The First Pledge of Aqabah (Bay'at al-Aqaba al-Ula)
The Pledge of the Women; 12 men of Yathrib embrace Islam.
Hijri BH 2 (11th year of the da'wah) CE c. 621 CE
The covenant given to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ at Aqabah (near Mina) during the hajj by 12 men of Yathrib — 10 Khazraj and 2 Aws — who formally embraced Islam. Because it carried no military or political clause, only faith and morality, it is called the Pledge of the Women (Bay’at al-Nisa).
Background — the seeds (EP 024)
- After Abu Talib’s death the Prophet ﷺ sought protection among pilgrim tribes (Kindah, Banu Shayban, and others) — all refused; some, like Kindah, wanted rulership after victory, which he declined (“The kingdom belongs to Allah”).
- The turning point: six men of the Khazraj at Aqabah, primed by their contact with the Jews’ talk of an awaited prophet and worn down by the civil war of Bu’ath, accepted the message and carried it home to Yathrib.
The pledge (EP 025)
- The next hajj (11th year of the da’wah, ~2 years before the Hijra), 12 converts came.
- Ubada ibn al-Samit (ra) (Bukhari): they pledged to worship Allah alone, and not to steal, fornicate, kill their children, or disobey in what is right — the same terms later given to women (Quran 60:12), hence the name.
- The Prophet ﷺ sent Mus’ab ibn Umayr (ra) back with them as teacher and imam; within weeks ~40 had converted and the first Jumu’ah in Islamic history was held (led by Mus’ab, in As’ad ibn Zurarah’s house) — Muslims in Mecca could not yet pray in public.
Significance
The largest conversion from outside Mecca to date, and the first time the Aws and Khazraj set aside their feud under one banner — a foretaste of what Islam would do to tribalism. It set the stage for the Second Pledge and the Hijra.
Cross-references
The Second Pledge of Aqabah (Bay'at al-Aqaba al-Thaniya) · The Hijrah (Emigration to Madinah) · Mus'ab ibn Umayr (ra) · Ubada ibn al-Samit (ra) · As'ad ibn Zurarah (ra) · The Ansar (the Helpers of Madinah) · Madinah (Yathrib) · Muhammad ﷺ · Salah (the Five Daily Prayers) · Seerah Timeline
Sources
- S005 — Yasir Qadhi Seerah EP 024–025. Draws on Sahih Bukhari (Ubada), Ibn Ishaq, and the sirah accounts of the pilgrim delegations.