The Pact of the Virtuous

The next important event that happened during the early years of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was a pact called Ḥilf al-Fuḍūl. The story behind this is: there was a man who came in from Zabīd in Yemen, and came to do business in Makkah. His merchandise was taken by al-ʿĀṣ ibn Wāʾil, who promised to pay him back — he was going to sell it and pay him back. Al-ʿĀṣ ibn Wāʾil, after a while, refused to pay this man. He took advantage of the fact that the man was a foreigner, not from Makkah. He told him, frankly, "I'm not going to pay you." It was expected that this man would just walk away — he's a foreigner, no one would help him. But the man didn't. The man stood up for his right, and he went to a public place in Makkah, and he started calling out to the people of Quraysh, and he was telling them, "I was oppressed in your land — are you people who are going to stand up for my rights? Will you allow this oppression to happen in your land?" And he said a few emotional words.

So some of the clans of Quraysh decided to meet together to bring about an agreement on protecting the rights of the weak in Makkah — we cannot allow this to happen. And among these families of Quraysh was the family of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), his uncles. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) at the time was a young boy, but he said: my uncles took me with them to attend this meeting. The meeting was held in the house of ʿAbdullāh ibn Judʿān. ʿAbdullāh ibn Judʿān — this was symbolic for them, to have it in his house, because he was a man who was very generous, very kind to others, and a person who would stand up for what is right. So they decided to honour him by having this meeting in his house. So they came together, and they made an agreement that they would stand together, all of them present there, to protect the rights of the oppressed, of the weak. This happened before Prophethood — it was a pact that occurred between non-believers, between mushrikīn.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: "I witnessed in the house of ʿAbdullāh ibn Judʿān a pact made that I wouldn't have exchanged for the choicest herd, and if it had been suggested after Islam, I would have responded positively to it." The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is saying that if he were invited to it today, after the message of Islam had been given to him, he would still have responded to it, even though it was held by non-believers. The important lesson to learn from this is that Muslims should side with what is right, no matter what the source is, no matter where that is coming from. Muslims should stand for human rights, should stand for the oppressed, should stand for the needy, no matter what their religious background is — we should stand up for what is good. As a Muslim, we stand up for what is right. And the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was making this point by stating that he would respond to it today if he was invited. The man was given back what belonged to him.