“Make way, sons of the unbelievers, from His path—
Make way, for every good lies with His Messenger!

O Lord, I believe in what he has declared (1);
I acknowledge Allah’s right by embracing it.

We slew you on account of its taʾwīl,
Just as we slew you on account of its tanzīl (2),

With blows that hurl heads from their pillows
And cause a dear friend to forget his dearest friend.

Ibn Hishām (3) said: “The line ‘We slew you on account of its taʾwīl …’ to the end of the poem actually belongs to ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir and was not uttered on this occasion. The proof is that Ibn Rawāḥah was addressing the idolaters, and idolaters never acknowledged the tanzīl; one only fights over the taʾwīl against someone who has already affirmed the tanzīl.”

This objection does not stand, even if the attribution of the poem to Ibn Rawāḥah is sound, for the fighting “on account of the taʾwīl” refers to the interpretation of Allah’s words: “You will surely enter the Sacred Mosque, if Allah wills, in security” (al-Fath 48:27). Their peaceful entry into the Sacred Mosque in the year of the settlement was the realization—the taʾwīl—of the vision that Allah had shown (4) [ق 4 أ] to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and which He revealed in His Book. Moreover, the wording of the poem itself is clearly suited to an address directed at the unbelievers.