was Gabriel, who called out to me:
‘Allah has heard the words of your people and the way they have rejected you, and He has sent to you the Angel of the Mountains so that you may command him concerning them as you wish.’

The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) continued: ‘Then the Angel of the Mountains called me, greeted me with peace, and said, “O Muhammad, Allah has heard what your people have said to you. I am the Angel of the Mountains, and my Lord has sent me so that you may issue your command. If you wish, I will crush them between the two rocky mountains (al-Akhshabayn).”’

But the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) replied, ‘Rather, I hope that Allah will bring forth from their loins people who will worship Allah alone, without associating anything with Him.’

Muslim narrates in his Ṣaḥīḥ, on the authority of Abū Hurayrah, that some people said to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), ‘Pray to Allah against the idolaters!’ He answered, ‘I was not sent to curse; I was sent only as a mercy.’

And in the two Ṣaḥīḥs it is reported from Khabbāb ibn al-Aratt that he said, ‘When the persecution became intense—’