the kings of the various peoples, inviting them to Islam; for in fact he did not send letters to those kings until after the Treaty of Ḥudaybiyyah and the conquest of Khaybar, when he was returning from Khaybar. They are also well aware that the mule in question has remained sterile and has never produced any offspring at all.

In the same vein is what some impostors circulate: that a number of the Prophet’s family were once taken captive, made to ride on camels, whereupon the animals grew two humps and thus became the so-called Bactrian breed. All who are versed in historical reports are agreed that this is pure fabrication. At no time did the Muslims ever take prisoner anyone from the Prophet’s household—neither under the Umayyad caliphate nor under the ʿAbbāsid caliphate. Moreover, the Bactrian camel has always been as it is; its second hump did not first appear in the Islamic period. As the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said when he mentioned the innovations women would introduce after him:

“On their heads will be like the humps of tall Bactrian camels.”

The same judgment applies to what some scholars have reported—that the sun was returned after ʿAlī missed the ʿaṣr prayer because the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, had fallen asleep in his lap, and that this was counted among the miracles. This narration is found in none of the reliable Islamic works upon which Muslims depend for transmitted reports,