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): and we knew him not, and had never seen him before.
We met a man of the people of Mecca and asked him about the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). He said: do you know him? We said: no. He said: do you know al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, his uncle? We said: yes: and we knew al-Abbas: he would ever come to us as a merchant. He said: when you two enter the sanctuary, he is the man sitting with al-Abbas. We entered the sanctuary: and behold al-Abbas sitting, and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) sitting with him. We greeted, then sat beside them. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said to al-Abbas: "do you know these two men, O Abu l-Fadl?" He said: yes: this is al-Bara’ ibn Ma’rour, lord of his people: and this is Ka’b ibn Malik. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "the poet?" He said: yes. Al-Bara’ ibn Ma’rour said to him: O Prophet of Allah, I set out in this journey and Allah guided me to Islam: so I saw that I would not make this building a back for me: and I prayed toward it: and my companions opposed me therein until something of it settled in my soul: what do you see, O Messenger of Allah? He said: "you were upon a qibla: had you been patient upon it." So al-Bara’ returned to the qibla of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), and he prayed with us toward Syria. His people claim he prayed toward the Kaaba until he died: and it is not as they say: we know it better than they.
Ka’b ibn Malik said: then we went out on the pilgrimage, and made appointment with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) at the Aqaba, among the middles of the days of at-tashriq. When we had finished the pilgrimage, and there came the night we had appointed with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), and with us was Abdallah ibn Amr ibn Haram, Abu Jabir, a lord of our lords and a noble of our nobles: we took him, while we were hiding our affair from our polytheist people: and we spoke to him and said: O Abu Jabir, you are a lord of our lords and a noble of our nobles: and we do not wish that you be, tomorrow, firewood for the Fire. Then we called him to Islam, and informed him of the appointment of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) with us at the Aqaba. So he accepted Islam, and witnessed the Aqaba with us: and he was a naqib.
And al-Bukhari reported: Ibrahim told me: Hisham told us that Ibn Jurayj informed them: Ata said: Jabir said: I, my father and my maternal uncle are among the companions of the Aqaba. Abdallah ibn Muhammad said: Ibn ’Uyayna said: one of them is al-Bara’ ibn Ma’rour. Ali ibn al-Madini told us: Sufyan told us: Amr used to say: I heard Jabir ibn Abdallah say: my two maternal uncles witnessed the Aqaba.
Imam Ahmad reported: Abd ar-Razzak told us: Ma’mar informed us, from Ibn Khuthaym, from Abu az-Zubayr, from Jabir: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) stayed in Mecca ten years, pursuing the people in their dwelling places, at ’Ukaz and Mijnana, and at the seasons in Mina, saying: "who will give me refuge? Who will aid me, until I convey the message of my Lord? And for him is Paradise." It would be that a man went out from Yemen or from Mudar, thus he said in it, and his people would come to him, saying: beware of the youth of Quraysh, lest he beguile you: and he walked between their encampments while they pointed at him with fingers: until Allah sent us to him from Yathrib: so we gave him refuge and believed him. A man of us would go out and believe in him: he would teach him the Quran: he would return to his family, and they would enter Islam with his Islam: until no house of the houses of the Ansar remained but in it was a party of Muslims manifesting Islam. Then they consulted all together, and we said: until when shall we leave the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) driven in the mountains of Mecca and fearing?
So seventy men of us traveled to him until they came upon him in the season: and we made appointment with him at the ravine of the Aqaba: we gathered near it, a man and two men, until we met together. We said: O Messenger of Allah, upon what shall we pledge to you? He said: "you pledge to me upon hearing and obedience, in vigor and laziness, and spending in hardship and ease, and upon enjoining good and forbidding wrong, and upon that you say for Allah, not fearing in Allah the blame of the blamer: and upon that you aid me and protect me when I come to you, from what you protect of it your selves and your wives and your children: and for you is Paradise."
