Musnad Ahmad 175:35

Ya'qub narrated to us, he said: My father narrated to us, from Ibn Ishaq, he said: Ma'bad ibn Ka'b ibn Malik ibn Abi Ka'b ibn al-Qayn, brother of the Banu Salama, narrated to me that his brother Ubayd Allah ibn Ka'b—who was among the most knowledgeable of the Ansar—narrated to him that his father, Ka'b ibn Malik—and Ka'b was among those who witnessed al-'Aqaba and pledged allegiance to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) there—said: We went out on the Hajj of our people among the polytheists, and we had prayed and understood [the religion], and with us was al-Bara' ibn Ma'rur, our elder and our master. When we turned toward our journey and left Medina, al-Bara' said to us: "O you people, I have seen an opinion, by Allah, and I do not know if you will agree with me on it or not." We said to him: "And what is that?" He said: "I have seen that I should not leave this structure behind my back"—meaning the Ka'bah—"and that I should pray toward it." We said: "By Allah, it has not reached us that our Prophet prays except toward al-Sham, and we do not wish to oppose him." He said: "I am praying toward it." We said to him: "As for us, we will not do so." So when the time for prayer came, we would pray toward al-Sham, and he would pray toward the Ka'bah, until we arrived in Mecca. My brother said: We had blamed him for what he did, but he refused except to persist in it. When we arrived in Mecca, he said: "O son of my brother, go to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and ask him about what I did on this journey of mine, for by Allah, something has occurred in my soul regarding it because of what I saw of your opposition to me in it." He said: So we went out asking about the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), and we did not know him, for we had not seen him before that. We met a man from the people of Mecca, and we asked him about the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). He said: "Do you know him?" We said: "No." He said: "Do you know al-'Abbas ibn 'Abd al-Muttalib, his uncle?" We said: "Yes." We knew al-'Abbas, as he used to come to us as a merchant. He said: "When you enter the mosque, he is the man sitting with al-'Abbas." He said: So we entered the mosque, and al-'Abbas was sitting, and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was sitting with him. We greeted them, then we sat with them. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said to al-'Abbas: "Do you know these two men, O Abu al-Fadl?" He said: "Yes, this is al-Bara' ibn Ma'rur, the master of his people, and this is Ka'b ibn Malik." He said: By Allah, I do not forget the saying of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "The poet?" He said: "Yes." Al-Bara' ibn Ma'rur said: "O Prophet of Allah, I went out on this journey of mine, and Allah guided me to Islam, so I saw that I should not leave this structure behind my back, so I prayed toward it. My companions opposed me in that, until something occurred in my soul regarding it. So what do you see, O Messenger of Allah?" He said: "You were upon a Qiblah, had you remained patient upon it." He said: So al-Bara' returned to the Qiblah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and prayed with us toward al-Sham. He said: His family claims that he prayed toward the Ka'bah until he died, but it is not as they said; we know better about him than they do. He said: We went out for Hajj, and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) appointed for us the meeting at al-'Aqaba during the middle days of Tashriq. When we finished the Hajj, and it was the night that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) had promised us, and with us was 'Abd Allah ibn 'Amr ibn Haram, Abu Jabir, a master among our masters—and we were concealing our affair from those who were with us from our people among the polytheists—we spoke to him and said to him: "O Abu Jabir, you are a master among our masters and a noble among our nobles, and we desire for you better than what you are in, that you should not be firewood for the Fire tomorrow." Then we invited him to Islam and informed him of the appointment of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). So he accepted Islam and witnessed al-'Aqaba with us, and he was a Naqib (leader). He said: We slept that night with our people in our camps until one-third of the night had passed. We went out from our camps for the appointment of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), sneaking out secretly like the sneaking of the sandgrouse, until we gathered in the mountain pass at al-'Aqaba. We were seventy men, and with us were two women from their women: Nusaybah bint Ka'b, Umm 'Ammarah, one of the women of Banu Mazin ibn al-Najjar, and Asma' bint 'Amr ibn 'Adi ibn Thabit, one of the women of Banu Salama, and she is Umm Mani'. He said: We gathered in the