Prominent Companions Who Attended the Pledge of Radwan

Hudaybiyyah Re-imagined: Ten Luminaries of the Pledge of Ridwan

In March 628 CE (Dhu al-Qadah 6 AH), the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, halted with about fourteen hundred followers at Hudaybiyyah on the outskirts of Makka. Rumours flared that his envoy, Uthman ibn Affan, had been killed. In response, the Prophet sat beneath a thorny samurah tree and called the believers to an oath that they would stand firm even if fighting broke out. The Qur’an memorialises that moment in ringing terms:

“Allah was certainly pleased with the believers when they pledged allegiance to you under the tree…” (Q 48 : 18)

The Prophet later assured his wife Hafsah: “None of those who gave the pledge under the tree shall enter the Fire”.  That single afternoon became known as Bayat al-Ridwan, the Pledge of Divine Pleasure. It welded together veterans of Badr, new Madinan allies, wealthy merchants, and freed slaves in a covenant of un-retreating loyalty. The pages that follow paint a fuller portrait, about two thousand words, of ten companions whose hands helped seal that pledge, showing how Hudaybiyyah coloured the rest of their extraordinary lives.

Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (573 – 634 CE)

Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, born Abdullah ibn Abi Quhafah, was already famed in Makka for integrity and gentle wealth when he embraced Islam in the earliest days. On the dusty plateau of Hudaybiyyah, he was the first to step forward, grasping the Prophet’s hand and steadying wavering hearts with the quiet statement, “He will not disobey his Lord”. His confidence flowed from two decades of intimate companionship: he had financed the Abyssinian migration, stood firm at Uhud, and shared the night-long flight of the Hijrah. The tree-side oath, therefore, crowned a lifetime of understated courage, a public sealing of private faith.

After the Prophet’s passing, Abu Bakr drew from that same Hudaybiyyah resolve to navigate the first succession crisis. He quelled the tribal Ridda rebellions, re-united Arabi, and, at Umar’s urging, began collecting the scattered Qur’anic parchments into a single volume. In merely twenty-seven months, he set the caliphate on its feet, sanctioned campaigns into Syria and Iraq, and released resources that would one day topple two empires. Those achievements trace directly to the lesson of the pledge: when the community stands firm around its Messenger, Allah opens unexpected doors of victory.

Umar ibn al-Khattab (c. 584 – 644)

Umar ibn al-Khattab, the towering Qurayshi whose conversion once doubled the Muslims’ confidence, approached Hudaybiyyah with a heart torn between reverence and raw emotion. He wept at the idea of fighting in pilgrim garb yet swore, alongside Abu Bakr, that he would die before the Prophet was harmed. In that pledge, Umar’s fierce justice found new containment: passion tempered into obedience.

Ten years later, as the second caliph, Umar channelled Hudaybiyyah’s balanced courage into statecraft. He standardised the diwan army register, founded garrison cities such as Basra and Fustat, instituted the Islamic lunar calendar, and supervised the conquests of Persia, Egypt, and half of Byzantium. Though armies rode far, he slept weaponless on a coarse mat in Medina, invoking the same serenity Allah had “sent down” upon pledgers under the tree.

Uthman ibn Affan (c. 576 – 656)

Gentle-voiced Uthman ibn Affan was not physically present when hands met bark; Quraysh had detained him in Makka. The Prophet, therefore, clasped his left hand and declared, “This is Uthman’s hand and pledge,” symbolically binding his son-in-law to the oath. The gesture was prophetic: Uthman’s life would be marked by quiet generosity rendered from a distance, buying the well of Rumah for public use, outfitting the army of Tabuk, funding scribes and parchment.

As the third caliph, Uthman drew again upon the proxy pledge’s lesson of unseen loyalty. He standardised the Qur’anic text, commissioning a master codex and distributing certified copies to every province. He also built the first Muslim navy, extending Hudaybiyyah’s promise of “near victory” across the Mediterranean. His assassination, however, fractured unity and ushered in the first civil war, grim proof that when the bond of Ridwan frays, collective tranquillity departs.

Ali ibn Abi Talib (c. 600 – 661)

Ali ibn Abi Talib, the Prophet’s cousin and later his son-in-law, swung the sword “Zulfiqar” at Badr and Khaybar; yet under the Ridwan tree, his weapon was a pen. He drafted the text of the subsequent Hudaybiyyah treaty, even erasing the title “Messenger of Allah” at Quraysh’s insistence when the Prophet ordered him. That act of humble obedience provided a living tafsir for the verse that Allah “knew what was in their hearts”.

When Ali became the fourth caliph he upheld Hudaybiyyah’s egalitarian spirit, insisting that tax revenue be distributed on merit rather than tribal rank. His sermons compiled in Nahj al-Balagha echo the tree’s lessons: justice without fear, asceticism without retreat. Though political turmoil ended his life, the medley of Sunni and Shii devotion to Ali recalls the moment at Hudaybiyyah when all stood as one hand in the Prophet’s hand.

