Jabir bin Abdullah reported,

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ spent ten years following the pilgrims to their lodgings during the pilgrimage season, at Majannah, at Ukaz, and at their camps in Mina, saying, "Who will give me shelter? Who will support me, so that I may convey the messages of my Lord, and Paradise will be his?" Yet he found no one to support him or shelter him. A man might travel from Mudar or from Yemen to visit a relative, and his people would come to him and say, "Beware of the young man of Quraysh, lest he lead you astray." He would walk among their saddles, calling them to Allah , while they pointed at him with their fingers. This continued until Allah sent him support from Yathrib. A man would come to him, believe in him, and he would teach him the Quran. Then the man would return to his family, and they would embrace Islam through his Islam, until there was no house among the houses of Yathrib that did not contain a group of Muslims openly practicing Islam.Then Allah inspired us, so we conferred and gathered together, seventy men of us, and said, "How long shall we leave the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to be driven about in the mountains of Mecca in fear?" So we set out and came to him during the pilgrimage season, and we appointed to meet him at the mountain pass of Aqaba.His uncle Abbas said, "Nephew, I do not know who these people are who have come to you. I am well acquainted with the people of Yathrib."We gathered before him, one and two at a time. When Abbas looked at our faces, he said, "These are people I do not know. These are youngsters."We said, "Messenger of Allah, on what shall we pledge allegiance to you?"He said, "You pledge allegiance to me on hearing and obeying, in vigor and in laziness, on spending in hardship and in ease, on enjoining good and forbidding evil, on speaking the truth concerning Allah without fearing the blame of any blamer, and on supporting me when I come to Yathrib, protecting me from what you protect yourselves, your wives, and your children, and you shall have Paradise."So we rose to pledge allegiance to him. Saad bin Zurara, who was the youngest of the seventy, took his hand and said, "Slowly, people of Yathrib. We have not driven our mounts hard to come to him except knowing that he is the Messenger of Allah. To take him out today means parting from all the Arabs, the killing of your best men, and being struck by swords. Either you are a people who can endure the swords when they touch you, the killing of your best men, and parting from all the Arabs, in which case take him, and your reward is with Allah; or you are a people who fear for yourselves, then leave him, for that is more excusable before Allah."They said, "Saad bin Zurara, take your hand away from us. By Allah, we will neither abandon this pledge nor seek to be released from it."So we rose to him one by one, and he took our pledge upon the conditions stated by Abbas, granting us Paradise in return.

عن جابر بن عبد الله رضي الله عنه

أن رسول الله ﷺ لبث عشر سنين يتبع الحاج في منازلهم، في الموسم وبمجنة وبعكاظ، وبمنازلهم بمنى يقول: من يؤويني، من ينصرني، حتى أبلغ رسالات ربي، وله الجنة. فلا يجد أحدا ينصره ويؤويه، حتى إن الرجل يرحل من مضر، أو من اليمن إلى ذي رحمه فيأتيه قومه، فيقولون: احذر غلام قريش لا يفتنك، و يمشى بين رحالهم يدعوهم إلى الله عز وجل يشيرون إليه بالأصابع، حتى بعثنا الله عز وجل له من يثرب، فيأتيه الرجل فيؤمن به فيقرئه القرآن، فينقلب إلى أهله فيسلمون بإسلامه، حتى لم يبق دار من دور يثرب إلا فيها رهط من المسلمين يظهرون الإسلام. ثم بعثنا الله فأتمرنا واجتمعنا سبعون رجلا منا، فقلنا: حتى متى نذر رسول الله ﷺ يطرد في جبال مكة ويخاف؟ فرحلنا حتى قدمنا عليه في الموسم فواعدناه شعب العقبة، فقال عمه العباس: يا ابن أخي إني لا أدري ما هؤلاء القوم الذين جاؤوك، إني ذو معرفة بأهل يثرب، فاجتمعنا عنده من رجل ورجلين، فلما نظر العباس في وجوهنا، قال: هؤلاء قوم لا أعرفهم، هؤلاء أحداث، فقلنا: يا رسول الله علام نبايعك؟ قال: تبايعونى على السمع والطاعة في النشاط والكسل، وعلى النفقة في العسر واليسر، وعلى الأمر بالمعروف والنهي عن المنكر، وعلى أن تقولوا في الله لا تأخذكم فيه لومة لائم، وعلى أن تنصروني إذا قدمت يثرب، فتمنعوني مما تمنعون منه أنفسكم وأزواجكم وأبناءكم، ولكم الجنة. فقمنا نبايعه، فأخذ بيده أسعد بن زرارة، وهو أصغر السبعين، فقال: رويدا يا أهل يثرب، إنا لم نضرب إليه أكباد المطي إلا ونحن نعلم أنه رسول الله، إن إخراجه اليوم مفارقة العرب كافة، وقتل خياركم، وأن تعضكم السيوف، فإما أنتم قوم تصبرون على السيوف إذا مستكم، وعلى قتل خياركم، وعلى مفارقة العرب كافة، فخذوه وأجركم على الله، وإما أنتم قوم تخافون من أنفسكم خيفة، فذروه فهو أعذر عند الله، قالوا: يا أسعد بن زرارة: أمط عنا يدك، فوالله لا نذر هذه البيعة ولا نستقيلها، فقمنا إليه رجلا رجلا يأخذ علينا بشرطة العباس ويعطينا على ذلك الجنة.