So we rose to him, and As’ad ibn Zurara took his hand: and he was the youngest of them: and in the version of al-Bayhaqi: the youngest of the seventy except me. He said: gently, O people of Yathrib: we have not yet struck the humps of the camels but we know he is the Messenger of Allah: and his going out today is the parting from all the Arabs, the slaying of your best, and the swords hacking at you: so if you are a people patient upon that, take him: and your reward is upon Allah: and if you are a people fearing for yourselves with fear, then disclose it: for it is more excusing for you with Allah. They said: hold back from us, O As’ad: for by Allah we shall never abandon this pledge, nor ever take it away. So we rose to him and pledged to him: he took upon us and stipulated: and he gives us upon that Paradise. And Imam Ahmad reported it likewise, and al-Bayhaqi, through Dawud ibn Abd ar-Rahman al-’Attar: and al-Bayhaqi added, from al-Hakim, by his chain up to Yahya ibn Sulaym: both, from Abdallah ibn Uthman ibn Khuthaym, from Abu az-Zubayr, in like manner. And this is a good chain upon the condition of Muslim: and they did not report it. Al-Bazzar said: and more than one reported it from Ibn Khuthaym: and we know it not reported from Jabir except through this way.
Imam Ahmad said: Sulayman ibn Dawud told us, from Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi az-Zinad, from Musa ibn ’Uqba, from Abu az-Zubayr, from Jabir: al-Abbas was holding the hand of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was taking our pledges: and when we had finished, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "I have taken and I have given."
And al-Bazzar said: Muhammad ibn Ma’mar told us: Qabisa told us, from Sufyan, who is ath-Thawri, from Jabir, meaning al-Ju’fi, and Dawud, who is Ibn Abi Hind, from ash-Sha’bi, from Jabir, meaning Ibn Abdallah: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said to the naqibs of the Ansar: "will you give me refuge and protect me?" They said: yes. They said: then what shall we have? He said: "Paradise." Then he said: it is not known reported from Jabir except by this chain.
Ibn Ishaq said: Ma’bad reported, from Abdallah, from his father Ka’b ibn Malik: we slept that night with our people in our encampments: and when a third of the night had passed, we went out from our encampments for the appointment of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), slipping furtively like partridges, hiding ourselves: until we gathered in the ravine at the Aqaba: and we were seventy-three men: and with us two women of our women: Nusseiba bint Ka’b, Umm ’Umarah, one of the women of Banu Mazin ibn an-Najjar: and Asma’ bint Amr ibn Adi ibn Nabii, one of the women of Banu Salama, and she is the mother of Mani’. And Ibn Ishaq stated explicitly, in the version of Yunus ibn Bukayr, their names and their lineages.
I say: and in some of the hadiths it comes that they were seventy: and the Arabs often drop the fraction. And Urwa ibn az-Zubayr and Musa ibn ’Uqba said: they were seventy men and one woman. He said: among them were forty of their elders, and thirty of their youth: and the youngest of them were Abu Mas’ud and Jabir ibn Abdallah. And the word of Muhammad ibn Ishaq, seventy-five, is firmer. And Allah knows best.
Ka’b ibn Malik said: so we gathered in the ravine, awaiting the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), until he came to us, and with him al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib: who was that day upon the religion of his people: except that he loved to attend the affair of his brother’s son and bind himself for him. When he sat, the first speaker was al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, and he said: O company of the Khazraj, and the Arabs used to call this group of the Ansar only the Khazraj, its Aus and its Khazraj: Muhammad is of us as you know: and we have protected him from our people, of those who are upon our view of him: he is therefore in honor among his people, and protection in his town: yet he has refused but to incline toward you, and to join you: so if you see that you will fulfill to him what you called him to, and protect him from whoever opposes him, then you are responsible for what you undertake: and if you see that you will surrender him and forsake him after bringing him out to you, then leave him from now: for he is in honor and protection among his people and in his town. We said to him: we have heard what you said: so speak, O Messenger of Allah, and take for yourself and for your Lord what you wish. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) spoke, recited the Quran, called to Allah, and made Islam desirable: then he said: "I pledge you upon that you protect me from what you protect your women and your children."
