against the believers, to give currency to his hypocrisy and promote his deceit and misrepresentation. Since this is so, among the means by which Allah raises people in rank—as He raised Abraham and Joseph, peace be upon them—is to confront such people with arguments that repel them, and to devise good stratagems to counter their plotting and aggression against the faith and its adherents. They should not be allowed to impugn the faith on the basis of concessions made to them by believers. Rather, when they oppose the truth spoken by believers with arguments whose premises the believers partly concede, it should be made clear to them that those arguments count against them, not for them, or that they demonstrate the falsehood of their claims and actions more clearly than they undermine the truth they oppose.

Indeed, even if both disputing parties were in error—as when the People of the Book and the polytheists debate or fight—it would be prescribed to support the People of the Book against the polytheists insofar as the believers agree with them, provided that this entails no harm that offsets this benefit. For this is part of the truth at which the believers rejoice, as Allah Most High says:

“Alif Lām Mīm. {1} The Romans have been defeated {2} in a nearby land. Yet after their defeat, they will triumph {3} within a few years. To Allah belongs the command before and after. And on that day the believers will rejoice {4} at the victory granted by Allah. He grants victory to whom He wills, and He is the Almighty, the Most Merciful. {5}” [Al-Rūm 1–5]

For these verses were revealed—as is widely reported in Quranic exegesis, accounts of military campaigns, and hadith—concerning the fighting between the Christian Romans and the Persians