“Indeed, Allah folded the earth for me, so I beheld its eastern and western horizons, and my community’s dominion will reach every part that was folded for me, (1) and I have been granted the two treasures—the red and the white. (2) I asked my Lord on behalf of my ummah that He not destroy them through a universal famine, (3) and that He not unleash upon them an enemy from outside themselves who would lay waste to their sanctuary. (4) My Lord said: ‘O Muhammad, once I decree a matter it is never revoked. I have granted you for your ummah that (5) I will not annihilate them by a universal famine, (6) nor will I set over them an enemy other than themselves (7) who would ravage (8) their stronghold, even if all the peoples of the earth were to band together against them.’ (9)
(1) The printed edition reads “ma rawa minha” (with the letter r) and omits the word “li,” whereas Sahih Muslim and the other manuscripts have the wording preserved above.
(2) The “two treasures, red and white,” denote gold and silver. This signals the realms of Kisra (Persia) and Caesar (Byzantium), both distinguished by their stores of gold and silver, and—by extension—Syria and its dependencies and Iraq and its dependencies. The fulfillment of this prophecy is therefore one of the great miracles of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him.
(3) The word bisanatin (“by a year”) is missing in manuscript T.
(4) baydatuhum means their core, territory, honor, and defensive strength. Manuscript T adds the phrase “baydatuhum al-sunnah,” which is a later insertion. See al-Mukhtar al-Sihah, root B-Y-D, p. 71.
(5) Manuscript B reads anni (“that I”).
(6) Manuscript A has ʿammatan. The expression biʿammatin means “all of it.”
(7) Manuscript A records ʿaduwwi siwa (“except my enemy”).
(8) Manuscripts C and T read yastabih, omitting the prefixed fa.
(9) Manuscripts C and D read ʿalayh.