Al-Bara’ ibn Ma’rour took his hand then said: yes: by Him who sent you with the truth we shall protect you from what we protect our womenfolk: so pledge us, O Messenger of Allah: for we are, by Allah, sons of wars, and people of the girdle, we have inherited it, an elder after an elder. The speech was opposed, while al-Bara’ spoke to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): Abu l-Haytham ibn at-Tayyihan said: O Messenger of Allah: between us and these men are cords: and we are the cutters of them, meaning the Jews: might it be, if we do that and Allah makes you manifest, that you return to your people and leave us? The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) smiled, then said: "rather the blood for blood, and the demolition for demolition: I am of you and you are of me: I shall war against whoever you war against, and make peace with whoever you make peace with." Ka’b said: and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "bring out from among you twelve naqibs, who shall be over their people responsible for what is in them." So they brought out from among them twelve naqibs: nine of the Khazraj, and three of the Aus.
Ibn Ishaq said: and they are: Abu Umama, As’ad ibn Zurara, previously mentioned: and Sa’d ibn ar-Rabi’ ibn Amr ibn Abi Zuhayr ibn Malik ibn Imri’ al-Qays ibn Malik ibn Tha’laba ibn Ka’b ibn al-Khazraj ibn al-Harith ibn al-Khazraj: and Abdallah ibn Rawaha ibn Tha’laba ibn Imri’ al-Qays ibn Amr ibn Imri’ al-Qays ibn Malik ibn Tha’laba ibn Ka’b ibn al-Khazraj ibn al-Harith ibn al-Khazraj: and Rafi’ ibn Malik ibn al-’Ajlan, previously mentioned: and al-Bara’ ibn Ma’rour ibn Sakhr ibn Khansa’ ibn Sinan ibn Ubayd ibn Adi ibn Ghanm ibn Ka’b ibn Salama ibn Sa’d ibn Ali ibn Asad ibn Sareda ibn Tazid ibn Jusham ibn al-Khazraj: and Abdallah ibn Amr ibn Haram ibn Tha’laba ibn Haram ibn Ka’b ibn Ghanm ibn Ka’b ibn Salama: and ’Ubada ibn as-Samit, previously mentioned: and Sa’d ibn ’Ubada ibn Dulaym ibn Haritha ibn Khuzayma ibn Tha’laba ibn Tarif ibn al-Khazraj ibn Sa’ida ibn Ka’b ibn al-Khazraj: and al-Mundhir ibn Amr ibn Khunays ibn Haritha ibn Lawdhan ibn Abd Wudd ibn Zayd ibn Tha’laba ibn al-Khazraj ibn Sa’ida ibn Ka’b ibn al-Khazraj: so these are nine of the Khazraj. And of the Aus three: Usayd ibn Hudayr ibn Simak ibn Atik ibn Rafi’ ibn Imri’ al-Qays ibn Zayd ibn Abd al-Ashhal ibn Jusham ibn al-Harith ibn al-Khazraj ibn Amr ibn Malik ibn al-Aus: and Sa’d ibn Khaythama ibn al-Harith ibn Malik ibn Ka’b ibn an-Nahhat ibn Ka’b ibn Haritha ibn Ghanm ibn as-Salm ibn Imri’ al-Qays ibn Malik ibn al-Aus: and Rifa’a ibn Abd al-Mundhir ibn Zubayr ibn Zayd ibn Umayya ibn Zayd ibn Malik ibn Awf ibn Amr ibn Awf ibn Malik ibn al-Aus.
Ibn Hisham said: and the people of knowledge count among them Abu l-Haytham ibn at-Tayyihan, in place of this Rifa’a: and it is thus in the version of Yunus, from Ibn Ishaq: and as-Suhayli and Ibn al-Athir in Usd al-Ghaba preferred it. Then Ibn Hisham attested that by what he reported from Abu Zayd al-Ansari, in what he mentions of the poem of Ka’b ibn Malik, upon the twelve naqibs of this night, the night of the second Aqaba, when he said:
Convey to Ubayy that his opinion has spoken: and the morning of the ravine has come, and the event falls.
