'We will not worship any but one God: we will not steal, neither will we commit adultery, nor kill our children; we will not slander in any wise, nor will we disobey the Prophet in anything that is right.'
It was a mild pledge by the side of what Mohammed demanded later, and because there was no mention of the sword it was afterwards styled 'The Pledge of Women.' But it served for the present, and Mohammed assured them:
'If ye fulfil the pledge, Paradise shall be your reward.'
With statesmanlike restraint Mohammed was content to wait another anxious year.
The twelve were now committed to his cause; he could count on their zeal to propagate the new teaching and prepare Yathreb for his coming.
The Second Pledge of Acaba.
A year later, at the time of the next pilgrimage, Mohammed, without attendant, stands at the appointed trysting-place. It is midnight, for the utmost secrecy is necessary, and they assemble 'waking not the sleeper nor tarrying for the absent'; not twelve but seventy men prepared to pledge their troth this time in no doubtful words. Yathreb, they report, is honeycombed with the new teaching; a royal welcome awaits the Prophet; they were prepared to see it through.
'Our resolution is unshaken. Our lives are at the Prophet's service.' 'Stretch out thy hand, O Prophet.' And one by one, with solemn Eastern ritual, the seventy struck their hands thereon in token of their pledge.
It only remained now to remove the faithful in small parties to Yathreb, and then for the Prophet and Abu Bakr to follow with as much secrecy and as little disturbance as possible. For in the eyes of the men of Mecca this was not merely a change of residence but a transfer of allegiance—they might even call it sedition.
The Hegira, of Flight to Medina, 622 A.D.