—by Allah’s will, we shall now go out to fight them and they will no longer come out to fight us. Allah will accept the repentance (1) of whomever He wills among the Muslims whose hearts have been infected with doubt or hypocrisy, provided they return to their Lord, hold a good opinion of Islam, and steel their resolve for jihad against their enemy.

Allah has already shown them signs (2) that furnish a lesson for those endowed with insight, as He says: “Allah drove back those who disbelieved in their fury; they gained no advantage, and Allah spared the believers from fighting. Allah is ever Strong, Mighty” (Qur’an 33:25).

In the Year of the Trench, Allah turned the confederates away by unleashing the east wind—a fierce, biting cold—and by sowing discord among their hearts until their alliance broke apart and they took nothing of benefit, though their ambition had been to storm Madinah and seize the Messenger and his Companions. In precisely the same way, this present enemy sought to conquer al-Sham and subjugate the believers there; yet Allah sent them back chafing with rage, struck by heavy snow, brutal cold, furious winds, and a panic (3) so harrowing that only Allah fully knows it.

Some people disliked the great snows and downpours that fell this year, to the point that they requested the ṣalāh al-istisqāʾ (the prayer for clear skies) more than once. We kept telling them: “In all this lies tremendous good; Allah has in it a wisdom and a hidden purpose—so do not resent it.” Part of that wisdom—so it is said—was that the storm struck Ghazan and his troops until it destroyed them, and, according to the reports, it was the very cause of their withdrawal.