Shaykh al-Islām—may Allah sanctify his soul—also said:

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On the words of Allah Most High:

“Until, when the messengers despaired and thought that they had been lied to, Our help came to them.”

There are two readings of this verse: one with the consonant undoubled, and the other with it doubled.

ʿĀ’ishah, may Allah be pleased with her, would recite it with the consonant doubled and reject the undoubled reading. As reported in al-Sahīh, al-Zuhrī said:

ʿUrwah informed me that ʿĀ’ishah said to him—when he asked her about the words “and thought that they had been lied to,” with the consonant undoubled—“Allah forbid! The messengers would never think that of their Lord.”

I asked, “What, then, is this help?”

“Until, when the messengers despaired”—of those among their people who had rejected them—and the messengers thought that their followers had rejected them as liars, Allah’s help came to them at that point. By my life, they knew for certain that their people had rejected them as liars; it was not a matter of conjecture.

It is also reported in al-Sahīh that Ibn Jurayj said:

I heard Ibn Abī Mulaykah say: Ibn ʿAbbās recited, “Until, when the messengers despaired and thought that they had been lied to,” with the consonant undoubled. He understood it in that sense and recited:

“Until the Messenger and those who believed with him said, ‘When