—first fighting Banū Qaynuqā', then al-Nadīr—concerning whom Surah al-Hashr was revealed—and then Qurayza in the year of the Battle of the Trench. How, then, can it be said that this verse was revealed concerning the Jews of Khaybar, as al-Bayhaqī says? This account comes from an ignorant liar who did not even know how to lie properly. Further evidence of this is his mention that the Jews defeated Ghatafān when they offered this supplication. No one other than this liar has transmitted such an account. Had it actually happened, truthful narrators would have had ample reason to report it.
It should also be understood that, even if such wording implied petitioning Allah Most High by invoking him and adjuring Allah by him, a report of this kind could not be relied upon to establish religious rulings. First, it has not been established as authentic, and nothing in the verse indicates this meaning. Even if it were established, it would not necessarily constitute a prescribed practice for us. Allah Most High has related the prostration of Joseph’s brothers and parents, and He has related that those who prevailed over the People of the Cave said:
“We will surely build a mosque over them.”
Yet we have been forbidden to build mosques over graves. The wording of the verse states only that they used to seek victory against those who disbelieved, but when there came to them that which they recognized, they disbelieved in it.
This is like the words of Allah Most High:
“If you seek victory, then victory has come to you.”
Istiftāh (seeking victory) means asking for triumph, that is, victory. An example is the transmitted hadith:
“The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, used to seek victory through the poor among the Emigrants.”
That is, he sought victory through them—meaning through their supplications—as he said:
“Are you provided for and granted victory except through the weak among you, through their prayers, supplications, and sincerity?”
This seeking of victory may have consisted of their asking Allah Most High to grant them victory through the Prophet to be sent at the end of time, by hastening his mission to them so that they might prevail over their opponents through him—not of their adjuring Allah by him or petitioning Allah by invoking him. Hence Allah Most High said:
“But when there came to them that which they recognized, they disbelieved in it; so the curse of Allah is upon