over my community to an enemy from outside of them who would overwhelm and annihilate them, and He granted me that. I asked Him not to destroy them by a universal famine, and He granted me that. Then I asked Him not to make their own violence fall upon one another, but He withheld that request.”

It is likewise established in the two Sahih collections that he said:

“A party of my community will never cease to stand openly upon the truth. Those who oppose them or abandon them will not harm them until the Hour is established.”

He made this prediction when his nation was the smallest of peoples. Yet the community spread across the eastern and western horizons, and events unfolded exactly as he had foretold. Indeed, this nation—praise and favor belong to Allah—has always contained a group that remains manifest through knowledge, religion, and the sword. It has never suffered the fate of those before it, such as the Children of Israel and others, who were subjugated by their enemies. Rather, if one contingent is defeated in one land, another remains