Talha ibn Ubaydullah (c. 594 – 656)

Talha ibn Ubaydullah, merchant prince of Banu Taym, earned the epithet “the Living Martyr” at Uhud, where he received more than seventy wounds shielding the Prophet. At Hudaybiyyah, he repeated that instinct, reportedly placing his body closest to the tree’s exposed side in case of a surprise attack. His readiness to surrender life for the Messenger embodied the pledge’s vow never to flee.

In Medina, Talha’s caravans continued to arrive heavy with Yemeni cloth and Syrian grain, only to be emptied overnight into the hands of the poor. During the tumult after Uthman’s murder, he tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to negotiate peace before the Battle of the Camel. When an arrow felled him, he whispered forgiveness for the archer, an echo of Hudaybiyyah’s calm descending upon a heart that had long since surrendered to God.

Zubayr ibn al-Awwam (594 – 656)

Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, nephew of Khadija and one of the earliest converts, stood next to Talha in the line of pledge. The Prophet had already called him “the Disciple of the Messenger of God” for daring reconnaissance missions. At Hudaybiyyah, Zubayr’s firm hand and piercing gaze reassured younger recruits who trembled at rumours of Quraysh cavalry.

After the Prophet’s death, Zubayr became a cavalry commander par excellence, riding at Yarmuk, the conquest of Egypt, and deep into North Africa. Historian al-Tabari credits him with scaling a fortress wall single-handedly to open the gate for Muslim troops. Yet when he heard Ali remind him of a prophetic warning against civil war, he sheathed his sword and walked away from the Battle of the Camel, proof that allegiance to truth, forged under a tree, outweighed allegiance to faction.

Saad ibn Abi Waqqas (c. 595 – 674)

Saad ibn Abi Waqqas was seventeen when he accepted Islam after a dream of shooting arrows at a dark sky. Hudaybiyyah found him older, sterner, but still the Prophet’s “uncle” in affection; Saad swore the pledge with an archer’s poise, resolving that his arrows would not miss if hostilities erupted.

Six years later Caliph Umar appointed him to lead the out-numbered Muslim forces at Qadisiyyah. Saad, bedridden with sciatica, directed the battle from a rooftop, reciting Q 48 : 18 to kindle morale. The victory shattered the Sasanian line and opened the road to Ctesiphon. In retirement Saad refused to join the political strife of the First Fitna, citing the same pledge that forbade raising a weapon against a fellow believer.

Abdur Rahman ibn Awf (c. 581 – 654)

Abdur Rahman ibn Awf entered Hudaybiyyah as a self-made entrepreneur who had already financed slaves’ emancipation and equipped two expeditions. He silently placed a pouch of silver at the Prophet’s feet before taking the pledge, signalling that commerce too was sold to God that day

His wealth multiplied in Medina, yet his humility kept pace: when a caravan of seven hundred camels arrived, he donated the entire cargo “for Allah and for those pledged under the tree”. As a member of the six-man council after Umar’s death, he declined nomination, saying he feared holding an office that would question him on Judgment Day. His balanced blend of enterprise and detachment remains a blueprint for Muslim philanthropy.

Abu Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah (583 – 639)

Abu Ubaydah Amir ibn al-Jarrah stood in the second row at Hudaybiyyah, tall, lean, modest, a day-old convert after Abu Bakr’s gentle invitation. The Prophet later called him “the trustworthy one of this nation,” a title born under the tree when he vowed never to betray the covenant even in loneliness.

He went on to command Muslim forces in Syria, negotiated the surrender of Jerusalem with Patriarch Sophronius, and administered the plague-stricken garrisons of Amwas. Offered safe passage back to Medina, he replied, “I cannot desert the army whose pledge I share”. He died of the plague, clutching his sword-belt and Qur’an, still, in spirit, beneath the tree at Hudaybiyyah.

Salim Mawla Abi Hudhayfah (d. 632)

Salim, a freed Persian slave of unknown lineage, was adopted by Abu Hudhayfah in Makka. His melodious recitation led early Meccan Muslims in prayer even before the Prophet arrived in Medina. At Hudaybiyyah, his inclusion in the elite circle advertised a radical message: faith, not blood, defines worth.

Two years later, at the Battle of Yamamah against Musaylimah’s forces, Salim dug a trench, planted the Muhajirun standard, and recited Qur’an aloud until he fell. Companions found his body and that of Abu Hudhayfah lying head-to-foot, guardians of the banner they had vowed never to drop under the tree. His story reminds posterity that the doors of Paradise opened at Hudaybiyyah stand wide enough for slaves and princes alike.