• biman maʿahu (those with him): It is as though the wording were, “He counselled him to fear Allah concerning his own private matters and to treat well the Muslims who are with him.”

• khayran (goodness, kindness): in the accusative because the governing preposition has been omitted.

• ʿalā ismi Allah – fī sabīli Allah (“in the name of Allah – for the cause of Allah”): both phrases relate to the verb ughzū (“advance”). The second may function as an adverbial qualifier, while the first then serves as a circumstantial descriptor.

• qātilū (“fight”): a parenthetical clause clarifying ughzū. The verb ughzū is repeated to introduce the directives that follow.

• wa lā taghullū (“do not embezzle”): from the root ghalla – pattern naṣara – ghulūlan; the doer is ghāll. Ghulūl denotes betrayal in the matter of the spoils of war, and anyone who steals covertly has committed ghulūl.

• lā taghdirū (“do not act treacherously”): with a kasrah under the dāl (taghdirū), from the ḍaraba conjugational pattern. Ghadr is the failure to honour a covenant.

• idhā laqīta (“when you meet”): an instance of shifting the address. After speaking to the army as a whole, the Prophet singles out the commander; the rest are included implicitly.

• fa-idʿuhum ilā thalāthi khiṣāl (“invite them to three alternatives”): that is, to one of three—embracing Islam, paying the jizyah, or engaging in combat.

• al-taḥawwul min dārihim (“leaving their land”): taḥawwul here means relocation—the migration from the lands of the unbelievers to the lands of the Muslims.

• thumma idʿuhum (“then invite them”): the repetition adds further emphasis.

• aʿrāb al-muslimīn (“the desert-dwelling Muslims”): singular aʿrābī. The collective noun lacks a singular of identical form, for life in the desert keeps one from acquiring full knowledge of the Sacred Law owing to the scarcity of scholars.

• al-ghanīmah (war booty): plural ghanāʾim. One says, “So-and-so obtained a ghanīmah.” Derived from ghunm (gain), its original sense is profit or surplus. Technically it is property taken by force from belligerent unbelievers in battle.

• al-fayʾ (fayʾ): literally “return.” One says, “fāʾa al-ẓill” (“the shade returned”) when it moves back toward the east. Wealth obtained from the polytheists is called fayʾ because it ‘returns’ from them to the Muslims.