by your hands, disgrace them, grant you victory over them, and heal the hearts of a believing people, and remove the rage from their hearts.” [al-Tawbah 9:14–15]

Allah, the Exalted, also says: “Say, ‘Are you awaiting for us anything other than one of the two best outcomes, while we await for you that Allah will afflict you with a punishment from Himself or by our hands?’” [al-Tawbah 9:52] How sweet punishment is when it is inflicted upon our enemies by our own hands!

The second answer is that limiting it to eight does not necessarily mean that no more may be added, because this was a particular incident. Consider: if he had prayed only two rak'ahs, would we say that one may not pray more than two rak'ahs?

The answer is no, because an individual occurrence and something that happened coincidentally are not regarded as legislation. This is a very beneficial principle. Hence, when a person departs from Arafah and reaches the ravine near Muzdalifah, it is not recommended for him to stop, urinate, and perform a light ablution, as the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, did. When the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, departed from Arafah during the pilgrimage and reached the ravine, he stopped, urinated, and performed a light ablution (1). This happened coincidentally: the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, needed to urinate, so he stopped, urinated, and performed ablution in order to carry out the rites in a state of purity.

His statement, “its maximum,” is the subject, while “eight” is the predicate. The word “eight” is declined like a defective noun: in the accusative case, it takes a fathah on its ya and tanwin. Thus, one says, “I bought eight sheep,” just as one says, “I saw a judge.”

In the nominative and genitive cases, the ya is omitted, while the kasrah remains as an indication of it. It nevertheless takes tanwin, and this tanwin is compensatory. Thus, one says: “I have among...”