He also transmitted—through ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Hārūn ibn ʿAntarah, from his father, from his grandfather, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās—who said:

“The Jews of Khaybar used to fight the tribe of Ghatafān. Each time the two sides met, the Jews of Khaybar were defeated. They therefore sought refuge in this supplication, saying, ‘O Allah, we ask You by the right of Muḥammad, the unlettered Prophet whom You promised to send to us at the end of time: grant us victory over them.’ Whenever they confronted Ghatafān and made this plea, they would rout them. But when the Prophet ﷺ was actually sent, they disbelieved in him, so Allah revealed: ‘Yet before this they would pray for victory over those who disbelieved…’ (al-Baqarah 2:89).”

ʿAṭiyyah narrated a similar report from Ibn ʿAbbās, and the same sense is related from ʿIkrimah in his own words.

Ibn Isḥāq said: Ṣāliḥ ibn Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf related to me, from Maḥmūd ibn Labīd, from Salamah ibn Salāmah ibn Waqsh—who had fought at Badr—who said:

“We had a Jewish neighbour among the clan of Banū ʿAbd al-Ashhal. One day he came out of his house and stood before the people of Banū ʿAbd al-Ashhal. (At the time I was the youngest of them, lying on a fleece in the courtyard of my family.) He spoke to us about the Day of Resurrection, the gathering, the reckoning, the Balance, Paradise, and Hell. He addressed a people who were idol-worshipping polytheists who did not believe that any resurrection would occur after death. They said to him, ‘Woe to you, so-and-so! Do you really think this will happen—that people will be raised after they die to an abode with Paradise and Hell, where they will be repaid for their deeds?’

“He replied, ‘Yes, by Him by whom an oath is sworn. Indeed, a person would wish that, for his share of that Fire, he possessed the largest oven in the house, so they could heat it up, cast him into it, and shut it over him—if only he could thereby escape that Fire tomorrow.’

“They asked, ‘Woe to you! What sign will there be for this?’ He said, ‘A prophet who will be sent from the direction of these lands,’ and he pointed with his hand toward Mecca and Yemen.

“They said, ‘And when do you expect him to appear?’ He looked at me—the youngest among them—and said, ‘If this lad lives out his natural span, he will live to see him.’

“By Allah, not many days and nights had passed before Allah sent His Messenger while the man was still alive among us. We believed in him, but the neighbour rejected him out of envy and spite. We said to him, ‘Woe to you! Are you not the one who told us what you told us about him?’ He answered, ‘Yes, but he is not that one.’”