The Pledge of Allegiance

Bayah is the pledge of allegiance in Islam, given traditionally by placing one's hand in the hand of the one pledged to, or by a spoken or written oath of loyalty and obedience. It began as a political act: the Quran and the early histories describe the Prophet receiving the bayah of his followers, and after him the recognition of a new caliph was effected by the bayah of the community's leading men, making it the classical mechanism by which authority was acknowledged. The same term and gesture were later taken up in Sufism, where the aspirant gives bayah to a spiritual master (shaykh), entering a chain of transmission reaching back through the master's own teachers, and binding themselves to his guidance on the path. In both its political and its mystical forms the pledge turns on a personal act of commitment and obedience, and the two senses have at times been closely intertwined in Islamic history.