Isra & Miraj and the Pledges of Aqabah

In the depth of the Sorrow — or just after, narrations differ on the year (10th–12th of prophethood), all agree on the gift — came the Night Journey. The Prophet ﷺ slept at the Kaaba (in Umm Hani’s house by some accounts) when Jibril opened his chest once more, washed the heart with Zamzam, and brought Buraq — the white steed striding to the horizon’s edge. In a portion of the night he was at Bayt al-Maqdis: he tethered Buraq at the prophets’ ring, entered, and led Adam to Isa in prayer — the public transfer of the imamate of mankind. Offered wine and milk, he chose milk; Jibril: “You chose fitrah — you and your ummah are guided.” The Quran opens the surah: “Glory to Him who took His servant by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque, whose precincts We blessed, to show him of Our signs” (17:1). Morning brought the storm: Quraysh howled “a month’s journey in a night?!” — apostates fell away (the sifting wisdom of the event), Abu Jahl staged the description-test, and Abu Bakr, told breathlessly, answered without blinking: “If he said it, he speaks truth — I believe him in farther tidings, morning and evening.” From that day: As-Siddiq, the Confirmer.

Then the Ascension — the ummah’s loftiest narrative, in Bukhari and Muslim from Anas via Malik ibn Sasah. Heaven by heaven, greeted at each gate (“who is it?” “Jibril.” “Who is with you?” “Muhammad.” “Was he summoned?” “Yes.” “Welcome — blessed the comer!”): the first heaven — Adam, father of mankind, weeping right at the souls of the blest, left at the damned; second — Yahya and Isa, maternal cousins; third — Yusuf, granted half of beauty; fourth — Idris (“We raised him to a high station,” 19:57); fifth — Harun; sixth — Musa, who wept: “A youth sent after me whose followers entering Paradise outnumber mine” — humility of the mighty; seventh — Ibrahim, back against Bayt al-Mamur (seventy thousand angels circumambulate it daily, never to return), greeting: “Convey my salam to your ummah — Paradise’s soil is pure, its water sweet, its plantation: SubhanAllah, Alhamdulillah, La ilaha illallah, Allahu Akbar.” Beyond the Lote-Tree of the Utmost (Sidrat al-Muntaha) Jibril stopped — “if I advance a fingertip I burn” — and the Prophet ﷺ heard the Pen’s scratch decreeing. Fifty prayers were ordained; descending, Musa counselled reduction — “your ummah cannot bear it; I tested Bani Israel” — and after shuttling, five remained, with Allah’s word: “They are five in deed and fifty in reward — My word is not changed.”

The Quran anchors Isra (17:1) and the Lote-Tree vision (53:13–18 — “the sight did not swerve nor transgress”); the details fill Bukhari, Muslim, Tirmidhi. The fruits were immediate and eternal: prayer — ordained in heaven, led by the Prophet ﷺ of all prophets — became the mission’s spine; the believer’s daily Miraj. And the trial of narration sifted Makkah: those whose faith hung on caravan-logic fell; Abu Bakr’s logic — trust in the Messenger’s truthfulness — rose. When Quraysh demanded proof, Allah raised Bayt al-Maqdis before his eyes (“I described its gates one by one while looking at it”) and he reported their caravan at Rawha — stray camel, water-skin, arrival time — all verified. Disbelief, the Quran notes of every sign, only hardened (17:59).

Providence had meanwhile opened the northern door. At the Ukaz fair (11th year), six Khazraj pilgrims from Yathrib — exhausted by Aws-Khazraj blood-feuds (Buath’s wounds fresh) and tutored by local Jews that “a prophet is nigh” — met the Prophet ﷺ at Aqabah and believed on the spot: Asad ibn Zurarah, Awf and Muadh (Afra’s sons), Rafi ibn Malik, Dhakwan ibn Abd Qays, Ubadah ibn as-Samit. “We left our people in hatred no tribe knows,” they said; “perhaps Allah will unite them through you.” Next Hajj (12th year) twelve came — including two of Aws — and gave the First Pledge of Aqabah (Bayat an-Nisa, the Women’s Pledge, though all men): no shirk, no theft, no adultery, no infanticide, no slander, no disobedience in good — “whoever fulfils, his reward is Allah’s.” No war-clause: the mission still refused the sword. With them returned Musab ibn Umayr — the perfumed dandy turned ascetic teacher — with Ibn Umm Maktum: house by house, Yathrib whispered Islam; Musab’s victories (Usayd ibn Hudayr and Sad ibn Muadh converted through his recitation at the well) made the city pregnant with faith.

The thirteenth Hajj brought seventy-three (sixty-two Khazraj, eleven Aws, with two women: Nusaybah and Asma) to the midnight rendezvous in Aqabah’s defile. Abbas ibn Abdul Muttalib — still pagan, there to vouchsafe his nephew — spoke first: Muhammad is honoured among us, protected; if you take him, honour the bond. Al-Bara answered: we give our word. Then the Prophet ﷺ recited, invited to Allah, and stipulated the Second Pledge — the Pledge of War: obedience in vigour and sloth, spending in ease and hardship, enjoining good and forbidding evil, fearing no blame, and defence of him “as you defend your women and children” — Paradise the price. “What is ours, Messenger of Allah?” “Paradise.” Hands piled on hands — the first state-founding handshake of Islam. Twelve naqibs (nine Khazraj, three Aws) were appointed as guarantors. Satan shrieked from the hilltop exposing them; the Prophet ﷺ calmly ordered dispersal — and commanded the Hijrah. Makkah’s chapter was closing; Yathrib’s dawn — soon to be Madinah — was breaking.