(1) Muslim, no. 1925 (177), from the hadith of Saʿd ibn Abi Waqqas; the words in square brackets are an addition by the editor. (2) Abu Dawud, Wasāʾil al-Imām Ahmad, no. 228. After citing this report, the author writes: “They are indeed as he said, for two reasons. First, the remainder of the hadith makes it clear that they are the people of al-Sham (Greater Syria). Second, in the usage of the Prophet ﷺ and the inhabitants of his city, ‘the people of the West’ (ahl al-maghrib) refers to the Syrians and those farther west of them, just as ‘the people of the East’ (ahl al-mashriq) denotes the people of Najd and Iraq. West and east are relative notions: every land has a west that may be another land’s east, and an east that may be another’s west. Thus, the Prophet’s words must be understood in relation to his own location—Madinah—when he spoke this hadith. Anyone familiar with the earth’s coordinates knows that Harran, al-Raqqah and Simisata lie on the same meridian as Mecca, and that the Euphrates and most of the territories on both its banks lie almost exactly on the longitude of Madinah, with a difference of two degrees. Whatever lies west of the Euphrates is therefore west of Madinah, and whatever lies east of it is east of Madinah. Hence, the Prophet informed us that the people of the West will remain continually triumphant, whereas the people of the East may sometimes prevail and at other times be subdued—and this is precisely what has occurred. The army of al-Sham has always been granted victory, and the people of Madinah used to call al-Awzaʿi ‘the imam of the people of the West’ while referring to al-Thawri as one of the ‘Easterners’ (ahl al-mashriq).” Majmuʿ al-Fatāwā, 27:508; see also Ibn Rajab, Fadāʾil al-Shām, pp. 40, 66.