Allah granted not what your soul reckoned: He is in ambush over the affairs of men, seeing and hearing.
And convey to Abu Sufyan that there has appeared to us: in Ahmad a light of the guidance of Allah, resplendent.
So shrink not in the mustering of the affair you seek: and rally, and gather all you can gather.
Beware: know that the breaking of our covenants: the clan will deny it to you when you league together.
Al-Bara’ and Ibn Amr will deny it, both: and As’ad will deny it to you, and Rafi’.
And Sa’d, the Sa’dite, will deny it: and al-Mundhir: to your face, if you attempt it, interposing.
And the son of Rabi’a: if you seize his covenant: from his Muslim: none will covet there.
Likewise the son of Rawaha will not give it you: his outflow without him is a piercing poison.
And faithful to him, and al-Qawqali ibn Samit: with a lance hurled at what you attempt.
Abu Haytham also, faithful the like of it: and faithful to the covenant given, submissive.
And the son of Hudayr: if you seek by greed: are you drawn from the folly of error?
And Sa’d, the brother of Amr ibn Awf: refusing what you attempt of the affair.
Those are stars: from them no star of ill shall rise to you in the darkness of night.
Ibn Hisham said: he mentioned therein Abu l-Haytham ibn at-Tayyihan, and mentioned not Rifa’a. I say: and he mentioned Sa’d ibn Mu’adh: who was not, strictly speaking, of the naqibs that night. And Allah knows best.
And Ya’qub ibn Sufyan reported, from Yunus ibn Abd al-A’la, from Ibn Wahb, from Malik: the Ansar on the night of the Aqaba were seventy men: and their naqibs were twelve naqibs: nine of the Khazraj and three of the Aus. And an elder of the Ansar told me that Jibril would point out to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) whom to make a naqib on the night of the Aqaba: and Usayd ibn Hudayr was one of the naqibs that night. Al-Bayhaqi reported it.
Ibn Ishaq said: Abdallah ibn Abi Bakr told me that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said to the naqibs: "you are over your people sureties for what is in them, like the suretyship of the disciples of ’Issa son of Maryam: and I am surety over my people." They said: yes. And Asim ibn Umar ibn Qatada told me that when the people gathered for the pledge of allegiance of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), al-Abbas ibn ’Ubada ibn Nadla al-Ansari, brother of Banu Salim ibn Awf, said: O company of the Khazraj: do you know over what you pledge allegiance to this man? They said: yes. He said: you pledge allegiance to him upon war against the red and the black of men: so if you see that, when your wealth is worn out and your nobles slain, you will surrender him, then surrender him from now: for by Allah, if you do it, it is the ignominy of this world and the hereafter: and if you see that you will fulfill to him what you called him to, despite the wasting of wealth and the slaying of nobles, then take him: for by Allah he is the best of this world and the hereafter.
They said: we take him upon the loss of wealth and the slaying of nobles: and what shall we have by that, O Messenger of Allah, if we are faithful? He said: "Paradise." They said: stretch out your hand. So he stretched out his hand and they pledged. Asim ibn Umar ibn Qatada said: al-Abbas ibn ’Ubada said that only to tighten the knot upon their necks: and Abdallah ibn Abi Bakr claimed he said it only to delay that pledge that night, hoping that Abdallah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul, lord of the Khazraj, would attend it, that the affair of the people be stronger: and Allah knows best which of that it was.
Ibn Ishaq said: and the Banu an-Najjar claim that Abu Umama As’ad ibn Zurara was the first to strike his hand: and the Banu Abd al-Ashhal say: rather Abu l-Haytham ibn at-Tayyihan.