mountain pass waiting for the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) until he came to us, and with him that day was his uncle al-'Abbas ibn 'Abd al-Muttalib. He was on the religion of his people that day, except that he loved to attend the affair of his nephew and to secure him. When we sat, al-'Abbas ibn 'Abd al-Muttalib was the first to speak. He said: "O company of Khazraj"—and the Arabs used to call this group of the Ansar the Khazraj, both Aws and Khazraj—"Muhammad is among us as you know, and we have protected him from our people who are of the same opinion as us regarding him. He is in honor among his people and protection in his city." He said: We said: "We have heard what you said. So speak, O Messenger of Allah, and take for yourself and for your Lord what you love." He said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) spoke, recited, invited to Allah (the Mighty and Majestic), and encouraged Islam. He said: "I pledge allegiance to you on the condition that you protect me as you protect your women and your children." He said: Al-Bara' ibn Ma'rur took his hand and said: "Yes, by the One who sent you with the truth, we will protect you as we protect our own selves. So accept our pledge, O Messenger of Allah, for we are people of war and people of armor, which we inherited from father to son." He said: Abu al-Haytham ibn al-Tayyihan, an ally of Banu 'Abd al-Ashhal, interrupted the speech while al-Bara' was speaking to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and said: "O Messenger of Allah, there are ropes between us and the people, and we are cutting them"—meaning the treaties—"so is it expected that if we do that, and then Allah grants you victory, you will return to your people and leave us?" He said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) smiled and said: "Rather, blood is blood, and destruction is destruction. I am of you, and you are of me. I fight those you fight, and I make peace with those you make peace with." The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "Bring out to me from among you twelve leaders who will be responsible for their people." So they brought out twelve leaders from among them, nine from the Khazraj and three from the Aws. As for Ma'bad ibn Ka'b, he narrated to me in his hadith, from his brother, from his father Ka'b ibn Malik, he said: The first to strike the hand of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was al-Bara' ibn Ma'rur, then the people followed. When we pledged allegiance to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), the Devil screamed from the top of al-'Aqaba with the furthest voice I have ever heard: "O people of the camps"—and the camps are the dwellings—"do you have any interest in Mudhammam [the dispraised one] and the apostates with him? They have gathered to fight you." 'Ali—meaning Ibn Ishaq—said: What the enemy of Allah, Muhammad, says. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "This is the demon of al-'Aqaba, this is Ibn Azib. Listen, O enemy of Allah, by Allah, I will surely finish you off." Then the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "Return to your camps." Al-'Abbas ibn 'Ubadah ibn Nadlah said to him: "By the One who sent you with the truth, if you wish, we will fall upon the people of Mina tomorrow with our swords." The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "I have not been commanded to do that." He said: So we returned and slept until morning. When morning came, the notables of Quraysh came to us in our dwellings and said: "O company of Khazraj, it has reached us that you have come to this companion of ours to take him out from among us and to pledge allegiance to him to fight us. By Allah, there is no one among the Arabs more hateful to us that war should break out between us and them than you." He said: Then those among our people who were polytheists stood up, swearing to them by Allah that nothing of that had happened and that they knew nothing of it. And they were truthful; they did not know what had happened between us. He said: We began looking at one another. He said: The people stood up, and among them was al-Harith ibn Hisham ibn al-Mughirah al-Makhzumi, and he was wearing two new sandals. He said: I said a word as if I wanted to involve the people in what they said: "Are you not able, O Abu Jabir, and you are a master among our masters, to take two sandals like the sandals of this young man from Quraysh?" Al-Harith heard it, so he took them off and threw them to me, saying: "By Allah, you shall surely wear them." He said: Abu Jabir said: "You have angered the young man, by Allah, so return his sandals to him." He said: I said: "By Allah, I will not return them. It is a good omen, by Allah. By Allah, if the omen is true, I will surely strip him [of his belongings]." This is the hadith of Ka'b ibn Malik regarding al-'Aqaba and what he witnessed of it.