Bismillāh
لَّقَدْ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ إِذْ يُبَايِعُونَكَ تَحْتَ الشَّجَرَةِ
Certainly was Allah pleased with the believers when they pledged allegiance to you, [O Muhammad], under the tree.
Surat al-Fath, No. 48, Ayat 18
Allah opens this verse by announcing His pleasure (ridā) with a specific group of believers, on account of a specific act: they gave their bay‘ah, their pledge of allegiance, to the Prophet (s) under a tree. Before turning to the story itself, it is worth considering this concept: what is bay‘ah, and why does it carry such weight?
Bay‘ah originates from the idea of striking one’s right hand against another person’s right hand as a gesture of concluding a sale or purchase. This was customary among Arabs before Islam; when buying and selling, this gesture finalized and affirmed the contract and emphasized one’s commitment to its terms. Similarly, when members of a community or tribe wished to pledge obedience and submission to a ruler or tribal chief, a similar practice of shaking hands was done and due to its resemblance to the act of bay‘ah in commerce, this pledge was also named bay‘ah.
Gradually, the term bay‘ah came to be applied not only to the act of shaking hands but also to the covenant and commitment that the act signified. It is in this sense that the word is commonly used in the Quran, Sunnah, and Islamic history. It is a covenant that one makes with their Imam, political ruler, or another person, pledging to be obedient and submissive to him in a specific matter or in general, and to remain committed and faithful to this pledge.
The incident behind the above verse takes place in the sixth year after the Hijrah. The Prophet (s) had a dream in which he saw himself entering the Ka‘bah, shaving his head, and holding the key to the Ka‘bah in his hand. After seeing this dream, he gave glad tidings to the Muslims and invited them to set out from Madinah with him to perform the ‘Umrah. Roughly 1,400 companions accompanied him on this trip, dressed in the garb of pilgrims and carrying only the swords of a traveller, a signal that this was not a military expedition.
The Quraysh, however, refused to allow the Muslims to enter Makkah and moved to block their advance. The two sides came to a standstill at a place called Hudaybiyyah, just outside Makkah’s boundary. Negotiations dragged on, tensions rose, and at one point a rumour reached the Muslim camp that ‘Uthmān ibn ‘Affān, who had been sent as the Prophet’s envoy to the Quraysh, had been killed.
Facing this uncertainty, the Prophet (s) called the companions to renew their commitment to him. Gathered beneath a tree, they placed their hands in his and pledged that they would stand and fight to the end, whatever the cost. This covenant is known as the Pledge of Ridwān (Bay‘at al-Ridwān), and also as the Pledge of the Tree (Bay‘at al-Shajarah). It is in reference to this pledge that Allah says, “Allah was pleased with the believers when they pledged allegiance to you under the tree.”
The pledge under the tree was an example of sincere allegiance to a rightly-guided leader. For us today, we can take a lesson from it that extends beyond that historical event. Just as the Prophet’s companions were called to renew and demonstrate their allegiance to the Prophet (s) in a moment of uncertainty, we too are called to maintain and renew our allegiance to the divinely appointed leadership of our own time: the Imam of our age (aj).
One powerful way of doing this is through the daily recitation of Du‘ā’ al-‘Ahd. Imam al-Sādiq (a) is reported to have said about this supplication:
Whoever recites this covenant for forty mornings will be among the helpers of the Imam (may Allah hasten his relief). And if he dies before his reappearance, Allah will raise him from his grave to fight alongside the Imam. And Allah will grant him, for every word, a thousand good deeds of His honour, and will erase from him a thousand sins.
We ask Allah to give us the tawfiq to recite this covenant and bind our hearts to our Imam before his reappearance.
Sources: ʿAllāmah Muhammad Husayn Tabātabā’ī, Tafsīr al-Mīzān.