ʿAwf replied, “We shall say as Allah has commanded us.”

The Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—then said:

“Or will it be otherwise? You will vie with one another, then envy one another, then turn your backs on one another, then come to hate one another, and finally you will march toward the dwellings of the Emigrants and set some of them upon the necks of others.”

In Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī it is related from Abū Hurayrah that when Allah revealed the verse,

‘He is the One who sent among the unlettered people a Messenger from among themselves, reciting to them His verses, purifying them, and teaching them the Book and wisdom—although before that they were in manifest error—and to others among them who have not yet joined them; and He is the All-Mighty, the All-Wise’ (Al-Jumuʿah 62:2–3),

the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—was asked about these “others.” He answered, “If the religion were hanging at the Pleiades, men from among the Persians would still attain it.” In another wording he said, “If faith were hanging…,” and in yet another, “…knowledge.” And it happened exactly as he foretold, for it was realised in