Ibn Ishaq said: and Ma’bad told me, from his brother Abdallah, from their father Ka’b ibn Malik: the first to strike the hand of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was al-Bara’ ibn Ma’rour: then the people pledged. And Ibn al-Athir said in Usd al-Ghaba: and the Banu Salama claim that the first to pledge to him that night was Ka’b ibn Malik. And it is established in the Sahih of al-Bukhari and Muslim, from the hadith of az-Zuhri, from Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abdallah ibn Ka’b, from his father, from Ka’b ibn Malik, in his hadith when he stayed behind from the campaign of Tabuk: and I witnessed with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) the night of the Aqaba when we covenanted upon Islam: and I would not love to have had in it a share of Badr: and Badr is more mentioned among the people than it.
And al-Bayhaqi said: Abu l-Husayn ibn Bishran informed us: Amr ibn as-Sammak informed us: Hambal ibn Ishaq told us, from Abu Nu’aym, from Zakariyya ibn Abi Zayda, from Amir ash-Sha’bi: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) set out with his uncle al-Abbas to the seventy of the Ansar at the Aqaba, under the tree, and said: "let your speaker speak, and let him not lengthen the sermon: for the polytheists have an eye upon you: and if they know of you they will disgrace you." Their speaker, who was Abu Umama, said: ask, O Muhammad, your Lord for whatever you wish: then ask for yourself after that whatever you wish: then inform us what we shall have of reward with Allah and with you if we do that. He said: "I ask you for my Lord that you worship Him and associate nothing with Him: and I ask you for myself and my companions that you give us refuge, and aid us, and protect us from what you protect your selves." They said: then what shall we have if we do that? He said: "for you is Paradise." They said: take it for yourself. Then Hambal reported, from Imam Ahmad, from Yahya ibn Zakariyya, from Mujalid, from ash-Sha’bi, from Abu Mas’ud al-Ansari, and mentioned it: and Abu Mas’ud was the youngest of them. And Ahmad said, from Yahya, from Isma’il ibn Abi Khalid, from ash-Sha’bi: and the elders and the youth never heard a sermon like it.
And al-Bayhaqi said: Abu Tahir Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Mahmish informed us: Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn al-Fadl al-Fahham informed us: Muhammad ibn Yahya adh-Dhuhli informed us: Amr ibn Uthman ar-Raqqi informed us: Zuhayr told us, from Abdallah ibn Uthman ibn Khuthaym, from Isma’il ibn Ubaydallah ibn Rifa’a, from his father: my caravan of wine arrived: and ’Ubada ibn as-Samit came to it and pierced it, and said: we pledged allegiance to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) upon hearing and obedience, in vigor and laziness, and spending in hardship and ease, and upon enjoining good and forbidding wrong, and upon that we say for Allah and the blame of the blamer does not seize us therein: and upon that we aid the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) when he comes to us at Yathrib, with what we protect our selves and our wives and our children: and for us is Paradise: so this is the pledge of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) which we pledged to him.
And this is a good, strong chain: and they did not report it. Yunus reported, from Ibn Ishaq: ’Ubada ibn al-Walid ibn ’Ubada ibn as-Samit told me, from his father, from his grandfather ’Ubada ibn as-Samit: we pledged to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) the pledge of war upon hearing and obedience in our hardship and our ease, our vigor and our sloth, and preference over ourselves, and that we dispute not the affair with its people: and that we speak the truth wherever we are, not fearing in Allah the blame of the blamer.
Ibn Ishaq said in his hadith: Ma’bad reported, from Abdallah, from Ka’b ibn Malik: when we had pledged allegiance to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), the devil cried from the summit of the Aqaba with the most piercing voice I ever heard: O people of the dwellings: do you want Muhammad and the companions with him, who have banded together to war upon you? He said: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "this is Azabb of the Aqaba: this is the son of Azyab": and Ibn Hisham said: it is said the son of Uzayb: "do you hear, O enemy of Allah? By Allah I shall set about you." Then the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "scatter to your encampments." Al-Abbas ibn ’Ubada ibn Nadla said: O Messenger of Allah: by Him who sent you with the truth, if you wish we shall fall tomorrow upon the people of Mina with our swords. He said: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "we have not been commanded that: but return to your encampments."
