PerlOnalitJ a"d Spiritual Que!!^21might link them to other tribes. T his alliance, known as hi!! alfHdHI (th e
Pact of the Virtuous), \'!lS special in that it placed respect fo r the princi-
ples of justice and support o f the oppressed above all other considera-
tions of kinship or power. Young Muhammad, likc Abu Bala, who was to
become his lifelong friend, took part in that hi storic mee ting.
Long after Revelation had begun, Muhammad was to remember the
terms of that pact and say: '1 was present in Abdullah ibn Judan's house
when a pact was concluded, so excellent that I would not exchange my
part in it evcn for a herd of red ca mels; and if now, in Islam, I was asked
to mke part in it, I would be glad to accept.,,4 Not o nly did the Pro phet
stress the excellence of the terms of the pact as opposed to the pervert-
ed tribal alliances prevailing al the time. but he added that even as th e
bearer o f the message of Islam--evcn as a :Muslim-hc still accepted its
substance and would not hesitate to participate again. That statement is
of particular signific(.Oce fo r Muslims, and at least ::hrce major teachings
can be derived from it. \,\Ie have seen that the Prophet had been ad vised
to make good use of his pa st, but here the reflection goes even further:
~Iuhammad acknowled&"Cs a pact that was established before the begin-
ning o f Revelation and w hich pledges to defend justice imperatively and
to oppose the oppression of those who were destitute and powerless.
T his implies acknowledging that the act of laying out those principles is
prior to and transcends belonging to Islam, because in fact Islam and its
message came to confirm the substance of a treaty that human con-
science had already independently formulated. tlere, the Prophet clearly
acknowledges me validity of a principle of justice and defensc o f the
oppressed stipulated in a pact of the pre- Islamic em.
T he second tcaching is no less essential: at a time when the message was
still being claborated in the course o f Revdation and of me Pro phet's expe-
riences, he acknowledged the validity of a pact estab~shed by non-Muslims
seeking justice and the common good of their society. T he Prophet's state-
ment is in itself a blatant denial of the trend of thought expressed here and
there throughout the history of Islamic thoughl-and to this day-
according to which a pledge can be ethically valid for Muslims only if it is
of strictly islamic nature o r/ and if it is established between Muslims.
Again, the key point is thaI the Prophct clearly acbowledges the validity
of ad hering to principles of justice and defending the oppressed, regard -
less of whe ther those principles come from inside Islam or outside it.
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