I gave my pledge of allegiance to the Prophet ﷺ, then I moved aside to the shade of the tree. When the crowd had thinned out, he said, "Ibn al-Akwa, will you not pledge allegiance?"I replied, "I have already pledged, Messenger of Allah."He said, "Do so again." So I pledged to him a second time.I asked him, "Abu Muslim, what were you pledging upon that day?"He answered, "Upon death."
بايعت النبي ﷺ، ثم عدلت إلى ظل الشجرة، فلما خف الناس، قال: يا ابن الأكوع، ألا تبايع؟ قال: قلت: قد بايعت يا رسول الله. قال: وأيضا فبايعته الثانية. فقلت له: يا أبا مسلم على أي شيء كنتم تبايعون يومئذ؟ قال: على الموت.
Bukhari related it in Jihad and Expeditions (2960), and Muslim in Leadership (1860:80), both by way of Yazid bin Abu Ubayd, the freed slave of Salama bin Akwa, from Salama, who said, so he related it.As for his saying, "on death," in another narration it reads, "on steadfastness and on not fleeing." So whoever said "on death" intended what necessarily follows from it, and whoever said "on steadfastness" was reporting the actual reality of it.As for his saying, "I said to him, O Abu Muslim," the speaker is Yazid bin Abu Ubayd, the freed slave of Salama, and Abu Muslim is the kunya of Salama bin Akwa.