He said: so we returned to our beds and slept in them until morning: and when morning came the multitude of Quraysh came upon us into our dwellings, and they said: O company of the Khazraj: it has reached us that you came to this companion of ours, to bring him out from among our backs, and pledge him upon war against us: and by Allah, no tribe of the Arabs is more hateful to us than that war should flare between us and them because of you. Then there rose from there the polytheists of our people swearing: nothing of this happened, and we knew nothing of it. And they spoke truly: they knew not. And some of us looked at some. Then the people rose, among them al-Harith ibn Hisham ibn al-Mughira al-Makhzumi, upon his feet two new sandals. I said a word to him, as if I wished to join the people in what they said: O Abu Jabir, can you not take, you a lord of our lords, sandals like those of this youth of Quraysh? Al-Harith heard it, and pulled them off his two feet, then threw them to me and said: by Allah you shall wear them. Abu Jabir says: stop: by Allah you have spared the youth: so return to him his sandals. I said: by Allah I shall not return them: and a good omen it is: if the omen is true I shall confiscate them from him.
Ibn Ishaq said: and Abdallah ibn Abi Bakr told me they came to Abdallah ibn Ubayy ibn Salul and said to him the word Ka’b mentioned. He said to them: this is a grave matter: my people will not be divided over the like of this: and I knew nothing of it. So they went away from him.
He said: the people dispersed from Mina: and the report was spread abroad: and they found it had come to pass: so they went out seeking the people, and caught up with Sa’d ibn ’Ubada at adh-Dhakhr, and al-Mundhir ibn Amr brother of Banu Sa’ida ibn Ka’b ibn al-Khazraj: and both were naqibs. As for al-Mundhir, the people were powerless before him: and as for Sa’d ibn ’Ubada, they took him: they tied his two hands to his neck with the strap of his saddle: then brought him into Mecca striking him and dragging him by his forelock: and he was of much poetry. Sa’d said: I was in their hands, when a party of Quraysh rose upon me: among them a man of fair face, white, radiant, beautiful of men: and I said to myself: if there is any good with anyone of the people, it is with this one. When he drew near to me, raising his hand, he dealt me a violent blow: and I said to myself: by Allah, with them there is no good after this. And I was in their hands, they dragging me: a man of those with them came to my rescue, and said: woe to you, is there between you and anyone of Quraysh neither patronage nor covenant?
I said: yes, by Allah: I used to protect the merchants of Jubayr ibn Mu’im in my land, and shield them from whoever wished to wrong them in my land: and for al-Harith ibn Harb ibn Umayya ibn Abd Shams. He said: woe to you! Then call by the name of the two men, and mention what is between you and them. So I did, and that man went out to the two: and found them in the sanctuary at the Kaaba: and said to them: a man of the Khazraj just now is being beaten in the open plain, and he calls upon you. They said: and who is he? He said: Sa’d ibn ’Ubada. They said: true, by Allah: he used to protect for us our merchants, and shield them from being wronged in his land. So they came and freed Sa’d from their hands, and he departed: and the one who dealt Sa’d the blow was Suhayl ibn Amr. Ibn Hisham said: and the one who came to his rescue was Abu l-Bakhtari ibn Hisham.
And al-Bayhaqi reported, by his chain, from Abd al-Hamid ibn Abi Abs ibn Jabr, from his father: Quraysh heard a crier crying in the night upon Abu Qubays:
If the two Sa’ds accept Islam, Muhammad will arise tomorrow in Mecca: fearing not the discord of the opponent.
When they arose in the morning, Abu Sufyan said: who are the two Sa’ds? As’ad ibn Bakr, or Sa’d ibn Hudaym? And when the second night came they heard a crier saying:
O two Sa’ds, the Sa’ds of the Aws, be you two helpers: and O Sa’d, Sa’d of the two Khazrajs of thick manes,
Answer the caller of guidance, and wish, upon Allah, in the Firdaws, the longing of the knower:
For the reward of Allah for the seeker of guidance are gardens of the Firdaws with leafy orchards.
When they arose in the morning, Abu Sufyan said: it is, by Allah, Sa’d ibn Mu’adh and Sa’d ibn ’Ubada.